If there is a situation, the specialists of the E.ON Hungária Group, which ensures the electricity supply of more than five million Hungarian residents, act immediately: they deploy a drone or an amphibious swamp walker to eliminate the fault that caused the power outage.
In his unusual video report, Mr. Gergő Papp, aka Mr. Pimasz, integrated himself into E.ON’s troubleshooting team and investigated what happens behind the scenes in the event of a power outage, from the first error signal until the power is turned back on.
In the video, we can take a look at the human and technological background of the work, which is often carried out in extreme weather conditions, sometimes mobilizing up to a thousand professionals, 365 days a year. And yes, it has a tracked swamp amphibian.
We are in the picture
People typically understand why outages occur during extreme weather. They know that wind, snow, and sleet can damage the wires, and that falling trees and falling tree branches can tear them, according to E.ON’s nationally representative research.
As you can see in the infographic below, according to the research, customers most often associate power outages with downed lines due to the storm. This is followed far behind by the failure of the power supply equipment, then the overgrown vegetation and branches hanging on the wires.
The consumers did not guess wrong, E.ON’s experiences agree with the above. In the group’s service area, 57 percent of power outages are caused by extreme weather conditions, such as snow, ice, lightning, or damage caused by wind, and 14 percent are caused by trees falling on the network or large tree branches breaking off. 5 percent of power outages can be traced back to external damage, such as road accidents or careless earthworks, while 3 percent are caused by safety shutdowns due to malfunction prevention or at the request of the authorities. In 21 percent of cases, the cause is a malfunction of some equipment.
Today, you have to wait much less for the power to be switched on than even twenty years ago. The length of power outages is measured using an objective metric, independent of service providers, the so-called SAIDI indicator, which shows the average number of minutes a year you have to spend without power in the event of a power outage.
In the past two decades, this figure has been reduced to a quarter in E.ON’s service area. While it was still 228 minutes in 2001, it will decrease to 57 minutes per year by 2023, thanks to continuous network improvements and automation. The public can also help with this by regularly taking care of the vegetation near the lines or by reporting plants hanging on the lines or otherwise causing an accident to the service provider, E.ON pointed out.
Drone and swamp walker on deployment
Emergency situations are handled according to a predetermined protocol. In E.ON’s operational control centers, high and medium voltage power outages are detected immediately, where specialists carry out switchovers. In such cases, electricity is delivered to the households affected by the outage through the undamaged network sections. After that, the mechanics set off to troubleshoot.
E.ON and disaster management specialists work closely together, and firefighters and network technicians often hand over the field to each other. After storms, for example, it is typical that the trees that have fallen on the network must first be removed so that the repairmen can begin the repair.
One of the biggest challenges is when the breakdown occurs in a place inaccessible by conventional vehicles. In the case of impassable terrain, E.ON’s specialists approach the site with a tracked amphibious swamp walker specially designed for this purpose, which moves easily in dense forest, steep or swampy areas. Drones are also deployed, which are flown over the wire network to identify the exact location of the failure.
If you would like to know how the electricity gets to the home outlet at all, Mr. Pimasz’s recent unusual report will reveal it.
