ITB Alumnus Succesfully Built Isolated Ground Shield Wire System for PLN Towers

TRIBUNJABAR.CO.ID, BANDUNG- Within a year, a tower (tower) owned PLN’s transmission may be struck by lightning as many as tens of times. These accidents often disturbed PLN’s Transmission Towers, mainly because the existing protection system isn’t quite effective.

Departing from the problem, Dr. Ir. Djoko Darwanto (Electrical Power Engineering Research Group), together with his team that consisted of three ITB alumnus: Muhammad Fattah Aziiz (School of Business and Management), Gumilang Dewananta (Mechanical Engineering), and Achmad Arbi (Electrical Power Engineering), developed an innovation for Transmission Tower Protection System.

They currently developed the project under a startup company, PT Tesla Daya Elektrika.

The company built a system called I-GSW High Voltage for protection on high-voltage transmission towers and I-GSW Medium Voltage for protection on medium voltage distribution towers. I-GSW stands for Isolated Ground Shield Wire.

“It consists of four tools or components, “said Muhammad Fattah Aziiz when met Tribun Jabar in the office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Institute Institute of Technology Bandung (LPIK-ITB), Jalan Ganesha, Bandung, Wednesday (4/10/2017).

Transmission protection tower system, he added, consists of four tools or components, namely finial, isolator, conductor down, and electrode Defense. The way it works, if there is lightning strikes, the transmission tower will not be disturbed because the electric voltage directly isolated through the finial and insulator.

Then the voltage is applied to the ground by the conductor down. Furthermore, the earthing electrode neutralizes electricity from the lightning in the ground. The distance from the tower electrode will be placed quite far away, which is about 3-5 meters.

Usually, Fattah said, so far the transmission towers that do not have a good protection system will be disrupted because electricity from the lightning strike is not isolated.

“Electricity from a lightning strike is not isolated. Even flowed to the ground adjacent to the location of its tower. It makes electricity from lightning still around the tower, “said Fattah.

Until now, said Fattah, innovation created by his team has been applied to several transmission towers owned by PLN Kupang. His team is still trying to market to several PLN in each area directly.

“Our system price is much cheaper than competitors. Competitor price could be above Rp 200 million. Meanwhile (our product price) is in the range of Rp 80-100 million because all components are made in Indonesia, “said Fattah.

This innovation has been developed since the end of 2015.

“We’re in the process of registering patents on behalf of ITB. Because we (Tesla Daya Elektrika) are also still listed as tenants (tenants) in LPIK ITB. Registration has been since early 2016, “he said.

This innovation product has received funding from the Ministry of Research and Technology Higher Education (Kemenristekdikti) and also won first place in the Swiss Innovation Challenge 2017 competition at Sheraton Bandung Hotel & Towers, Friday (22/09/2017).

In fact, late this October, Fattah will leave for Switzerland to present the innovative product at University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. (*)

news via TribunNews