IND plans to make 10,000 EFD systems annually at new Melbourne site

An RMIT University spinout business, established in 2013 and producing early fault detection (EFD) systems, has opened a new factory in Richmond.

According to a statement from RMIT on Thursday, IND Technology is expected to generate millions in exports from Victoria, with its EFD system comprising “parts made almost entirely in Melbourne.”

IND was founded by RMIT Professor Alan Wong, who invented the EFD. The technology is described as acting “like a smoke alarm for the power network, covering up to five kilometres of powerlines with two devices that listen to radio frequency signals travelling up and down power lines.”

Wong said IND’s systems, “have already prevented more than 500 potential fires, primarily in North America where it has been widely adopted.

“The demand for our product in North America has fuelled the expansion of our manufacturing facility in Melbourne. The facility will allow us to produce more than 10,000 EFD devices each year to meet the growth.”

IND Technology intends to work closely with regulators and governments from the new site “to ensure the EFD system also gets rolled out” across the state and the nation.

It submitted a report to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action on the FireSafe Early Fault Detection trial in November last year.

“Our trial tested this bushfire safety technology across rural Victoria,” Wong said.

“A lot of Victoria’s worst bushfires, like the ones on Black Saturday, were caused by faults in these old powerlines.

“These powerlines are still being used to power remote areas today, and the risk is still very real.” 

Internationally, IND’s systems are installed across the United States and Canada, New Zealand and Malaysia.

Picture: supplied