Digitised industrial power networks company VoltVision has opened a global power analytics centre in Johannesburg that will provide expert technical interpretation of performance data from clients’ high- and medium-voltage (HV and MV) electrical networks worldwide.

The centre will also pioneer centralised monitoring, allowing clients improved visibility across multiple remote locations.

VoltVision will use the Johannesburg office as its African hub to build its profile and client base across Continental Africa’s mining sector, the company said.

The centre will be headed by VoltVision co-founder and technical director Malcolm Evans, who has 45 years’ experience working with HV grids.

“With South Africa’s prominence in the African mining sector, we believe we have a highly experienced team of mining and power engineers to provide valuable advice to mining corporates to assist them saving operational power consumption, reducing emissions, and improving uptime,” he said.

“Johannesburg remains one of the main mining centres of the African continent and a nucleus for mining expertise, services and manufacturing. We have chosen to open VoltVision’s Power Analytics Centre here to support our Africa-focused clients with the expert analysis, technical skills and experience which may not be available in-house,” said VoltVision MD Manoli Yannaghas.

VoltVision provides hardware and software to digitise HV and MV power networks and collect data on asset performance. It has capabilities to analyse and transform that data into actionable management information.

VoltVision’s digitisation solution works by retrofitting plug-and-play data modules to almost any electrical asset, connecting them to the cloud and VoltVision’s intelligent ViViD platform. This converts previously unconnected electrical assets into actively monitored elements of a cloud-based Internet of Things platform, capable of analysing massive amounts of data with minimal infrastructure investment.

This gives users the ability to create centralised monitoring solutions with unprecedented visibility of power consumption, quality, emissions and costs using ViViD’s dashboard, so they can make intelligence-based management decisions.

“Digitising HV industrial power networks can deliver immediate cost savings up to 20%, plus a host of benefits including greater reliability and lower carbon emissions,” Yannaghas noted.

VoltVision's data analytics system can collect and measure comprehensive power data across a whole HV network without the need for additional sensors. Advanced analysis transforms the data into actionable information through VoltVision’s ViVid platform, which is clearly displayed through dashboards and alerts, the company said.