Ask any power utility network operator what its greatest pain point is, and odds-on, it'll say it is managing operating expenses. Predicting an operating budget a year in advance is difficult enough. Mix in typical aged African infrastructure, some severe weather (heat waves, cold spells, a bit of lightning), power station failures and some unplanned maintenance, and what you end up with is a fleet of trucks out there day after day, managing the grid, addressing faults, upgrading circuits and gathering performance data.

Now consider an aging workforce that is slowly retiring, and with it goes hundreds of years of experience every year. This is not a prediction of things to come, this is the reality right now, and will continue over the next decade, when a full quarter of the industry will likely retire, says Tony Sipho Sibanda, Emcom Executive Director for Business Development.

Finally, think about that aging infrastructure and the grid modernisation taking place; grid automation, smart metering, integrating renewables (solar and wind farms), charging electric vehicles.

Add a twist to this and consider the unprecedented urban migration that most African major cities have experienced in the past 20 years. Increased demand for power on the backdrop of increased inefficiencies (illegal connections) and losses (cable theft and breakdowns). Every bit of utility experience becomes more important as greater emphasis is placed on not only maintaining, but modernising the grid at the same time for improved efficiency across demand and generation, through to transmission and revenue collection.

Luckily, one of those pain points utilities are now addressing is their critical voice infrastructure. Obsolete analogue land mobile radio infrastructure, dispatch consoles and the analogue microwave that interconnects it must all be replaced. The cost of repairing the old technology has become inhibitive when compared to new modern emerging applications.

Utilities also have a growing number of choices in the technology platforms to deploy: P25, TETRA and DMR are current digital land mobile radio standards that provide greater interoperability, channel efficiency and a range of new capabilities. P25 and TETRA are tailored to the public safety industry and have worked well in European countries where high population densities demand the functionality of a technology like TETRA. DMR, though fairly new, is tailored to the field service user, such as those in utilities, oil and gas, mining and transportation. It has been developed as a best of breed between P25 and TETRA and works best in applications on the African continent, where wide area radio coverage is required in sparsely populated regions covering large distances.

LMR replacement is not cut and dry any more either. What was once the dominant means of managing the field workforce is now mostly automated, digitised and delivered over smartphones, tablets or laptops. The business value of LMR has decreased during business-as-usual conditions in the hands of operational managers who have not had to deal with crisis before, under unstable conditions such as unpredictable power outages or natural disasters.

But as soon as a storm approaches, the LMR system is worth its weight in gold, as it serves to protect the public, and co-ordinate a workforce that is rapidly assessing, isolating and working to restore service in incredibly dangerous conditions. Most will agree that the LMR system is not optional, it's essential.

So, how do you drive up the value of the investment during business-as-usual conditions?

Consider this: A typical African electric distribution utility might have 2 000 capacitor banks, distributed across its operation, to compensate for voltage loss associated with warm weather and/or planned state changes. Four times a year, each bank must be manually switched over, by field maintenance crews in trucks. On average, a truck roll costs a utility R5 000.

Imagine converting that R40 million opex per annum into capex for infrastructure upgrades, or business efficiency assets. Simply by using the data capacity that already exists in a DMR Tier III voice network, these manual switch-overs can be managed remotely, from your control centre. Of course this isn't entirely without cost – each capacitor bank would need a data terminal installed to control the switch-over. But at around R10 000 each, the company in the example will have paid that cost in just two truck rolls. So after just six months, the capex is repaid, and they begin to recoup opex. Better still, you don't need to invest R10 000 on each of those capacitor banks all at once. In fact, the business case to tackle the less accessible banks first is really compelling, as the savings on those truck rolls are greater. By investing first in those banks with the highest savings, you can use those opex savings to fund roll-out of terminals on other capacitor banks.

This is premised on R5 000 per truck roll being the average. Depending on your geography, distance travelled and weather, some of those banks may be costing twice that (or more) for every visit. Conservatively, you might have 10% of your capacitor banks in this category.

Let's take a look at those numbers:

So at the end of the second year, truck rolls to those first 200 banks have netted you R6 million net opex to spend, and those 600 new banks add at least an extra R10 200 000. Converting those opex savings to capex, you now have more than enough to complete the data terminal roll-out to the remaining capacitor banks.

Of course, that's not the end of the efficiency gains and cost saving those data terminals will reap for you. Other uses include SCADA applications, such as polling switches and reclosers, capturing voltage and current readings, providing remote diagnostics, and making configuration updates.

I'm not advocating a massive change in the way you do business here. But it makes great business sense to use your manpower and vehicles in a smarter way, and take advantage of the data capability that you already have. By substantially reducing your opex, you can free up that hard-to-get capex for maintenance, repairs and upgrades to the infrastructure your community depends on.

Furthermore, the data capabilities to be found in the DMR network provide great features for revenue collection and billing by integrating to your automatic meter readers and PLCs to provide a cost-effective, yet reliable option to GSM on collection of meter data. Talk to any utility in Africa on this and you will understand the current frustrations with bringing back volumes of data via current GSM networks, let alone ensuring accurate periodic billing.

Tracking features on most digital radios come as an added bonus for efficient workforce management, as you now not only use the radio as a voice device, but also as a tracking tool to monitor your crews. Assigning an incident in the field to the nearest technical team based on location mapping plus determining actual time spent addressing incidents have unquestionable value in driving up efficiencies and bringing down that much talked about overtime bill.

In the United States of America, the vulnerability of the power grid has in the last year emerged as the most pressing domestic security concern. A year ago, unknown assailants fired on a power station near San Jose, nearly knocking out electricity to Silicon Valley. "There are a lot of people going through various stages of denial about how easily terrorists could disrupt the power grid," a Homeland Security source was quoted as saying after this incident.

Now, if this type of vulnerability exists in the first world modern grids such as are running in the USA, how much more susceptible to attack and sabotage are the grids we have running across Africa. Governments here not only have to contend with political threats, but the global terror threats (which have now become local in Kenya, Nigeria, etc) as well as forces of nature and inevitable breakdowns in aged, barely maintained infrastructure. Should we not be thinking of our utilities infrastructure as national key points and securing them with consciously designed technology?

The decisions made in selecting your next digital LMR may be one of the best decisions you have ever made, and it need not be a gut feel but rather a choice made on a solid business case that has proven value long-term for the utility.

Emcom understands these spaces well, and together with technology partner, Tait Communication of New Zealand, has over the past 43 years developed and deployed successful DMR and other bespoke open standard radio solutions across over 30 African countries, and continues to grow from strength to strength with each successful implementation. "The digitalisation of Africa is a great opportunity for all who care about the future resources of the continent to make the right decisions today for the Africa of tomorrow," said Tony Sipho Sibanda, Emcom Executive Director for Business Development.