New Tech To Detect Electrical Failures in Colombia's Remote Regions

Remote regions of Colombia could have a better and more reliable electricity supply that will be able to detect power failures before they occur, thanks to research from engineers at the Universidad del Valle (Univalle) in Cali, Colombia. 

Given that 11% of Colombia's population lives in areas considered remote rural areas (according to statistics from Colombia's National Planning Department), the disruption of power supplies due to a breakdown or lack of maintenance is a major problem, especially for photovoltaic systems.

Ramiro Alejandro Plazas Rosas, a doctoral researcher at the Industrial Control Research Group (GICI), was the lead author of the scientific publication "DC-Link Capacitor Diagnosis in a Single-Phase Grid-Connected PV System" in the international scientific journal Energies, where he published the results of his efforts to detect capacitor failures before they occur.

"When there is a failure, the damage is already done-the idea is to use a SmartGrid to detect the parts of the grid that fail before they do," Plazas said.

Given that Colombia has much higher levels of heat and humidity than Europe and North America, Plazas explained, it is better to develop innovations tailored to local conditions.

Photo: Light pole in Cundinamarca, Colombia Credit: Mateorito/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A Better System

Although there are other research groups working in this field around the world, the advantage that Univalle's group has is that they have detectors for different failure indicators.

"Previous studies showed that it is not enough to have just one indicator, it is better to have two," commented Ing Plazas, adding that this is especially important with photovoltaics that are in remote areas in applications such as healthcare where a power outage can have drastic consequences.

"If the system can say, 'Hey, this component is almost at the point of failure,' we can replace it without power outages," said Plazas.

Although there is a lot of theory behind the project, the team is always thinking about its real-world impact.

"In our study, we think a lot about the hardware implementation," Plazas explained. 

Photo: Ramiro Plazas Credit: Andrew James/NCC-FI/Univalle

Community Impact

Professor Martha Lucía Orozco Gutiérrez, who is one of Plazas' supervisors and a researcher in the GICI group explained that a more reliable system of solar photovoltaic panels will benefit remote parts of Colombia and vulnerable communities.

"To give an example, we have isolated regions in Colombia dedicated to fishing, where the community sells fish cheaply and immediately because they don't have power supply to have a freezing plant; but if they had a more robust electrical system with longer service hours, they could earn better income," Prof. Orozco said.

Plazas said that another factor is that to repair faults, maintenance technicians have to travel a long distance.

"For example, in some regions, they have to take boats, then mules, just to get to repair the fault or do maintenance."

He commented that the group's work can benefit people in Colombia, Latin America and the Global South.

"These solutions we found can be translated anywhere in the world, in many contexts, in all isolated or interconnected power systems of the National Electric System."

Read more from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering: Colombian engineers working on exoskeletons to help patients relearn how to walk 

Photo: Professor Martha Orozco (center) and other GICI researchers Credit: Edgar Bejarano/NCC-FI/Univalle

Collaborations with Italy

Professor Orozco studied her PhD in Information Engineering research at the University of Salerno, Italy in 2016 and the links between the groups have only strengthened over the years.

"For Ramiro to work with this group at this level is a growth for him and for us as a research group in Colombia," Professor Orozco said.

Professor Giovanni Spagnuolo, a faulty-member at the University of Salerno and co-author of the scientific publication and his laboratory was where Ing Plazas had a long internship in 2020. Professor Spagnuolo explained that there are many advantages for universities in Italy to work with Univalle researchers.

"Prof. Martha Lucia Orozco Gutierrez, and more generally colleagues in her group at Universidad del Valle, share the same research interests of my group, on renewable energy systems, and especially on photovoltaics, batteries and smart grids," Prof. Spagnuolo said, adding that cooperation with researchers who have a different scientific background and culture is always beneficial, from a scientific and human point of view.

If you would like to contact the researchers or learn more about the projects, write to the Communications Office of the Faculty of Engineering: comunicaingenieria(at)correounivalle.edu.co.

Foto de portada: Ramiro Plazas Crédito: Andrew James/NCC-FI/Univalle