Reclosers on Holiday

Driven by network development and disaster recovery installations, NOJA Power Switchgear’s Australia Pacific team have conducted a training and commissioning support trip to Fiji. The Fiji Electricity Authority (FEA) has had a challenging 12 months, with the most violent and severe tropical cyclone to ever make landfall in the south pacific decimating the archipelago. As the island nation rebuilds, FEA has transitioned to the new advanced NOJA Power RC-10 control system to provide greater protection, automation and control capabilities. With the NOJA Power OSM Recloser system being deployed to improve power system reliability to the developing villages and towns of Fiji, the Australian manufacturer were all too keen to lend a hand in the commissioning of the equipment.

FEA have been a long-term user of NOJA Power’s OSM Recloser system. As a nation with a high proportion of overhead lines and exceptional vegetation growth rates – maintaining power system reliability is a substantial challenge. Through the deployment of system reclosers, FEA have managed to greatly improve the reliability of their power supply, particularly for the more remote villages and regional centres.

Driven by new features and capabilities in the RC-10 Controller for the OSM Series Reclosers, NOJA Power have focused their training to cover the applications which solve challenges for overhead operating environments in the tropics. The foremost development is the advent of the Power Quality monitoring functionality in their OSM ACRs. Until now, power quality information granularity of this level has been a pipe dream for distribution engineers and switchgear manufacturers. The NOJA Power RC-10 is capable of tracking interruptions, network performance indices, harmonic spectrum analysis and even harmonic power flow evaluation. By providing utilities with extensive information regarding their network performance analytics, OSM distribution reclosers are providing the utility business the ability to make far more informed decisions regarding network reliability and investment planning. In addition to the Power Quality capability, NOJA Power’s class leading high resolution SEF protection provides utilities with greater sensitivity to high impedance earth faults.

NOJA Power commenced their tour in the nation's capital of Suva, delivering training to engineers and technicians across the protection, planning, operations and communications departments. After conducting preliminary training covering protection and communications fundamentals through to equipment operation, NOJA Power’s team travelled with the FEA utility team to sites around Fiji for a practical demonstration. On key connection sites where high levels of Power Quality data was expected, NOJA Power assisted FEA in the deployment of additional USB Flash Storage in their RC-10 controllers to allow for even greater duration of Power Quality data acquisition. Whilst the usual onboard storage covers the majority of field uses, key customer connections may require greater data granularity. This is easily supported by the RC-10 Recloser Controller through both onboard and expandable storage.

“Practical experience truly solidifies the concepts we learn in the classroom,” reports Martin van der Linde, Sales Engineer for the Australia Pacific Region at NOJA Power. “Our training sessions were well received at the utility depots, but the true demonstration of learning was in our field visits. These visits to installations were a great opportunity for the FEA engineers to practice their new skills and ask questions of the NOJA Power team.”

Back home in Brisbane Australia, NOJA Power has been growing its local training capabilities through the development of their new training facility at their head office. This facility has already played host to training events for utility engineers and private energy organisations. By providing the NOJA Power engineers with a highly equipped venue so close to the heart of the OSM Recloser manufacturing hub, the training experience has never been greater for attendees.

“NOJA Power is always very pleased to invest in training our customers,” says NOJA Power Group Managing Director Neil O’Sullivan. “With an in-depth knowledge of the advanced functionality available in our products our electricity utility customers get more from our products and as a result increase the reliability of their networks.”

NOJA Power is dedicated to the development of the energy industry. By enhancing and growing the field skills of utilities across the world, NOJA Power are achieving their goal of providing unrivalled service worldwide. As the manufacturers of the worlds most advanced Automatic Circuit Recloser System, NOJA Power has a great knowledge base with many years of experience to share with utility engineers and technicians. Whether it is training internationally or using the facilities at their Brisbane Head Office, NOJA Power are tirelessly working to contribute to energy reliability and utility capability worldwide.