Powercell Sensitises Electricity Consumers on ABB Products
As part of the efforts by the private investors in the power sector to educate electricity consumers on the importance of high quality of electricity equipment installed in homes and offices, Powercell Limited recently gathered electricity consultants and other users of power equipment to sensitise them on the UPS manufactured at ABB’s factory Switzerland.
In his opening remark at the Consultants’ Forum held in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of Powercell Limited, Mr. Andrew Omotayo Balogun said his company had in April 2014 gathered stakeholders in the IT sector for the formal launch of ABB UPS in Nigeria.
“This year, we have gathered those that recommend products to the end users, that is, the consultants so that our experts from ABB will tell us about the components our UPS. We are also here to know how Powercell and consultants can work together in Nigeria. Our doors are still open to recruit more partners to cover the rest of Nigeria and other parts of West Africa,” he said.
“When we brought ABB to Nigeria, we were trying to see how we can cover the whole country. We are recruiting partners across that we can work with across the country. Once you are a partner of Powercell, you are also a partner of ABB,” Balogun added.
In his lead presentation at the event, the Middle East and African Regional Manager of ABB, Mr. Ahmad Awad said his company operates in 20 countries in Africa, adding that ABB maintains local presence in Africa because of the potential of the continent.
Explaining the company’s power protection business, Awad stated that Newave, which is a member of ABB Group, was established in 1993 and has over 20 years of experience in UPS.
According to him, with over 900 employees in three different Research and Development (R & D) areas in three countries, ABB is well positioned to provide global, regional and local support.
“In Nigeria, we have Powercell as our local partner. Our factory in Switzerland known as Newave was established in 1993 and acquired by ABB in 2012. We launched the first modular UPS in 1998 and we are the first to launch this new technology. Our third factory was built in 1968 and acquired by ABB in 2012. We also do industrial UPS for the oil and gas sector,” Awad explained.
Speaking on the company’s modular technology, Awad said ABB introduced the Decentralised Parallel Architecture (DPA) in 2005 because the Centralised Parallel Architecture (CPA) already in the market has a single point of failure because of its common battery.
“In DPA, there is no single point of failure because each module has its own battery. So, if module fails, the system will still be running,” he said.
Awad also stated that Safe Swap Technology is available only in ABB technology, adding that since the modules under DPA are not sharing one common battery or any other equipment, the operator does not need any safety precaution before he removes one modular while the system is running.
“So, it is safe to remove UPS with hands without performing safety procedures, while the system will still be running. The operator is not tampering with the system parameters but with just module parameters. This is the major advantage of ABB UPS. Each module is a mini system. When one master module fails, it does not affect other modules, rather the next module becomes the master. Each module has the same capacity,” he explained.