In earthquake aftermath MiMOMax helped keep Christchurch connected

On 22 February 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch, in New Zealand, killing hundreds and causing catastrophic infrastructural damage to the entire region.

Based in Christchurch is the headquarters of a global technology company MiMOMax Wireless. Since the earthquake, MiMOMax has been involved in a number of recovery efforts. Its biggest contribution during the aftermath of this devastating event is the collaboration with a local electricity distributor, which services all of Canterbury and Christchurch.

When the earthquake struck, nearly all Christchurch residents, industrial and commercial entities lost power. Many fibre-optic and wired connections within the network had been destroyed, but the MiMOMax radio system remained fully operational.

MiMOMax SCADA radios thus provided complete and immediate network visibility minutes after the quake had struck, enabling operators to pinpoint severely compromised areas of the network. Most importantly, the radios allowed operators to control substations remotely and take hasty remedial action, even when they could not physically reach them.

Just one day into the aftermath of the quake, the MiMOMax team assisted their customer to enhance network capacity and further deploy its radios in badly affected urban substations.

Many fibre-optic and wired connections within the substation had been destroyed. The MiMOMax radio installed was used to provide a non-line-of-site link, and replaced a SDSL connection originally used for SCADA.

“Radio worked when other systems failed,” said Paul Daigneault, Managing Director.

In the weeks and months to come, the team believe there will be many opportunities to learn further lessons and continue to strengthen the electricity distribution network using MiMOMax radios.