Background
Dicle Electricity Distribution (Dicle Elektrik Dağıtım A.Ş.), or DEDAŞ, is an electricity distribution system operator in southwestern Turkey. The region it operates in includes the cities of Diyarbakır, where the company is headquartered, and Şanlıurfa, Mardin, Siirt, Şırnak and Batman.
DEDAŞ is the second largest electricity distribution company in Turkey with around 5,500 employees. It serves more than 1.8 million subscribers across an area covering more than 60,000km2. One of its key tasks is reading the electricity meters of its customers, as well as carrying out electrical maintenance and repairs.
Challenge
The ability of DEDAŞ field staff to conduct meter readings and undertake repair and maintenance of electricity infrastructure was being hampered by the poor quality of their existing communications products. This was leading to slower and poorer quality services and higher costs.
In addition, it was not always easy for staff to conduct inspections and carry out work, as equipment was sometimes hard to access making it difficult to inspect. Sometimes staff had to undertake electricity maintenance operations without first being able to properly assess the state of the equipment they were working on. This increased the chance of accidents and threats to the health and safety of the workforce.
Another difficulty was that electricity meters are usually read manually. But if the meter was in a difficult to reach location, it took inspectors longer to take the reading, as well as making it easier to tamper with the data or lose it. A further problem facing personnel was the poor mobile network coverage in places and the fact that coverage in some areas was provided by a different mobile operator, so DEDAŞ staff had problems communicating at times.
As a result of these issues, DEDAŞ wanted to update its communication devices. It was looking for a durable device with a long battery performance, replaceable battery, and with a high degree of water and dust proofing. The company also wanted to deal with a device manufacturer who had a local office in Turkey. As well as looking at device performance and price, DEDAŞ also wanted to be able to develop bespoke solutions and to be able to access customer service support whenever they needed it.
Solution
DEDAŞ decided to choose Hytera's PNC550 Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) terminal as the new device for its staff. More than 2,000 PNC550 and PNC550 LITE terminals were supplied.
A Hytera solution was chosen partly due to the high level of brand awareness and the company's strong reputation for reliability and robustness of its devices. Hytera also had an office in Turkey, as the customer required, and it was able to offer the right level of service quality and speed of service, as well as having the ability to provide special solutions support when needed.
The PNC550 is a smart PoC Android-based terminal, integrating smart phone and professional PTT functionality with a 5-inch multi-touch screen and 2W high fidelity speaker. The inspectors use a separate electric meter reader to take the meter reading. The data is then automatically transferred via Bluetooth to the meter reader app on the PNC550.
