NOJA Power Issued with a Notice of Conformity Certificate by the UK Energy Networks Association (ENA)

Australian Automatic Circuit Recloser manufacturer NOJA Power confirms being issued with a Notice of Conformity by the Energy Networks Association of the United Kingdom. After careful consideration the ENA have issued NOJA Power with a Notice of Conformity Certification. The Notice of Conformity requires the NOJA Power products to be in accordance with the requirements of the ENA 41.36 standard for Reclosers. This standard demands performance beyond the international standards for reclosers, including an internal Arc Fault Duration test duration far greater than the ANSI and IEC standards. Several years ago NOJA Power submitted their OSM15 15kV ACR system documentation to the ENA for their stringent review and NOJA Power are delighted with the outcomes and achievement in this process.

The ENA assessment procedure to achieve the Notice of Conformity is an arduous process. Upon the conclusion of this assessment procedure, a report is issued with a detailed document outlining conformances and non-conformances to the ENA 41.36 standard. The NOC document is then made available with the intention of use by United Kingdom utilities in their switchgear acceptance and evaluation process. When a piece of equipment is evaluated by the ENA and considered to be compliant to the most stringent requirements of both the EATS 41-36 & international standards, a Notice of Conformity Certificate is issued demonstrating the achievements of the manufacturer in compliance.

The ENA requirements for Internal Arc Fault are substantially greater than the IEC62271 and ANSI C37.60 Standards. The ENA criteria for acceptance as outlined in ENA41.36 is based on the IEC62271-200 Internal Arc Fault testing criteria with the following inclusions:

• The duration of the Arc Fault Test is 1 second (IEC62271 requires 200ms)
• Doors, Covers, Etc on Front surface shall remain firmly attached
• No solid objects weighing more than 60 grams shall fly off
• High speed camera recordings shall be produced to assist in assessment of test results

It is not surprising that this achievement has been reached, as NOJA Power have mandated in company policy that all new switchgear developments are type tested at KEMA in the Netherlands. KEMA are world renowned for their rigorous standards testing regime, touted as the world standard in type testing for electrical equipment. NOJA Power holds type test certificates for all of their switchgear products from this facility.

The achievements in the UK of NOJA Power come shortly after the OSM Series reclosers were certified passing both the Heavy and Light pollution test cycles at the Koeberg Insulation Pollution Test Site (KIPTS) near Cape Town South Africa. Whilst the ENA Notice of Conformity verifies the integrity of the NOJA Power Recloser type tests, it is comforting to know that the equipment’s insulation and housing is rugged enough to survive in what is considered the most challenging environmental testing in the world.

NOJA Power can attribute these achievements not only to their talented Research and Development team, but also to the extensive in house testing capabilities available in their Brisbane Australia manufacturing facility and head office. NOJA Power maintain multiple primary injection labs, including Partial discharge test equipment, Salt Fog Test lab and a BIL Impulse Test laboratory. With the recent expansion of their facility in Brisbane, NOJA Power are in the process of constructing a brand new 600kV Impulse Generator and synthetic injection test laboratory for evaluation and analysis of current and new projects.

This access to extensive in-house test equipment allows NOJA Power to develop and refine designs during the R&D process. This extensive and early testing regime in the product lifecycle ensures that NOJA Power has the utmost confidence when issuing equipment to third party testing or standards evaluation committees.

“To have the ENA issue a Notice of Conformity for our recloser product, taking in consideration the requirement of ENATS 41.36 and IEC62271-111 gives us a great deal of confidence in our product which is the most extensively type tested product in the world today,” says NOJA Power Group Managing Director Neil O’Sullivan. “Considering the arc fault containment and venting requirement of ENATS 41.36 which requires the full perspective fault current to be tested with an arc duration of 1 second, it certainly supports our claim to be the manufacturer of the world’s safest recloser.”

With equipment that has demonstrated and exceeded the stringent standards by utilities the world over, it is hardly surprising to know that NOJA Power supplies reclosers to more than 100 countries today. It is excellent to see that so many utilities worldwide share the NOJA Power vision by deploying the most innovative, environmentally friendly and reliable switchgear available. By continuing their dedication to research and development, NOJA Power remain at the forefront of switchgear development and continue to revolutionise the world’s expectation when it comes to pole mounted switchgear.