Davao light firm interconnects offices, facilities with fiber optics

DAVAO CITY, Oct. 23 — With increasing demand for real-time data and communications applications, the Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) has started interconnecting all its buildings, branches and two sub-transmission and 22 distribution substations with the use of fiber optics.

He said the link would enable the two companies to share critical information such as the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCA-DA) parameters during operation as well as interconnecting computer networks and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application. This will directly link Hedcor Sibulan’s Plants A and B to Davao Light’s 138 kV ERA sub-transmission substation control center for efficient and real-time data logging.

He said optical fiber was an ideal medium for telecommunication and networking because its flexibility and could be bundled as cables as well. It is especially advantageous for long-distance communications, because light is immune to electrical noise and interference thus propagates through the fiber with little attenuation compared to electrical cables. This allows long distances to be spanned with few repeaters.

Having these fiber optic cables installed mostly on top of electric posts along with other utilities’ wires and cables made it suitable for the power distribution firm’s communications system, Chan said.

The fiber optics as main communication backbone

With the fiber optics as main communication backbone, Davao Light did not only have a much more reliable data communication infrastructure but a tremendous expansion of the data bandwidth as well, essential to the delivery of better service, he said. (PNA) RMA/Jessie L. Casalda/lvp