Hydropower plant Rüchlig now "online"

Finally working digitally at the power plant with smartphone and tablet, but no indoor mobile Internet? This is not the case at the Rüchlig hydropower plant! Even behind thick concrete walls, excellent and stable Internet reception is available everywhere in the power plant since March 2022. In this way, the thick folders with plans and manuals can definitely stay in the cabinet in the future.

The example shows: For a modern and safe working environment, equipping power plant employees with mobile devices and expanding the associated modern voice-data network is essential. Only with a well-developed and reliable communications infrastructure can the local plant management staff ensure the safe and efficient operation of the power plants. The requirements are correspondingly high:

• High data rates, high availability for voice communication and data transmission
• Consistent technologies for indoor and outdoor applications
• Future-oriented with regard to new technologies 

Due to the structural conditions (e.g. thick concrete walls, deep buildings, caverns or tunnels), reception in the hydropower plants is inadequate or non-existent. This is particularly the case with indoor coverage.

With the project "Expansion of the communication infrastructure", Axpo Hydro Digital, together with its partners Sunrise and Axpo WZ Systems, has implemented its own and specifically deployed local mobile network (LTE with 4G) inside the building of the Rüchlig hydropower plant.

Now the Rüchlig powerplant is "online" outdoors as well as indoors and the power plant employees can work mobile from anywhere and at any time.