sparks
ELECTRICAL NEWS
august
2013
12
Energy efficiency
ABB,has won an order worth around $25-m to sup-
ply electrical and control systems for a new75MW
photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the Northern
Cape.
Owned byWBHO, a leading South African
construction company, and Building Energy, an
Italian renewable energy developer and operator,
the plant is located in the Kalahari Desert close to
the town of Kathu and to Sishen, one of the larg-
est open-pit iron ore mines in the world.
The Kathu PV power plant is among the first
tranche of projects to be awarded as part of South
Africa’s renewable energy program, which aims
$25-million order placed for largest single-axis PV power plant
to diversify the country’s energymix and reduce
its carbon footprint. Once completed in 2014, it is
expected to be one of theworld’s largest PV power
plants with a single-axis tracking system. It will
have the capacity to generate around 146GWh of
clean solar power to feed into the national grid –
enough tomeet the needs of over 40 000 people
based on average national per capita consump-
tion and displacing the equivalent of about 50 000
tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
“Renewable energy sources such as solar
have a key role to play inmeeting the growing
demand for electricity while minimising environ-
mental impact,”said Brice Koch, head of ABB’s
Power Systems division.“We have a strong track
record in delivering turnkey power and automa-
tion solutions that are optimizing photovoltaic
power plants all over the world.”
ABB’s turnkey electrical and automation solution
will optimise the performance of the Kathu plant
tomaximise output while ensuring reliability in
remote and demanding operating conditions.The
solution includes a range of ABB power products
such asmedium- and low-voltage switchgear, dis-
tribution transformers, and control and protection
devices. It also incorporates distributed automa-
tion and control products from the Symphony™
Plus family. ABBwill be responsible for the design,
engineering, supply, installation and commission-
ing of the project.
Key features of the ABB solution include the
integration of the plant’s electrical equipment
and high-voltage substationwith the company’s
proprietary Symphony Plus Distributed Control
System (DCS) solution in conformancewith the IEC
61850 open-communication standard for substa-
tion automation. ABBwill also supply an advanced
tracking systemwith a back-tracking algorithm
that optimises tracker movement and eliminates
shadowon the panels.The solution also
features a data-collection system that collects
operational input from the trackers, inverters,
string boxes and substation to enable remote
operation andmaintenance, thereby alleviat-
ing the need for onsitemanning.
ABB has a diverse portfolio of product, sys-
temand service solutions for the entire solar
power value chain and has deliveredmore
than 50 turnkey PV power plants worldwide.
Enquiries: (010) 202-5000
THE DEHNarc arcing fault protection systemhas
been developed by DEHN to protect persons
against the effects related to an arcing fault during
live working on electrical installations. The arcing
fault protection systemdetects an arcing fault and
causes a three-phase short-circuit whichmakes the
current flow from the arcing fault to the three-phase
KSP short-circuiting cartridge This considerably
reduces the effects of the arcing fault with regard to
the thermal exposure energy, electromagnetic ra-
diation, pressure and acoustic wave and occurrence
of hot, toxic gases andmetal vapours. The DEHNarc
arcing fault protection system in combination with
the installer’s personal protective equipment for
working under live conditions ensures efficient
protection against arcing faults.
The efficiency of the protection systemdepends
on the limitation of the incident energy of the arc.
The extremely short disconnection times of the
DEHNarc protection system significantly reduce
the fatal consequences of an arc fault. To this end,
it is essential that the arc fault current is quickly
conducted to a short-circuited parallel branch, the
so-called‘short-circuiter’. The effective interaction
between the arc detection system and‘short-circuit-
er’ensures that the arc fault is extinguished after
some milliseconds before the overcurrent protective
device is tripped. The arc duration is significantly
reduced, thus considerably reducing the arc energy.
As a result, persons are protected from the effects of
an arc fault and the availability of the installation is
increased (IEC 60364-4-42).
DEHN is represented locally by Surgetek.
Enquiries: (011) 792-1303
Protection
from arcing
faults
