2016 – Issue 4
Partial discharges, the cancer of power cables
Power cable related faults are among the major causes of outages in medium voltage (MV) power distribution networks. Modern power cable technologies now use solid extruded insulation. In such cables most failure modes are...
Emergence of a commercial market for mini-grids in Africa
Given the $37 billion (in cash, not opportunity cost) that the IFC estimates is spent annually on meeting basic household energy needs, there is certainly a market for better solutions.
Energy access remains a critical...
Living lightly off the grid, where diesel remains centre stage
With a realised figure estimated at 3,000 reliable, uninterrupted hours of sunlight each year, Africa is well positioned to be one of the most innovative markets for the adoption of widespread solar power for...
Valuing the role of chief audit and compliance officer in the distribution sector
Promoting the role of women in the energy sector is at the heart of the human resources’ team at the Eko Electricity Distribution PLC (EKEDP) in Nigeria. To shed light on this directive, ESI...
Condition monitoring of equipment to improve quality of supply to customers by averting failures
The quality of supply (reliability) of electricity supply to customers is measured in terms of the frequency and duration of interruptions. The indices used for quantifying these are SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index)...
Evolution of medium voltage cable accessories
By Patrick O’Halloran, chief engineer condition monitoring at City Power, Johannesburg, South Africa
Medium voltage (MV) cable accessories have changed since our grandfathers terminated and jointed cables many years ago, having evolved to keep pace with...
Three-phase testing of power transformers made easy
Performing a range of standard electrical tests on a regular basis has proven to be an effective way of gaining reliable insight into the operating condition of power transformers. In the past, this was...
