Five Most Significant Events in 2021 from DTEK Dnipro Grids
- New services
DTEK Dnipro Grids strives to become a customer-oriented benchmark and is developing remote service channels. In 2021, the company introduced new online services and communication channels. Now through the website you can:
- Report electricity readings, no registration required;
- Apply for meter-related job;
- Remotely re-issue the electricity distribution agreement (a customer is to send documents electronically or by post);
- Apply for the network connection or an increase in capacity;
- Learn about planned and unscheduled power outages and when the service will be restored;
- Make an appointment to visit a Customer Service Center;
- Check the status of your application about an outage or poor-quality power supply online;
For the customer convenience, we also launched Telegram and Viber chatbot, which can be used to send meter readings, report a failure and resolve other issues related to the power supply.
All services are available 24/7, so that people in the region are in a position to resolve their issues quickly, conveniently, and remotely.
- New lines and up-to-date technical solutions
There were several large-scale projects implemented in 2021, such as the reconstruction of large substations named Koltsevaya Levoberezhnaya in Dnipro, 150 Novomoskovskaya, which supplies power to Gubinikha and Obukhovka, and Severnaya in Zhovti Vody. The company also upgraded the 150 kV overhead line between the Uzlovaya and Prydneprovskaya TPP substations, which will ensure that people living in the central part of Dnipro, the Substation area, the Sokol and Topol residential areas have uninterrupted power supply.
In total, about 250 kilometers of lines were reconstructed in Krivyi Rih, Novomoskovsk, Pavlograd, Nikopol, Kamensky and other cities and villages of the region. 50 modern reclosers were installed on the line to prevent large-scale power outages. 1,200 transformer and distribution substations were maintained and upgraded. Thanks to all these measures the power supply quality has improved, and the risk of power outages is now lower for almost half a million residents of the region.
The company has installed 67,000 modern metering devices. Now there are more than 300,000 of them in the region. Smart meters are the basis for the Smart Grid technologies development in the future. These meters submit electricity readings automatically. At the same time, customers can save on electricity bills thanks to a night rate.
In addition, a new technological dispatch center was opened in Dnipro, which will monitor the technical condition of the entire electrical infrastructure in the region 24/7. Due to automation and the new software, it will later replace 23 control rooms that now function in the region. The center is equipped with a modern digital control system that will help to quickly respond to failures and return power to customers' homes.
- Maintenances without outages
DTEK Dnipro Grids was the first in Ukraine to implement the technology of live-line maintenances, meaning completing maintenances without power outages for customers. This approach guarantees uninterrupted power supply to the residents in the Dnipropetrovsk region during scheduled or unplanned outages. So far, 35% of repairs have been carried out this way. To expand the number and types of work, the energy workers began to master this technology on medium voltage lines in 2021. A training base was opened to train electricians in the village of Mezhirich, which is a large covered pavilion, where the energy workers work out live line maintenance in conditions as close to reality as possible.
- Mobile Crews and drones
In 2021, DTEK Dnipro Grids began to use a new IT solution - the Mobile Crews software package. This is a mobile application and software that allows to eliminate unnecessary paperwork, so that the repair crews can do their work more efficiently. More than 400 crews have already been trained in the Dnipropetrovsk region and are working with the new software. The energy workers arrive at the site with smartphones with the mobile application. Through this app, they get tasks, record the identified defects and report on the work done. Thanks to the IT solution, the energy workers are now to complete the network maintenance 10-15% faster, which means people in the region have no power for less time.
Drones help the energy workers to inspect the lines across the Dnipropetrovsk region. During the year, experts examined about 2,150 kilometers of lines from the air. 43,000 faults were identified. A drone equipped with a thermal imager, and cameras takes photos of the equipment condition. Purpose designed software analyzes the data and reports the defects identifies. Thanks to such data, faulty sections can be repaired just in time, when the damage is still minor and has not led to a failure. The drones survey the lines without cutting the power off, and no additional equipment is required, which significantly speeds up the whole process.
- Home solar power panels
DTEK Dnipro Grids is still the leader in connecting home solar power systems to the grids in Ukraine. In 2021, the company connected about 2,000 new systems. In total, there are almost 6,000 prosumers in the Dnipropetrovsk region - households that produce environmentally friendly electricity and provide not only their own needs, but also sell the excess to the network. Most of these home power panels are in the Novomoskovsk and Nikopol districts, Krivyi Rih, as well as the Apostolovsky and Dniprovsky districts.