Determining the causes of electricity losses and the role of management in curbing them: A case study of City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa

The problem of energy losses, both nationally and internationally, is a leading cause for the financial collapse of most utilities. A quantitative research approach was adopted for this study where a questionnaire was used to collect information from the participants. A total of 113 City of Tshwane (CoT) employees within the electricity division participated in the study. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistical methods were used to analyse the outcome of the survey. The study found that technical and non-technical losses are the major cause of revenue loss. Non-technical losses are caused either by inefficiencies in managing losses or by end-users being unwilling to pay for electricity. The study found that power theft through meter tampering, incorrect billing by employees, and cable theft were also major causes of energy losses. Illegal connections were found to be the major cause of energy losses, along with power theft and lack of resources. Deficiencies in infrastructure maintenance were found to be the main cause of technical losses. The study found that management of CoT is committed to managing energy losses, being aware of their impact on the financial well-being of the municipality. There is an established policy of managing energy losses and there is a plan to replace ageing infrastructure. Employees are continuously trained in accurate billing and metering as part of efforts to curb energy losses. The municipality is also engaged in efforts to put educational programmes in place to inform communities about electricity theft.

Validation of copula-based weather generator for maintenance model of offshore wind farm

This article discusses the aspect of modeling weather conditions in marine environment for implementation in the offshore wind farm domain. It is clear that harsh sea weather conditions influence many characteristics of any offshore installation. The accessibility to the infrastructure, maintenance procedures, failure ratios of components, energy provision levels, or utilization of vessels—are the examples of weather-related issues connected to the offshore wind industry. Regarding the growing popularity of digital twin methodology, authors present a novel view to generate weather data with copula-based method. The results obtained are compared to selected historical data and implemented into the maintenance model. The selected indicators of maintenance service are used for usability assessment of proposed copula-based method.

Application of Digitalisation in Staffing Planning for Railway Infrastructure Maintenance

Existing and suggested approaches to development of staffing plans regarding infrastructure maintenance are analysed from the point of view of ensuring interests of a railway infrastructure company, using example of JSC Russian Railways.The existing methodology of planning workforce involved in maintenance of the railway infrastructure is based on the use of average values of parameters resulted from monitoring of the state of infrastructure structures, roadbed and track devices conducted monthly, as well as during autumn and spring continuous inspections and checks of the track. The received values of work to be performed only implicitly reflect the required number of workers, effective involvement in operation, and efficiency of each worker.The modern trend towards digitalisation and cybernation of all processes, when organising maintenance of the track infrastructure, provides for maximum social adaptation of production processes to requests of owners, tasks of organisers and interests of performers. Staff planning based only on the volume of work to be performed does not allow digitalisation and social cybernation of an individual performer.The syntagmatic component of such an algorithm is the monthly total worked time, which is determined by the actual engagement of each performer. The paradigmatic component of such models should be the same daily number of performers. The stage of preliminary assessment of application of the proposed algorithm for digitalisation and social cybernation of workforce planning supposed an increase in labour productivity, approximately by 20–25 %, an increase in quality of work and a more effective assessment of activities of each performer.

Concept of Digital Platform at Marshalling Yards

Implementation of the Industry 4.0 concept is considered in the context of automation of railway transport. The analysis refers to prerequisites for creation of a universal digital platform integrating automation systems at a marshalling yard.The example of JSC Russian Railways has contributed to describe the main goals of Digital Station concept, aimed at fusion of data from low-level local automation equipment. The presented functionality of the system for control and processing information on movements of wagons and locomotives at the station in real time (SCPI MWL RT) implements the set goals by integrating initial data from all automation and centralised traffic control systems operating at the station, checking it for consistency, eliminating information redundancy and generating in real time the current model of a marshalling yard regarding trains and wagons and based on data «from the wheel».Description of the existing functionality of SCPI MWL RT, implemented at a facility, is followed by the analysis of the advantages of this system for the railway cargo transportation network. The objective of the paper is to present some previously unpublished technical solutions for implementation of the specified functionality. The methods of the research are based on fusion of heterogeneous data received from floor devices, specialised video cameras, as well as from real-time wagon positioning models.It is shown that adoption of new technical solutions for SCPI MWL RT will allow to considerably improve the quality of planning of technological process of classifying railway wagons and of forecasting the need for infrastructure maintenance. Deep learning algorithms presented ensure functioning of the developed solutions in real time with high accuracy. Further steps described refer to implementation of a digital platform in the form of a digital twin of a marshalling yard, creating thus a prerequisite for development of an intelligent automatic machine to control the marshalling yard, as well as for further planned ways to implementation there-of.

Management of facilities and infrastructure in junior high school

Regarding the implementation of school-based management, one of which is infrastructure management. This researcher took the title, namely, Management of Facilities and Infrastructure at SMP Muhammadiyah Jirak with the sub-focus is planning, procurement, utilization, maintenance, person in charge and elimination. In this study, researchers used a qualitative method with a qualitative naturalistic approach. The naturalistic approach shows that the implementation of this research is indeed natural, as it is and is not manipulated by circumstances and conditions. In the data collection method, the writer uses techniques such as observation, interview and documentation i. The results showed that the planning of infrastructure in SMP Muhammadi yah Jirak runs withgood. In addition, the planning stage is also carried out from submitting needs, then analyzing. Procurement of infrastructure at SMP Muhammadiyah Jirak always tries to do with the planning that has been made. In terms of the provision of infrastructure, it has also been carried out in accordance with the plans that have been made. In terms of the provision of infrastructure, it is not carried out by one or two parties, but involves various elements to avoid misuse in the provision of educational facilities. Utilization of facilities and infrastructure at SMP Muhammadiyah Jirak is by having rules and schedules for the use of facilities and infrastructure. Maintenance and accountability for facilities and infrastructure at SMP Muhammadiyah Jirak are carried out by all residents, including officers, school principals, teachers, administrative staff and other students. The elimination of facilities and infrastructure at SMP Muhammadiyah Jirak is carried out by the school by selecting goods and after that it will be reported to the KPKNL and will be carried out a sale or auction.

Edible fire buffers: mitigation of wildfire with multifunctional landscapes

Wildfires ravage lands in seasonally-dry regions, imposing high costs on infrastructure maintenance and human habitation at the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Current fire mitigation approaches present upfront costs with uncertain long-term payoffs. Instead, we show that a simple landscape intervention on human-managed wildlands -- buffers of a low-flammability crop species such as banana irrigated using recycled water -- can mitigate wildfires, produce food profitably, and provide additional ecosystem services. Recreating a recent, major fire in simulation, we find that a medium-sized banana buffer decreases fireline intensity by 96%, similar to prescribed burns and mechanical thinning combined, and delays the fire by 316 minutes, enabling safe and effective firefighting. We find that under climate change, despite worsened fires, banana buffers will still have a protective effect. We also find that banana buffers with average yield could produce a profit of $56k USD/hectare through fruit sales, in addition to fire mitigation and other benefits.