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Servest partnering with juwi Renewable Energies

juwi operates in the renewable energy sector. Since 1996, juwi has been designing, building, financing and operating plants that harness renewable energy. The CEOs and founders, Matthias Willenbacher and Fred Jung, transformed the company from a two-person operation into a worldwide active group with over 1500 employees in 17 countries with an annual revenue of around 1 billion Euro in 2012.

juwi has implemented around 770 wind turbines with a total capacity of approximately 1600 megawatts and has designed and constructed 1500 solar power projects with a total capacity of around 1400 megawatts. Combined, these energy systems produce around 5,5 billion kilowatt hours of clean energy per year.

juwi Renewable Energies, the South African subsidiary, is a full-service partner in all aspects of project development; they plan, finance, construct, and operate renewable energy power plants with a particular focus on the wind and solar energy sector in South Africa. It is the preferred engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner for four large-scale photovoltaic power plants throughout South Africa and was 100% successful in the bids as an EPC contractor during the first round of the South African government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP). These four eco-friendly power plants will have a combined installed capacity of 35 megawatts.

Servest has partnered with juwi from when installations began in 2010 at the very first South African plant. Since then Servest has designed, commissioned and installed the latest CCTV surveillance systems at all of their South African solar energy power plants.

The technical projects were a significant logistical challenge due to the remote locations of these construction sites. Apart from travelling distances to and from these locations daily, careful planning was essential to the successful installation and commissioning of these systems. In some instances there was no cellular voice or data connectivity on site. The availability of additional equipment and material also proved to be a challenge as the small surrounding towns only kept the essentials to cater for the surrounding farming community.

The design of the video platforms focused on reliability and user friendliness by using well established and tested technology and software. The design and solution were based on a reliable and stable optic fibre IP video platform with the capability of separate monitoring stations both on and off-site. The surveillance design uses the latest thermal camera technology in conjunction with video surveillance analytic software to protect the entire perimeter of the PV plant.

The combination of the latest in thermal technology and superior video analytics allows the end user to control and monitor area intrusion as well as trip wire functions with the greatest of ease. The monitoring software allows for flexibility and the use of thermal imagery that is not affected by atmospheric or light phenomena and eliminates false detection completely. The system also allows for automatic and scheduled virtual and manual camera patrols at various critical positions within the plant by means of PTZ cameras.

With the use of Milestone Systems, Servest aims to improve clients’ organisational processes and increase overall security through the management and distribution of digital video data. Milestone XProtect VMS is powerful, reliable, easy to use and proven in more than 100 000 installations worldwide. Based on an open platform, XProtect VMS enables integration with the industry’s widest choice in cameras and best-in-class business solutions, such as access control and video analytics.

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