Replace grid field visits with remote fault detection

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards · SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner)

The company operates two electricity distribution businesses in the energy sector, serving five provinces in western Türkiye, with more than 1,000 employees.

Electricity distribution over a large service area is driven by physical presence. Locating a fault, switching a feeder or scanning an overhead line traditionally means sending a crew, and often a heavy test vehicle, from a central depot to the site. Across a network of this size that produces a continuous logistics load, high fuel consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions that follow, while customers wait for supply to be restored.

The company's response was to treat digitalisation as a decarbonisation instrument as well as an IT programme. The objective is to raise network observability to the point where fault detection and intervention can be completed without a site visit, so that the emissions are prevented at source rather than offset afterwards.

The programme is integrated with the company's ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 management systems, and performance data feeds the company's CDP reporting.

Location of the initiative: Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, İzmir and Manisa provinces, Türkiye

The programme combines supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), IoT-based satellite communication, geographic information systems and a set of in-house research and development products into a single operating model.

Remote switching and diagnosis sit at the centre. SCADA allows feeders to be opened and closed and temporary faults to be cleared from the control room instead of by a crew in the field. Overhead line fault indicator devices identify the faulted section directly, which removes the need to patrol the line to find it.

Portable cable test devices replace centrally dispatched heavy test vehicles. A technician already in the area can locate a cable fault on site, so the heavy vehicle movement disappears from the operation entirely.

Data operations extend the same logic. Satellite-based meter reading covers locations that are difficult to reach on the ground, and a field monitoring system optimises the routes that still have to be driven.

A set of 100 per cent domestically developed research and development products supports the model: a cable fault detection device, modular transformers, smart silicon insulators, dynamic line rating, cloud-based security monitoring, and a pole-mounted EV charging solution that uses existing lighting infrastructure rather than new high-power connections. Inventory and mobile device management software extends equipment life and prevents electronic waste, while artificial intelligence supported loss detection identifies unmetered consumption.

The most recent addition is the use of panel van type electric aerial platform vehicles in fault repair, applied for the first time in Türkiye. Because the platform is electric, the vehicle's combustion engine no longer has to idle during work at height, which removes local noise and air pollution at the work site.

Figure 1: Remote monitoring at the GDZ Elektrik SCADA centre

Sustainability impact

Climate

The initiative targets Scope 1 emissions from the company's own operational vehicle fleet, which is the fuel burned travelling to and from network sites, together with the Scope 2 effect of reduced network losses where unmetered consumption is identified.

Across 2025 and the first six months of 2026, the applications together saved approximately 193,012 litres of diesel, which prevented 552 tonnes of CO2e.

Avoided vehicle distance is the operational measure behind that figure. The updated reporting records approximately 71,670 km of cable test vehicle movement avoided through portable cable test devices in the Aydın, Denizli and Muğla region; approximately 205,580 km of fault vehicle movement avoided through SCADA in that region and approximately 276,960 km in the İzmir and Manisa region; approximately 172,400 km avoided through overhead line fault indicator devices in the İzmir and Manisa region; approximately 10,000 km avoided through the field monitoring system; and approximately 432,832 km avoided through satellite meter reading.

Operational records show how those distances arise. In the Aydın, Denizli and Muğla region, 10,549 switching operations representing 527,450 km of projected field intervention load were handled through SCADA, 74 per cent of temporary faults were resolved remotely, and TRY 277,070.34 was saved on fuel alone. In the İzmir and Manisa region, 11,784 feeder openings removed 110,784 km, and fault indicator devices removed 145,260 km of line scanning across 7,263 outages. Portable cable test devices located 198 cable faults on site in 2026, avoiding 23,890 km of heavy test vehicle movement from the central depot.

Electric aerial platform vehicles remove engine idling during work at height, which cuts both emissions and noise at the work location.

Emissions data from these activities feeds the company's CDP climate change reporting, in which both distribution businesses were rated A in the most recent reporting cycle, and the sustainability reports are subject to limited assurance.

Nature

Reduced driving lowers particulate and noise emissions along rural and urban service routes, and the electric aerial platform vehicles remove idling emissions at the work site itself.

Inventory and mobile device management software extends the working life of electronic equipment, which prevents electronic waste from being generated in the first place rather than managing it after disposal.

Artificial intelligence supported detection of unmetered consumption reduces energy waste, and with it the generation required to serve that waste.

Social

Customers in the five provinces served experience shorter interruptions, measured through the standard supply continuity indices for average interruption duration and frequency, because faults are diagnosed and cleared without waiting for a crew to arrive.

Fewer maintenance and repair journeys also reduce traffic load in the service areas.

Internally, the VoltAmper innovation programme gives every employee, from field technician to office specialist, a route to propose improvements that are then assessed by directors and general managers, and Toolbox training sessions keep field teams inside the safety and innovation cycle.

Business impact

Benefits

The benefits are measured as net financial benefit per application rather than as a single programme figure.

The portable cable test device carries a five-year net benefit projection of USD 1,336,475. Satellite meter reading in one distribution region delivered USD 123,098 of net benefit by lowering logistics costs, and route optimisation through the field monitoring system delivered USD 844,613. Remote switching produced TRY 277,070.34 in fuel savings alone in one region.

The avoided journeys also convert directly into avoided fuel: approximately 193,012 litres of diesel across 2025 and the first six months of 2026, equivalent to 552 tonnes of CO2e prevented.

Beyond the direct savings, supply continuity improves, crews are released from routine travel to higher-value work, and the domestically developed products reduce dependence on imported equipment. As well, reduced outage times translate to more energy supplied and therefore increased revenues.

The occupational health and safety management system developed in-house was commercialised to three other distribution companies, which turned an internal tool into a revenue-generating technology transfer.

External validation carries a commercial value of its own for a regulated network business: both distribution businesses were rated A in the most recent CDP climate change reporting cycle, the sustainability reports are subject to limited assurance, and the group was awarded an A1 Advanced sustainability rating by an international ESG rating agency in 2022.

Costs

The cost base is the investment in SCADA and remote control infrastructure, satellite communication, geographic information systems, portable test equipment, software development and the electric aerial platform vehicles, together with the research and development spend behind the in-house products.

Operating costs shift rather than disappear: fuel and vehicle costs fall, while software maintenance, data infrastructure, cyber security and the skills needed to run a more digital network rise. The model depends on network observability, which means the benefits only appear once instrumentation coverage is sufficient. Partial deployment produces partial savings, so the investment has to reach a threshold before the avoided-driving case holds.

Costs are contained by developing products in-house under a domestic software and equipment ecosystem, by reusing the same data for operational, safety and sustainability reporting, and by commercialising tools that other distribution companies can adopt.

Impact beyond sustainability and business

Co-benefits

Fewer field journeys reduce exposure to road risk for crews, which is a safety gain rather than an environmental one.

The pole-mounted EV charging solution adds charging capacity to city infrastructure without new high-power connections or additional transformer investment, which lowers the cost of e-mobility for the municipalities served.

Technology transfer of the safety management system to three other distribution companies extends the benefit across the sector rather than keeping it inside one group, and the domestic research and development products reduce import dependence for the wider national grid.

Potential side-effects

Concentrating operations on remote control increases dependence on communication links, control room availability and cyber security. The programme addresses this through cloud-based security monitoring, but the dependency is real and grows as manual fallback capability is used less often.

A more digital network also changes the skills required in the field. Crews move from routine patrol and switching work towards diagnostics and maintenance, which requires retraining rather than headcount reduction if the capability is to be retained.

Remote resolution rates of the kind reported here depend on instrumentation density, so a distribution business starting from a lower base should expect the savings to build over several investment cycles rather than immediately.

Typical business profile

The model suits electricity distribution companies and other utilities that operate dispersed physical networks over a wide service area, where the cost and emissions of reaching an asset are significant compared with the work carried out once there.

It is most relevant for operators with a licensed service territory and an existing control room function, because the savings come from converting field tasks into control room tasks.

Delivery engages network operations, maintenance, research and development, information technology, occupational health and safety, sustainability and procurement functions working to a shared performance cycle.

Approach

1. Map the field workload by cause: Separate journeys into switching, fault location, line patrol, meter reading and repair, and record the distance and fuel each category consumes, so that the largest avoidable component is identified before any investment.

2. Extend observability first: Deploy supervisory control and remote switching on the feeders that generate the most interventions, because remote resolution is only possible where the network can be seen and operated from the control room.

3. Add fault location at the edge: Install overhead line fault indicator devices and issue portable cable test equipment to local crews, so that faults are identified without patrolling the line or dispatching a heavy test vehicle from a central depot.

4. Close the coverage gaps with alternative communication: Use satellite-based communication and meter reading for locations where terrain or distance makes conventional connectivity unreliable.

5. Optimise the journeys that remain: Run a field monitoring system that plans routes for the interventions that still require physical presence, and measure the distance saved against the previous routing.

6. Develop equipment in-house where the market does not fit: Build the products the network specifically needs, such as fault detection devices, modular transformers and smart insulators, through a domestic research and development ecosystem.

7. Open an internal innovation route: Run a structured programme so that field technicians and office specialists can submit improvement proposals which senior management assesses and converts into projects.

8. Measure avoided distance as the core indicator: Track avoided kilometres, fuel saved, remote resolution rate and supply continuity per application, integrate the results with the environmental and safety management systems, and submit the data to external assurance and climate disclosure.

Stakeholders involved

• Project leads: Senior management, comprising directors and general managers, assesses and sponsors the improvement proposals that enter the programme, so that project selection sits at management level rather than within a single technical function.

• Company functions: Network operations, maintenance and field crews, research and development, information technology, occupational health and safety, sustainability and procurement teams work to a shared planning and reporting cycle. Field technicians contribute directly through the internal innovation programme, and Toolbox training sessions keep operational teams inside the safety and knowledge cycle.

• Main providers: Domestic hardware and software producers developed the research and development products in a strategic partnership arrangement, supported under the energy regulator's domestic software ecosystem. Equipment suppliers provide the portable test devices, fault indicator devices and electric aerial platform vehicles.

• Other: The energy market regulator supports the research and development products through its domestic software ecosystem programme. Local administrations, suppliers and customers in the five provinces served benefit from reduced maintenance traffic and improved supply continuity. Independent assurance providers audit the sustainability and carbon data before it is published to investors and the public, and the sustainability reports carry limited assurance. The occupational health and safety management system was transferred to three other electricity distribution companies.

Key parameters to consider

The programme is a continuous improvement structure rather than a single project, and new applications are added as they are proven. Results are reported per application, which means each element carries its own baseline and payback rather than being absorbed into a programme-level figure.

The emissions figure is derived from measured fuel: avoided journeys are converted into litres of diesel saved and then into CO2e, over a reporting window covering 2025 and the first six months of 2026. That keeps the climate result tied to a physical quantity rather than to a modelled distance factor.

Benefits scale with instrumentation coverage and with the size of the service territory, so the avoided-distance case is strongest for operators with dispersed networks and long travel distances.

The management system integration matters: because the programme runs inside ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, the monitoring and audit routines already exist and do not have to be built separately.

Avoided distance is calculated from the vehicle journeys that the SCADA system, portable cable testing equipment, field monitoring, satellite meter reading and fault indicator devices make unnecessary. Diesel savings are derived from the average fuel consumption of the fault response, cable testing and meter reading vehicles by make and model, applied to the journeys avoided, and converted into emissions with a diesel factor of 0.00285906 tonnes of CO2e per litre. Reported data covers 2025 and the first half of 2026.

Implementation and operations tips

Measuring avoided distance rather than only cost is what makes the environmental case visible. Fuel savings alone understate the result, because they do not capture vehicle wear, crew time or the emissions profile of heavy test vehicles.

Fault location at the edge delivers disproportionate value. Remote switching handles the routine work, but the heavy vehicle movements that dominate the emissions profile only disappear when the local crew can locate the fault themselves.

Building products in-house takes longer than procurement but produces equipment matched to the network and reduces import dependence. It requires a research and development capability and a route for field staff to feed requirements into it.

An internal innovation programme with visible senior management assessment is what sustains the pipeline. Improvement ideas from field technicians are the source of several of the applications now in operation.