Thanks to new Ascom communication technologies, the EDF group is improving the safety of is improving the safety of employees in its hydraulic plant groups.
In 2011, a long-standing relationship with the leading producer and supplier of electricity in France and worldwide, at a hydraulic power plant in Martinique. Management particularly wanted to improve the safety and mobility of teams at industrial sites and optimize technical alarm management. “Today in our ‘industrial sector’ activity, EDF acts as customer number 1 for Ascom France,” said Ascom Sales Manager Eric Reynaud.
We were looking for a solution that was easy to implement, with simple maintenance and above all compatibility with any type of PABX on the market. The objective was to improve the communication network with operations managers.
In 2013, Ascom responded with its experts to a first call for tenders for mobility equipment for hydraulic and thermal activities, in France and overseas departments and territories, representing 80 sites for a total of 300 factories. In addition to a robust, sustainable, innovative mobility solution compatible with the various existing cabling at our sites, it was also a technical challenge.
Ascom quickly adapts to demanding work environments for implementing safety solutions. In 2015 and 2017, several projects were launched to meet employee work constraints and guarantee their safety through the intelligent management of alarm reports, a system that has become obsolete at EDF.
Many employees are on the move or isolated: maintenance technicians, production control agents, etc. The Ascom DECT mobile device is associated with a software platform in a double objective: having a global view in real time of all critical flows and communicating them to the right person at the right time, thus ensuring the safety of collaborators, machines and infrastructure linked to phenomena such as floods, fires, low water levels, and that of automata in connection with site production.
To date, around 1500 access points, 2500 terminals and 15 alarm servers have been deployed in our various factory groups. Operational teams are better supported and protected on a daily basis. Alarms and alerts are communicated in real time to the person in charge of interventions, which improves responsiveness and decision-making.