5 minute read
Interview - Keus Trading
SOLVING THE CARIBBEAN’S ENERGY PROBLEMS
Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Alous Brown, Managing Director at Keus Power, about efficient power solutions, the company’s work across Jamaica, and plans to invest in solar energy.
By Elizabeth Cope
The Keus Trading Company was registered in Kingston, Jamaica in 2013, with a mission to provide the country with world-class power and energy solutions at a fair price. Keus Power now works with the two largest telecoms providers in the Caribbean: FLOW and Digicel. An ostensibly young company, Keus Power boasts an extensive background in telecom engineering, totaling to a combined experience of more than 80 years on each collaborative project they undertake. “Our permanent staff comprises just four of us, but at any time we could have around 15 persons working for us,” says Alous Brown, Managing Director at Keus Power. “Purchase orders come directly to us from FLOW, and arrive from Digicel via a third-party, Product Solutions Ltd. Through them, we have been able to do a lot of work across the Caribbean and parts of Central America.”
EFFICIENCY FIRST
Keus Power strives for high-efficiency and reliability across its power equipment. “Our equipment is upward of 96% efficient,” says Mr. Brown. “We primarily sell Virtiv and CE+T power equipment, including inverters, batteries, and power distribution systems. We chose Virtiv in particular because they are a high-efficiency company, with a reputation for manufacturing products that are highly reliable. The more efficient your equipment, the lower your energy demands, and the more you’re able to limit the amount of fossil fuels you’re burning.”
The company also applies a sustainable focus to its engineering work. “There’s a history of vendors over-provisioning power,” explains Mr. Brown. “You’d have rectifiers being powered, which would then go under-utilized, with only 25% to 30% of the
available capacity actually being used, and resulting in a very low energy efficiency. In our energy work, we’re given the opportunity to right-size the power equipment to prevent over-provision, ensuring that the customer doesn’t end up using more electricity than is absolutely necessary.”
PROBLEM SOLVING
Keus Power recently undertook work in Duke Street, Montego Bay, and Ocho Rios, on a on a major power upgrade for FLOW. “It was a major project encompassing three critical sites, all of which were experiencing issues including energy leaks and failures,” says Mr. Brown. “The Duke Street site in Kingston is the largest telecom facility in the Caribbean. Likewise, Montego Bay probably ranks among the top five in terms of size in Jamaica, and FLOW’s site in Ocho Rios is located within the north coast tourism belt, a critical site for the telecom infrastructure. That was rolled out as a full-turnkey project; we diagnosed all the problems, and provided all the equipment, engineering, installation work to resolve the situation.”
Keus Power has also performed significant reorganization work for Digicel, at its data center in downtown Kingston. “The facility was somewhat chaotic in terms of how the power was being distributed to the equipment,” explains Mr. Brown. “We conducted a full documentation, going into the interface of every single server within the data center as we looked to complete our rationalization. They had a number of inverters that were under-utilized, while others were bursting at the seams. Thanks to the clarity and quality of our work, Digicel are now in a position to reorganize their distribution, and eliminate inefficiencies. For Digicel, we have done a number of power failure investigations across the Caribbean, in Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Antigua, along with further power investigations for Flow Jamaica.”
SOLAR SOLUTIONS
Partnerships offer an avenue for Keus Power to increase its uptake of solar energy. “Locally, we’re experiencing a lot of vandalism at remote telecom mobile and data sites, the target of which is almost always power,” explains Mr. Brown. “We are looking to find a solution in partnership with Ascot – a company that offers a hybrid power solution, equipped to make use of either wind or solar power. For our circumstances, we’re looking more closely into solar power
with a combination of solar batteries and dc power generators. In the case of the latter, it’s important that we’re able to move away from diesel – both for the obvious reason that it’s not clean, but also because it’s prime for theft. We’re currently in discussions with Ascot to solve that problem, while also working to ensure our telecom operators see improvements in their network availability.”
“We intend to push further into energy-drive solutions,” says Mr. Brown. “We’re currently in discussions with a potential customer for temperature monitoring. We’re currently looking at pharmacies, supermarkets, and similar businesses, with the opportunity to conduct 24-hour temperature monitoring. The process involves the collection and storage of temperature data, with a notification then sent to a relevant person if their refrigeration system is faulty, allowing the issue to be fixed prior to the onset of spoilage. We’re also looking to expand into other areas, capitalizing on our experience working with power development right across the Caribbean. We’re familiar with the region’s needs, and we’re aiming to get bigger in the years ahead.” c
Power | Renewables | Technology | Service
World class power & energy solutions
to telecommunication service providers and high quality clean energy saving solutions to businesses and homeowners
PRODUCTS • Telecom Critical Power Solutions: Industry leading AC / DC power equipment. • Enterprise & Datacenters: We offer the right mix of equipment and solutions designed to deliver high power & cooling efficiencies and resilience. • Equipment Racks and Outdoor Cabinets
SERVICES • Engineering, Installation / Commissioning • Energy Audits • Power Maintenance
PROJECTS • Major power upgrades – Flow Jamaica • Multi-site energy audit – C&WJCCUL
KEUS TRADING COMPANY SHOP 2, RED HILLS MALL, KGN.19 PHONE: (876) 997-0084
