Application  29

Austria

From ustria
A
to ambia
Z Zambia

How a CMC 256plus supports the

Kafue Gorge Regional Training Centre
Power system equipment in Zambia is aging as most of it
OMICRON in Africa
was installed in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the equipment
OMICRON products are already being
in generation, transmission and distribution systems requires
used in 34 African countries – inclu-
an upgrade. In Zambia, the national utility ZESCO Limited ding ESKOM (South Africa), the lar-
embarked on a system upgrade program called the Power gest electricity producer on the con-
Rehabilitation Project (PRP). This program led to the modern- tinent. In total there are more than
1 000 CMC test sets in use in Africa.
ization of the protection systems and the engineer faced new
Customers and interested parties can
challenges with respect to relay testing. contact us personally at about 15
events that take place every year, such
Upgrading the power level cost electricity in an efficient manner in as the OMICRON South African User
The PRP supports the Government’s objec- order to stimulate inclusive growth in the Conference (SAUC) from November
tives for enhancing the ability of Zambia’s Zambian economy. The PRP is involved in 9 to 10, 2015 in Johannesburg.
Electricity Supply Industry to provide low the rehabilitation and up rating of the

  Magazine | Volume 6 Issue 2 2015

30 
The CMC 256plus being put to use.
three major hydro power stations in
Zambia. As part of this project the measur-
ing and protection equipment was changed
from old electro mechanical relays to mod-
ern intelligent electronic protection relays.
Filling the skills gap
The major power consumers in Zambia are
the copper mines along the Copperbelt.
The old mines have also been upgrading
their old electrical infrastructure to modern
switchgear and transformers. The chal-
lenge that this created for the protection
engineers was that they were trained to
maintain and test the old electro mechani-
cal protection relays, but the skills they
had acquired were no longer sufficient for
maintaining and testing the new Intel-
ligent Electronic Protection Devices (IEDs)
that were installed as part of the upgrades.
In order to fill this gap in their skills, Kafue
Gorge Regional Training Centre (KGRTC)
partnered with ABB to develop two train-
ing programs for protection engineers
working for utilities in Zambia, other
African countries and beyond. The two
  Magazine | Volume 6 Issue 2 2015
The parcel with the CMC 256plus being received at KGRTC.
The test device is connected and ready for use.
training programs are focusing on Line
protection and Transformer protection
and voltage regulation, and each course
includes hands on exercises with a specific
emphasis on ABB’s 670 series and 650
series of products. The courses’ purpose is
to impart the fundamentals and principles
of each topic area.
What’s in the package?
To aid protection engineers in carrying out
these tests on the various relays during
the training program, we asked OMICRON
(Austria) if they could support this initiative
by loaning us a CMC 256plus for instruc-
tional purposes.
We chose OMICRON because of their
reputation for making the best test sets for
testing protection and measuring devices
and the fact that their equipment is widely
used and well established in Africa. The
CMC 256plus was delivered in April 2014
complete with the Test Universe Software
package, the GOOSE module and the
EnerLyzer recorder software. In order to be
trained to operate the CMC 256plus for test-
ing protection devices, two of our electri-
cal lecturers also attended the OMICRON
Basic Protection Testing training course in
Johannesburg, South Africa.
The CMC 256plus proved successful when
used for the practical training sessions
testing ABB IEDs ranging from transformer
differential protection to line distance
protection. The injections from the test set
were performed for different configurations
and settings in the IEDs under the guidance
of Patrick Cost, a Protection Trainer and
Application Specialist from ABB.
It’s all connected
The participants in the first training pro-
gram were KGRTC lecturers and protec-
tion engineers from ZESCO (Zambia),
the Swaziland Electricity Company and
the Uganda Electricity Transmission
Company Limited and from ABB, Uganda.
The CMC 256plus was also used for the
Transmission System Design Maintenance
and Protection (TSDMP) course which was
designed for engineers from the Rwanda
Energy Group (REG).

The Kafue River is one of the longest rivers in Zambia.
The practical training programs for testing
protection devices that are being conduct-
ed using the CMC 256plus, are providing
up to date knowledge and skills to protec-
tion engineers from Zambia, the region
and beyond. When commenting on the
Generator Protection component of the
ABB program one delegate remarked that
“It’s a good program and I would advise
management to continue making such ar-
rangements because technology is chang-
ing every day and there is a need to remain
up-to-date.” Clement Twenda from ZESCO
added “The program should be conducted
at regular intervals”
Eng. Mpezilwe Simukoko
Electrical engineering lecturer in KGRTC
Application  31
KGRTC
The Kafue Gorge Regional Training Centre is located in
Namalundu 100 km / 62,14 miles south of Lusaka, in the
vicinity of one of Zambia’s largest hydropower stations –
Kafue Gorge Power Station. The Training Centre was
established in 1989 by the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC) to offer specialized training in hydro-
power and related engineering disciplines. There are now
over 3 000 course participants from various African utilities
who have attended courses at KGRTC.
Lusaka
Kafue