TANZANIA ELECTRIC SUPPLY COMPANY LIMITED

From: Heavy current, Protection and Light To: -Zonal Principal Engineer -SWHZ
Current Section – SWHZ

Date: 30th June, 2020

Our ref: SWHZ/SUBST

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE IN NJOMBE REGION - JUNE 2020:

Njombe region comprise of three substations and one min-hydro power station which are
Makambako, Njombe, Ludewa and Uwemba power station. The preventive maintenance works
were conducted as follows;

TRANSFORMERS, SWITCHGEARS AND PROTECTION SYSTEM

1. Makambako Substation

The general overview of Makambako Substation;

a) 220kV Mufindi Line
b) 220kV Mbeya Line
c) 220kV Madaba Line
d) 45/30/15MVA, 220/132/33kV Power Transformer
e) 33kV Indoor Switchgears

Maintenance activities done

The following are maintenance activities done by electrical workshop team at Makambako
substation
i) Power Transformer Bay
- Physical inspection of all equipment’s in power transformer bay
- Service of 220kV Circuit Breaker
- Service of 220kV busbar Isolator
- Service of 220kV side Current transformers
- Service and cleanness of Insulators and Arresters
- Verification of control and operation of 220kV Circuit Breaker
- Transformer internal protection tests
- Troubleshooting failure of manual and automatic operation of Transformer cooling fans
 ii) 33kv Indoor Switchgears (Incomer, Njombe Feeder, Makambako Feeder, South
Feeder and Spare feeder)
- Inspection and cleanness of control and protection panels
- Repair and test of defective 33kV spare feeder Circuit Breaker
- 33kV Protection relays testing.
- Troubleshooting remote operation of Njombe Feeder
- Service of 33kV Incomer Circuit Breaker
- Service of 33kV Njombe feeder Circuit Breaker
- Service of 33kV Makambako feeder Circuit Breaker
- Service of 33kV South feeder Circuit Breaker

2. Njombe Substation

The general overview of Njombe substation;

a) 33KV Makambako Incomer
b) 33kv Transformer Feeder
c) 33kv Tanwat Feeder
d) 33kv Uwemba Feeder
e) 33kv Yakobi Feeder
f) 2.5MVA, 33/11KV Power Transformer
g) 11kv Town Feeder

Maintenance activities done

- Service of 33kv Makambako Incomer
- Service of 33kv Transformer Feeder
- Service of 33kv Tanwat Feeder
- Troubleshooting failure of remote close Tanwat, Uwemba, Yakobi and Makambako
Incomer Feeders
- Service of 33kv Uwemba Feeder
- Testing protection and control system on all feeders
- Service of 2.5MVA, 33/11KV Power Transformer
- Service of 11kv Town Feeder
 3. Ludewa Substation

The general overview of Ludewa substation;

a) 33kv Madaba Incomer
b) 2.5MVA, 33/11Kv Power transformer
c) 11kv Town feeder

Maintenance activities done at Ludewa Substation

- Service and operation test of 33kv autorecloser
- Physical inspection of Power Transformer
- Service and test of Power Transformer
- 11kv Protection relay Testing
- Service of 11kv Town feeder Circuit Breaker
- Troubleshooting failure of tripping of 11kv Circuit Breaker

4. Other activities done

a) Commissioning of 33kv metering units
b) Repair of 33kv autorecloser

DC AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

1. MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES:
(a) Preventive maintenance of DC System for 220kV Switch gears at Makambako substation
(b) Preventive maintenance of Communication equipment at Makambako substation
(c) Troubleshooting of Makambako – Njombe Fiber optic link
(d) Preventive maintenance of DC system for 33kV Switch Gear at Makambako Substation
(e) Preventive maintenance of DC System at Njombe Substation.
(f) Preventive maintenance of DC System at Ludewa PowerStation
(g) Preventive maintenance of Radio Communication at Makambako Substation
(h) Preventive maintenance of Radio Communication at Makambako District office
(i) Preventive maintenance of Radio Communication at Njombe Office
(j) Preventive maintenance of Radio Communication at Ludewa Office
(k) Preventive maintenance of Radio Communication at Ludewa Substation
2. STATUS:
Below is the summary of Job done: -

2.1. Makambako Substation, 220kV Switch gears DC System.

(a) 110VDC Charger and its backup are operating in normal condition and with
good performance.
(b) 48VDC Charger and DC-DC converter are operating in normal condition
with good performance.
(c) 110VDC Batteries (300AH, 2V, 52 Lead – Acid Cells) NPP are in good
condition, operating effectively and provide backup power for 8 Hours.
(d) 110VDC Batteries (300AH, 2V, 52 Lead – Acid Cells) NPP are used to
provide backup power to 110VDC Control and switch gears, 48VDC
Communication equipment and DC-AC inverter to power up user
accessories in the control building such as computers, printers and
Television.

2.2. Makambako Substation, 33kV Switch gears DC System.

(a) 110VDC Charger is operating in normal condition and with good
performance providing power to switch gears and control panels but the
indication alarm is not operational (AC Mains).
(b) 48VDC Charger (main) is operating in normal condition, with good
performance but not in use since all the loads are being disconnected.
(c) 110VDC (110AH, 12V, 9 Pieces – Lead Acid) Backup batteries have high
discharge rate where the time took for batteries to completely discharge was
45 minutes without operation and 10 minutes while operating switch gears.

2.3. Makambako Substation communication equipment.

(a) Multiplexer (FOX 615) is operating in normal condition.
(b) PLC (ETL 600) is operating in normal condition with good performance.
(c) Digital exchange (SV900) is operating in good condition with good
performance
(d) Router (Cisco 4321) which is currently used to provide Njombe LAN Services
is working and in good condition.
 (e) For Makambako – Njombe Fiber link only 4 Cores are operational out of 24, 2
(1st and 2nd) are used for TTCL and other 2 (4th and 11th) are used for Tanesco
MPLS services.

2.4 Njombe Substation

(a) 110VDC Charger is operating in normal condition and with good performance
providing power to switch gears and control panels
(b) 110VDC (100AH, 12V, 9 Pieces – Lead Acid) back up batteries are operating
in optimum condition and provide backup as required.

2.5. Ludewa Substation

(a) 24VDC Charger is Operating in normal condition with good performance
(b) 24VDC (200AH, 1.2V, 20 Pieces – Ni-Cad) – F-STAR back up batteries are
operating in optimum condition and provide backup as required.

2.6. Njombe Radio Communication System.

(a) Makambako substation – VHF Base radio communication and its charger
are operating in good condition and its 12VDC battery was replaced with a
new one.
(b) Makambako District Office - VHF Base radio communication and its
charger are operating in good condition and its 12VDC battery was replaced
with a new one
(c) Njombe Regional Office - VHF Base radio communication and its charger
are operating in good condition and its 12VDC battery was replaced with a
new one
(d) Ludewa District Office - VHF Base radio and its charger are operating in
good condition and moved to a different location to cope with new changes
of the emergency desk office with its 12VDC battery being replaced with a
new one hence communication was restored.
(e) Ludewa District Office - VHF Base radio communication and its charger
are operating in good condition and its 12VDC battery was replaced with a
new one restoring communication.
PENDING WORKS
(a) Replacement of indication lamps on 33kv control and protection panels
(b) Replacement of Silica Gel container on 2.5MVA, 33/11KV Power Transformer
at Njombe substation
(c) Repair of 33kv autorecloser at Njombe Store
(d) Leakage of 2.5MVA, 33/11KV Power Transformer at Ludewa substation
(e) Replacement of Silica Gel
(f) Review settings of autorecloser with respect to substation breakers
(g) There is no automatic operation of tap changer

RECOMMENDATIONS.
(a) Makambako 33kV Switch gears - 110VDC (110AH, 12V, 9 Pieces – Lead
Acid) Backup batteries have high discharge rate where the time took for
batteries to completely discharge was 45 minutes without operation and 10
minutes while operating switch gears hence needs to be replaced
immediately.
(b) Makambako 220kV Switch gears - 110VDC Batteries (300AH, 2V, 52 Lead
– Acid Cells) NPP are being used to provide backup power to 110VDC
Control panel and switch gears, 48VDC (DC-DC Converter) Communication
equipment and DC-AC inverter to power up user accessories in the control
building such as computers, printers and Television, such extra loads could
lead to high backup power consumption and high discharge rate of batteries
during power outage, in view of that source of power for DC-AC converter
needs to be separated for better performance.
(c) Old 220kv Isolator for transformer bay at Makambako substation (has
problems in its operating mechanism) should be replaced by post insulator
since there is a new busbar isolator for the bay installed during Makambako-
Songea project

CONCLUSION
The problems that were presented to us by stations supervisors have been resolved and the
pending works will be attended when the spares and materials needed have been acquired.
Appendix 1: Cleaning of transformer bushes at Makambako substation
Appendix 2: Testing of 33kv protection relays at Makambako substation