Hikvision safeguards SA electricity supply

February 2018 Surveillance

Hikvision is helping to ensure a safe and reliable electricity supply across South Africa with the deployment of a remote surveillance monitoring solution covering thousands of electricity substations and power transmission lines.

The largest electricity power distributor in South Africa, Eskom, operates a network of 400 000 km of overhead power lines and several thousand electricity substations providing electricity to domestic and business customers. In recent years, critical power infrastructure has become a target for cable and metal theft, resulting in vastly expensive and disruptive damage.

To combat the wide-scale problem, Eskom enlisted the help of a South African investigations company, Combined Private Investigations (CPI). “Copper and metal theft targeting power transmission infrastructure has become a real problem for maintaining the supply of electricity in South Africa,” says Roy Robertson, principal director of CPI. “The impact of downtime for a substation hit by material theft can be significant, with loss of power to homes, hospitals, schools, factories and public transport services, so it was vital to our client that the theft incident rate should be significantly reduced.

“We needed to protect the most vulnerable and remote electricity substations, as these sites were experiencing the highest percentage of theft and service disruption. CPI strives to capitalise on the latest technologies to support an intelligence driven approach. As such, we approached Hikvision to provide the latest electronic security solutions.”

Technology blueprint

Collaborating with Hikvision, CPI assessed the most effective technical specification of products to detect and deter the thefts. The specification formed a blueprint to be installed at all of the vulnerable electricity substations across South Africa.

CPI installed Hikvision DS-2CD2T42WD-I8 and DS-2DE5120W-AE cameras covering the internal and perimeter areas of each remote site. Equipped with 4 MP resolution, 120 dB Wide Dynamic Range, 3D DNR, EXIR high performance LEDs and 80-metre IR range, the DS-2CD2T42WD-I8 4 MP EXIR Network Bullet Camera was the right choice to monitor the substations, utilising its advanced performance to provide clear images day and night.

Additionally, the Hikvision DS-2DE5120W-AE 1.3MP 20X Network PTZ Cameras were used to provide 3D intelligent positioning and 20X Optical Zoom, to deliver instant visual confirmation on any on-site intruder detection – all in 1.3 MP resolution.

In conjunction with PIR devices covering the sites’ perimeters, the Hikvision camera’s Smart Video Content Analytics (VCA) technology was set-up to perform Line Detection, to confirm alarm activations and eliminate false alarms.

Recorded to Hikvision IDS-9632 NXI-1816S Embedded Plug & Play NVRs, up to 6 Megapixel recording resolution and a capacity of up to 4 SATA interfaces ensured the high-quality of local recording needed. Both live and recorded images are transmitted over a wireless LAN, back to CPI’s central control room.

Rapid response

At the control room, Hikvision iVMS 5200 software with optional Video Wall driver was deployed to enable the monitoring of thousands of remote sites 24/7. In the event of an automated intruder alert being activated, surveillance operators can visually verify activity in seconds. During the process, all evidential video is tagged and automatically archived for future identification and prosecution usage.

“The Hikvision surveillance system ensures we can respond rapidly to any intrusion detected at the sites,” continues Robertson. “Our response teams are equipped to attend sites quickly, to catch perpetrators in the act. The Hikvision camera images have proved critical in detecting and prosecuting offenders of metal theft, they have reduced incidents and enable us to visually confirm the precise cause of an alarm. This means we no longer need to deploy personnel to a site when it may be just a false alarm – saving valuable man hours and costs, vastly improving the effectiveness of our service.

Effective protection

“We are rolling-out the Hikvision-based security blueprint to many other power substations across South Africa. To date, over 1 000 electrical substations are protected by Hikvision systems – making a real difference to the provision of reliable power to all sections of industry and society across South Africa.”

For more information contact Janis Roux, Hikvision South Africa, +27 (0)10 035 1172, [email protected], www.hikvision.com



Credit(s)




Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page



Further reading:

The future of the surveillance channel
Duxbury Networking Technews Publishing Elvey Security Technologies SMART Security Solutions Surveillance
The video surveillance market has evolved from camera-based specifications to integrated solutions that solve customers’ problems. Moreover, the growth of AI and cloud has changed the channel even more, with more to come.

Read more...
The benefits of offsite control rooms
Astrosec Surveillance Integrated Solutions
As the security landscape grows more intricate, control rooms – the crucial hub of security operations – need to adapt. With escalating costs, mounting threats, and a heightened demand for immediate responses, many organisations are reassessing the operations of their control rooms.

Read more...
CCTV control room operator job description
Leaderware Editor's Choice Surveillance Training & Education
Control room operators are still critical components of security operations and will remain so for the foreseeable future, despite the advances of AI, which serves as a vital enhancement to the human operator.

Read more...
Hikvision launches latest range of cameras
Hikvision South Africa Surveillance AI & Data Analytics
Hikvision has launched its latest network cameras with ColorVu 3.0 technology and EasyIP 4.0 Plus, which elevate video security by delivering improved image quality, enhanced intelligent functions, superior audio capabilities, and a refined product design and materials.

Read more...
Platform to access data and train AI models
Milestone Systems AI & Data Analytics Surveillance
Milestone Systems has announced Project Hafnia to build services and democratise AI-model training with high-quality, compliant video data leveraging NVIDIA Cosmos Curator and AI model, fine-tuning microservices.

Read more...
The capabilities of visual verification
Secutel Technologies Surveillance AI & Data Analytics
Secutel Technologies has provided locally developed visual verification solutions for some time. SMART Security Solutions requested more insight into these solutions from the company.

Read more...
AI means proactive surveillance
DeepAlert Technews Publishing SMART Security Solutions AI & Data Analytics Surveillance
SMART Security Solutionsasked DeepAlert for some insight into how AI is transforming video surveillance, even to the extent of it being taught to protect the privacy of those in the cameras’ view.

Read more...
Integration is the key to smarter surveillance
Duxbury Networking Surveillance
According to recent market projections, the local security industry is expected to grow by more than 10% annually through 2029, reflecting the increasing demand for smarter, more proactive security solutions.

Read more...
edgE:Tower video analytics integrated with SEON
Surveillance Integrated Solutions AI & Data Analytics
Sentronics has announced a new integration between its edgE:Tower advanced AI-driven video analytics solution and SEON, a Central Monitoring Software (CMS) platform. This integration enhances real-time situational awareness and automated threat detection for control rooms.

Read more...
The state of the VMS market
Arteco Global Africa Milestone Systems Cathexis Technologies Technews Publishing Surveillance
SMART Security Solutions asked three platform vendors in South Africa, one that is developed and maintained in the country with an international market, for their views on the state of the VMS market and where it is headed.

Read more...