A delegation from the Ministry of Utilities and Sarawak Energy was led by its minister, YB Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom to power and automation technology leader, ABB at their factory in Lodi, Italy last week.
The delegation which was also participated by Group CEO, Sharbini Suhaili (representing Sarawak Energy) and Vice President for Research & Development, Dr Chen Shiun was to gain insight into innovative technologies that could accelerate or revolutionise rural electrification.
The group was received by Lead Division Manager ABB Power Grid Division Europe, Matteo Marini, and General Manager High Voltage Products ABB Italy, Pieralvise Fedrigo, who briefed them on innovative and cost effective solutions for powering remote sites.
One such innovative technology is by direct tapping to existing High Voltage (HV) transmission lines using transformer inductive power (TIP) stepping down to voltage levels that can be connected to households.
The team was in Italy to receive an international award from the Alliance for Rural Electrification for the innovative community-based off-grid SARES programme. In addition to the ABB factory in Lodi, the delegation also visited Lanuvio to see an example of distributed direct tapping in a rural setting.
“My Ministry will continuously search for ways to bring power to rural folk. Our current strategies to ensure greater access to electricity for Sarawakians include normal distribution Rural Electrification Scheme extension; transmission extension under our Rural Power Supply Scheme as well as standalone renewable hybrid and our now internationally recognised Sarawak Alternative Rural Electrification Scheme or SARES,” said YB Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi.
“Together with Sarawak Energy, our Ministry is now considering distributed direct tapping Extra High Voltage or EHV substations as a fifth strategy. When this cost effective strategy is realised, we will be able to provide electricity supply to some of our rural communities living ‘under’ transmission lines, by tapping into those overhead lines,” he elaborated.
Current conventional design typically bypasses villages or longhouses underneath transmission lines because of the prohibitive cost of constructing conventional substations.
Typical transmission design supplying into the sparsely populated rural areas require conventional end point EHV substations costing over RM100 million. This also requires long distribution lines radiating from end point substations to reach longhouses and villages, increasing further the cost to supply.
TIP technology provides the ability to tap into transmission lines at various points so that villages underneath or near power lines can be supplied more economically.
The smaller and less expensive direct-tapping EHV substations can be distributed along transmission lines and sited nearer to villages and longhouses, requiring shorter distribution lines and improving reliability of supply.
Dr Chen further elaborated that their team will study distributed transmission EHV substations collaborating closely with the Ministry to provide technical advice on the scheme in areas such as the need for protection, control coordination and digitalisation in the control and operation of the system.
