GEC eyes mass production of power safety gadgets

Ponda: Although power minister Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar had indicated his willingness in Aug 2024 to procure the smart watch and a smart helmet gadget from the Goa Engineering College (GEC), Farmagudi-Ponda for the safety of power department linesmen, GEC is eyeing mass production of their invention. GEC intends to make the ‘power-check’ contraption affordable to all so that it is available to the common man, especially electricians who have to work on live wires and cables regularly.
GEC had devised a helmet first and later introduced the same concept into a wristwatch.Each of these alerts the person wearing the contraption from a certain distance if there is electric current flowing through a wire.
A beep and a light indicate a live wire before the wearer comes in contact with the electricity.
GEC’s contraption has been devised to protect power lineman and even regular people who come in contact with potential live electricity connections. The engineering college team had studied recent cases of power-related accidents where people were injured, said Jayesh Priolkar, an associate professor at the electrical and electronics (E&E) department of GEC.
TOI has been regularly reporting on employees of the power department having lost their lives from electrocution which had put the spotlight on the lack of safety gear for linesmen and line-helpers.
Priolkar said the project was initially devised as part of the final year curriculum of two of his students, Abhinav Naik and Tanay Kurtarkar under his mentorship. The professor said the gadgets work on induction effect (referring to changing magnetic fields) and capacitance (the ability of an object or material to store electric charge). If the gadget is held in the vicinity of a live wire, the light-emitting diode (LED) on the helmet and the wrist watch gets lit up and a sound beeps on the gadget.
This is the alert signal for the gadget holder or wearer that the wire or cable is a live wire. The pilot of the gadgets have already been kept tested and in a state of readiness by the GEC team.
Since the gadget is in the initial stage, the size of the wristwatch is a little broader which Priolkar and his students are trying to rectify. The team is also in the initial stages of planning mass production of the gadget so that cost comes down, making it affordable.
“Initially we had devised only the helmet. However the helmets are not worn every time so we decided to try a wrist watch. Priolkar and his students have made it successful”, Vinayak N Shet, head of the E & E department said.
Stephen Fenandes, state chief electrical engineer, said that once the gadget is fully tested for its efficacy, his department will procure it for the use of their linesmen and other staff who have to work with electrical lines.