Majuro, Marshall Islands – MEC is pleased to announce an important step forward in our commitment to improving electricity service reliability for all our customers. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $1,283,773.34 in funding for MEC’s Distribution Protection System upgrade project, with work set to begin in the coming weeks.
A Smarter, More Reliable Electrical System
After a competitive bidding process, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) from Australia has been selected to design, supply, install, and commission a state-of-the-art Distribution Protection System for MEC. This specialized system will dramatically improve how our electrical grid responds to problems and protects both equipment and customers.
“This project represents a significant leap forward in the quality and reliability of electricity service for our community in Majuro,” said the MEC CEO. “The new system will help us detect and isolate problems in milliseconds rather than minutes or hours, meaning faster restoration of power and more consistent service.”
This investment significantly strengthens our island’s resilience against power disruptions, ensuring that our community can maintain essential services even when faced with challenges from weather events or equipment issues. In other words, the new system will help MEC’s grid better to withstand and recover from problems.
Why This Matters to You
The current protection system has several limitations that directly affect customers:
- When a fault occurs (such as from lightning strikes or burnt cable joints), it often affects the entire power system instead of just the damaged area
- Some electrical faults aren’t detected at all, creating potential safety hazards
- The current system can’t automatically reduce power to specific areas when electricity demand is too high
- When main equipment has problems, power can go out across the entire island
With the new system, customers can expect:
- Faster response to power issues with faults located and cleared in milliseconds
- Better detection of fallen power lines, improving public safety
- Compatibility with future solar energy installations
- More targeted outages when repairs are needed, affecting fewer customers
Special Features for Our Unique Environment
The new protection equipment is specially designed with “Conformal Coating” to shield sensitive electronics from our salty air environment. This is a critical feature for equipment longevity in our island setting.
The upgraded system will also provide MEC personnel with real-time monitoring capabilities, allowing them to:
- Observe protection operation and system faults on monitors
- Receive complete information about electrical faults
- Quickly identify fault locations for faster repairs
Looking to the Future
This project lays the groundwork for additional improvements including:
- Automated load shedding to better manage power during high-demand periods
- Enhanced sensors to pinpoint damaged areas in underground cables
Similar Success Stories in the Pacific
MEC is joining other Pacific Island nations in modernizing their power infrastructure to improve reliability. In neighboring countries, similar protection system upgrades have resulted in dramatic improvements to grid stability and outage response times. Palau recently made significant strides in modernizing its electrical infrastructure with new solar capacity that required advanced protection systems to integrate with the main grid. In March 2024, the Palau Public Utilities Corporation successfully used solar power to supplement their grid for the first time, demonstrating how modern protection systems enable diverse energy sources to work together safely.
SEL’s advanced protection technology has been successfully implemented around the world, including in island environments with challenging conditions similar to ours. Their systems are designed with special features to maintain reliability in harsh coastal environments, including the same conformal coating technology that will protect MEC’s new equipment from our salty air.
“This investment significantly strengthens our island’s resilience against power disruptions, ensuring that our community can maintain essential services even when faced with challenges from weather events or equipment issues,” said the CEO.
Next Steps
Engineers from SEL will arrive in Majuro at the end of May 2025 to begin collecting data needed for designing the customized protection system. MEC’s Supplemental Management and Operations (SMO) Team will work closely with SEL throughout the project, from design through commissioning.
“Our technical team of utility experts is excited to contribute their services to this important project,” said MEC’s Chief Technical Officer. “The knowledge transfer during this installation will help build local capacity to maintain and optimize the system for years to come.”
MEC acknowledges the continued support of the ADB in funding our Distribution Protection System upgrade. This partnership has been essential to strengthening our power grid reliability and will result in remarkable improvements in our system performance and customer service.
