Digitalised industrial power networks company VoltVision has successfully rolled out its ViViD platform across all six of gold producer Endeavour Mining’s assets in West Africa, amid a global emphasis on sustainability.

The V-Cube Internet of Things (IoT) has been installed at Endeavour’s Houndé, Boungou, Mana and Wahgnion mines in Burkina Faso; the Ity mine in Côte d’Ivoire; and the Sabodala-Massawa mine in Senegal. Roll-out of the technology took four months and required no VoltVision staff to be on site.

The technology gives access to raw data, enabling the miner to better understand the performance of its power networks, with the Houndé and Ity mines having displayed a significant decrease in operating expenses associated with power consumption, increasing power efficiencies and lower carbon emissions.

“The V-Cube system facilitates a better understanding of the reasons for power outages and means that the mines can react faster and, consequently, reduce their downtime. Our work to improve the power factor and quality across Endeavour’s assets in Burkina Faso has yielded rapid, large-scale, low-cost successes,” enthuses VoltVision MD Manoli Yannaghas.

He comments that West Africa is in an opportune position to reduce its carbon emissions and replace diesel generators, thereby making VoltVision relevant for the region’s mining industry.

The V-Cube IoT can be retrofitted into existing power networks, facilitating cost saving initiatives at mines, and does not require specialised on-site installation or training, owing to its ‘plug-and-play’ solution.

VoltVision technology enables mining companies to monitor power consumption at all their assets and allows for easier access to the relevant high-voltage, high-resolution data through VoltVision’s cloud-based ViViD platform, thereby ensuring that all company members can access a single data source.

Condition monitoring of mining equipment ensures that mining companies in remote areas can assess operations both on and off-site, which Yannaghas describes as relevant for the West African industry, particularly given the challenges in the power and logistics supply chain.

A key function of VoltVision’s V-Cube is determining power quality, or the efficient consumption of power supplied to equipment, as there are significant savings for operators in ensuring the optimisation of power quality.

The technology also assists mines with environmental, social and corporate govervnance initiatives by identifying where the most carbon dioxide is being emitted at a given mining operation.

VoltVision’s solutions give access to high- and medium-voltage power networks by extracting uncollected, raw data from the existing electrical equipment used on large-scale processing plants. The technology then formats the data into actionable information available using visualised analytical dashboards, charts and reports.

“Data gives you the ability to see what's happening. We are here to help the existing operations teams do the best job that they can by providing them with as much visibility as possible,” concludes Yannaghas.