Fuel theft addressed at Claro Argentina

COLUMBUS, USA: Kentrox, a player in intelligent site monitoring, management, and control solutions, has been selected by Claro Argentina to provide power and security management at their cell sites throughout Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

Claro's recent installation of comprehensive site management includes the Kentrox Optima Management System for complete visibility and control of Claro's cell sites and its assets, as per a press update.

The Remote RMM-1400 provides wired and wireless IP network connectivity for automated site monitoring and control, and the Remote RMB-1 adds intelligent I/O connections. These products and associated sensors and controllers are working together to provide generator management, fuel monitoring, AC and DC power monitoring, and surveillance management at Claro's remote cell sites.

Legacy generators are used at many of Claro's remote sites as the backup power source, but unfortunately, fuel theft from the generators has become common throughout the country. The Kentrox solution is said to constantly monitor the status and health of the generators plus their associated fuel levels and notifies Claro when high fuel consumption occurs (often caused by theft) or if there is a presence of water in the fuel tank.

Door access and motion sensors are used to monitor access to a site and its equipment. As added, when unauthorized and authorized access occurs, the relevant personnel are notified, and additional research can be conducted remotely to determine if the access is approved or if unauthorized access needs additional follow up.

Power is also monitored by the Kentrox site management solution. AC power is monitored to identify improvements within the site such as trends in the quality of AC power delivered to the site and conditions that can lead to equipment damage. Kentrox says it is monitoring the DC power to provide real-time and historical data to understand the condition of the equipment, power consumption, and the total distribution throughout the site to help detect equipment damage, malfunctions, or failure.

Victor Bargas, Energy & HVAC Chief of Claro Argentina said. "We now have an integrated remote site monitoring and management system where we can obtain alarms and relevant performance information when issues occur. We can prevent service-affecting outages and also obtain the data we need to help reduce our energy costs and reduce the cost of fuel theft."