Battery maker Saft has been awarded the contract to supply its maintenance-free nickel cadmium backup battery systems to Brazil’s capital city.
The French firm will replace existing lead-acid batteries at all 34 of Brazilian power utility CEB (Companhia Energetica de Brasilia) distribution substations serving Brasilia.
Saft will use its Uptimax batteries to ensure CEB’s continuous 125 V supply to support all the auxiliary loads such as switchgear, automation and protection circuits for up to 10 hours.
Uptimax batteries use nickel pocket plate technology, and can operate in temperatures as low as -40˚c and up to 70˚c for short durations.
The one-year program will see each CEB substation fitted with two battery banks, with each system comprising 96 cells ranging in capacity from 100 to 170 Ah.
“Ensuring continuity of customer supply is a mission critical aspect of CEB’s power distribution business. That’s why we have made the decision to purchase nickel backup batteries for the first time in our company history”, said Arthur Franklin, Substations maintenance manager of CEB.
“This switch to Saft batteries gives us renewed confidence that our substation backup systems will always perform as required, whenever they are called upon.”