COMPANY PROFILE
2013
zpc
Harnessing Zimbabwe’s
raw power
COMPANY REPORT
Harnessing Zimbabwe’s raw power Editorial – Tim Hands Production – Chris Bolderstone
With five power stations of varying sizes currently under its management, Zimbabwe Power Company has a huge role to play in powering the region towards a bright energy future. Some of its most important work is in the form of its forays into both hydro and solar energy, with the company focussing significant efforts on developing these cleaner and more sustainable energies alongside its existing coal-fired plants
Incorporated in 1996, originally as an investment vehicle in generating electricity, Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) became operational in 1999, and has since faced the ever more difficult task of generating electricity for a constantly growing domestic market. The company is a subsidiary of ZESA Holdings, whose own vision is to be among the leading and most dynamic providers, committed to offering quality electricity, engineering and telecommunication services to customers throughout Zimbabwe and the region. ZPC itself also holds its own clear mission, with a stated aim of being the leading supplier of energy and related services in the region. In order to fulfil this mandate the company is authorised to construct, own, operate and maintain power stations, currently holding four coal fired
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sites and one harnessing hydro power. ZPC strives to fulfil its vision through working to a set of core values which inform its operations. These are central to its success as a company, and perhaps most vital among them is its consideration of the environmental impact of its operations and crucially, how this can be managed and diminished while powering Zimbabwe into the future. It is understandable therefore that ZPC also places such a high value on creativity, ensuring that innovative energy solutions are on hand to meet demand, and implemented in order to have the greatest effect. At the root of its focus on the importance of both professionalism and teamwork is the ultimate goal of providing for its customers, not merely contenting itself with delivering a service adequate to the demands of today, but striving to power both the economy and the homes of
Zimbabwe Power Company
the public into the future. ZPC operates five business units currently, these being the Hwange, Munyati, Harare, Bulawayo and Kariba power stations. Of these five, Kariba South is at present the only hydro power station, with the rest being thermal stations which generate using coal. Among these, it is the Hwange station which receives top billing from the company, and for good reason. Situated in the North Western part of Zimbabwe and adjacent to Wankie Colliery Open Cast Mine, this is the largest coal-fired power station, with its 920MW installed capacity made up of 4x120MW and 2x220 MW units. Hwange is the 14th largest thermal station in the Southern African region, having been built in two stages. The original commission involved the four 120MW units, between 1983 and 1986, while the two 220MW completed the project in
1986 and 1987. Its importance to the country’s electricity supply cannot be overstated, with these six operational units generating around 40% of the energy requirements of the population. To even reach the stage where it is ready to generate energy is a huge task and requires every ounce of ZPC’s considerable expertise. A large proportion of the coal is delivered to the station by an overland conveyor belt, travelling six kilometres from Hwange Colliery Company Limited, as well as by trucks from Makomo and Coalbrick mines. Another of its key resources, water, is piped along a 44 kilometre stretch from the Zambezi River and pumped into two reservoirs next to the station, where gravity takes over in order to convey it to its point of use. The raw materials face a similar journey at the much smaller Munyati Power Station, situated five kilometres off the Harare-Bulawayo Road and
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COMPANY REPORT
currently holding a staff complement of 147 employees. Here, the “washed peas” coal that the boilers are designed to burn is railed along a distance of around 618 kilometres from the Hwange Colliery. Water provisions are drawn from two sources: one through a 23 kilometre long canal from the Sebakwe River, the other a more diminutive three kilometre pipeline from the Munyati Weir. ZPC took over the management of the Hwange Power Station in 2001, when it was transferred from ZESA. It was the first station to be a part of the restructuring exercise undertaken by the electricity sector at the time and as such has been subject to a complete review of its practices. Always looking to improve its efficiency and the service offered by its employees, both on-the-job and external training is being offered and has led to a near-immediate increase in the output from the station. With a staff base of nearly 700, similarly to the provisions found at the Munyati site which finds itself a fair distance from any city centre, the station also acts as a community for all these personnel, providing access
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to schooling, healthcare and social facilities for the workforce and its dependants. Of the smaller coal-fired stations currently managed by ZPC, Bulawayo Power Station is another site striving to uphold ZPC’s operational corporate objectives, namely achieving operational excellence by improving plant availability, reliability and efficiency to international standards. The plant joined the ranks of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority in 1987 and received an extensive refurbishment in 1999 to see it currently possess a capacity of 90MW. It is in fact the Bulawayo plant that is the centre of ZPC’s search for funding at present, with the company having approached the Indian government in its quest to refurbish and improve the productivity possible at the station, seeking to double its actual average output from 30 to 60MW. It was the damming of the Zambezi River in 1955 at the Kariba Gorge that, three years later and in spite of record floods, brought about the formation of Lake Kariba and the
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COMPANY REPORT possibility of supplying power to Zimbabwe and Zambia. The damming of the river came as the result of a huge technical operation, with engineers in 1956 mining a vast cavern that would eventually house a power station, this taking place about 174 metres below the ground. All six of its generators were in operation by 1962, initially with a generation capacity of 666MW which has since been uprated to 125MW per unit, making the total installed capacity 750MW. The generation of the electricity produced by the station is made possible by drawing water from Lake Kariba. This passes through a short horizontal intake via a radial gate and through a vertical penstock to the turbine spiral casing. Then, after passing through the turbine and producing power in the coupled generator, water at reduced pressure is passed through a suction cone and draft tube to the tailrace. This is then finally discharged downstream of the dam, back into the Zambezi River. This is all overseen by the Zambezi River Authority, a body responsible for the effective allocation of water used by Zimbabwe’s Kariba South and Zambia’s Kariba North Power Stations. An extension of the Kairba South plant, next to the existing 750 MW installed capacity station, has been granted
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and joins a host of similar projects proposed by ZPC which look to boost the company’s harnessing of hydro power. Among these is the Batoka Gorge Hydro Electric Scheme, a proposal set to be located along the Zambezi River, downstream of the Victoria Falls. With an estimated construction period of six years, this colossal development would produce a station capable of an output of 800MW, and would be supplemented by both Devil’s Gorge and Gairezi Hydro Electric Schemes, aiming
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COMPANY REPORT to harness the potential power of the Zambezi and Gairezi Rivers respectively. This year in particular has held many difficulties for ZPC, some of which are outlined by its Chairman, Victor Gapare, who speaks of, “the number of challenges which we have been facing in terms of coal supply and maintenance works.” Despite this, Gapare does in fact report steady operations in all five of its stations, even seeing a monthly increase in the total energy produced by its ensemble of generators. Keeping in mind the stated aims of ZPC - namely acquiring the status of Zimbabwe’s leading supplier of energy and related services - it aims to tackle what it has identified as a series of gaps following a strategic review of its business on which it will focus over the next five years. Conquering the current gap between the potential power output and that currently being generated at its stations is clearly vital to its aim of powering Zimbabwe into the future, allowing a growth which will be able to support the everincreasing demand of its customers. An additional 520MW will be extracted from the plants at Harare, Bulawayo, Munyati and Hwange, either through the re-powering of small thermals or life extension, with work already underway to resolve this shortfall. The expansions and new projects being undertaken by ZPC aim
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in a similar way to increase its capacity to install, and will be strengthened even further by the development of the company’s hydro and solar efforts. Perhaps most importantly for a company striving to become a world class power utility is what Gabare labels a drastic, “change of culture within the organisation.” A particular focus on the safety, health and environment aspects of the business, alongside upgrading the skills of the personnel within ZPC, will allow it to deliver on the strict promises it has made and as a result, realise its aim of clean and sustainable energy generation for the economy and homes of the region.
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“It was the damming of the Zambezi River in 1955 at the Kariba Gorge that, three years later and in spite of record floods, brought about the formation of Lake Kariba and the possibility of supplying power to Zimbabwe and Zambia”
STRAPLINE
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ZIMBABWE ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION COMPANY SUPPORT SERVICES In addition to transmitting and distributing electricity within the country, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission & Distribution Company (ZETDC) also offers support services to the mining and other sectors of the economy. The company being the leading Electrical Power Company in the country it has qualified, committed and competent staff to execute their assignments diligently. These support services are in two categories: Condition monitoring (transformer oil analysis and infra-red thermography) 2. Protection system services.
1.
The company provides oil testing and analysis to current and prospective customers making results of the sample analysis available within the shortest period possible depending on the tests that are required by the customer at very competitive prices. By analysing the gases dissolved in transformer oil, potential transformer faults can be avoided. The distribution of these gases can be related to the type of electrical fault and the rate of gas generation can indicate the severity of the fault. The identity of the gases being generated by a particular unit can be useful
information in any preventive maintenance program. Oil condition monitoring is useful as a diagnostic tool. The technique can be used to prevent unplanned outages and catastrophic failures, which besides causing exposure to equipment failure results in business interruptions and losses to the company. Through the Dissolved Gas Analysis Technique ZETDC will provide its clients with professional technical reports on samples provided and give recommendations on further action to be taken. The regular monitoring of the condition of transformer oil in an energised transformer facilitates the following:
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Insulating integrity monitoring and Defect monitoring Advantages for analysing transformer oil gases are as follows:
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Advance warning of developing faults Determining the improper use of units Status checks on new and repaired units Convenient scheduling of repairs Monitoring of units under overload It helps to reduce the heavy cost on replacement of material. Quality of insulation can be checked out.
The routine condition monitoring of transformer oil in energised transformers also involves testing for Moisture, Acidity, PCBs, Flash Point, Tan Delta, Dielectric Strength and Interfacial Tension to give a complete comprehensive analysis of the equipment condition. The well-equipped ZETDC laboratory has performs transformer oil analysis throughout the transmission and distribution networks and for other clients locally and across the borders of the country.
ZETDC also uses Infra-red thermography in condition monitoring which is a unique nondestructive, non-contact, predictive maintenance technique which monitors thermal signatures of plant machinery and electrical equipment. The technique detects abnormal temperatures on:
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Electric panel boards Electric motors Furnaces Transformers Switchgear Boilers Power cables Refrigeration systems Generators among other equipment.
The thermal signatures captured are used for detecting “hot spots� or thermal differences that indicate potential problems with equipment in full operation so that production is not interrupted. Some faults can be detected up to 3 months before they can halt production. The comprehensive thermal information can then be used to:
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Evaluate the scope of the problem Predicting when to take preventive action Prepare repair/cost estimates Plan to have repair materials on the site prior to starting repairs Perform repairs effectively in order to return equipment to service quickly As with transformer oil analysis clients are given professional technical reports on what needs to be done. In cases of abnormalities clients are informed on the spot so that corrective measures can be taken immediately.
ZETDC, through its Power System Protection Business Unit, also offers specialist services on electrical power systems protection in Zimbabwe and the SADC region.
The company has the equipment and skill to maintain all types and forms of relays from electromechanical to numeric relays and from simple auxiliary relays to complex distanceprotection schemes. Recent installations and commissioning have involved numeric relays e.g. REL, SEL, and SIPROTEC IEDs. ZETDC tests primary equipment such as: Current and voltage transformers Circuit breakers Power transformers Generators among other related equipment after maintenance or before being put into service. The company also carries out site commissioning of substation equipment, generation and industrial plant and protective systems up to 420kV. State of the art technology is used with automatic reports generated in software e.g. OMICRONCMC256, MEGGER Transformer Turns Ratio Test Equipment. Design and modifications of protection and control schemes for distribution, sub-transmission and transmission substations, generation stations and industrial plant is also done by ZETDC. Specification of protection and control for transformers, static var compensators, capacitor banks, transmission lines, bus bars, motors and switchgear of any size and type. Protective systems can also be installed on behalf of the customer.
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ZETDC does facets associated with power system analysis such as fault level calculations, stability fault and transient analysis, power quality and systems refurbishment and spares recommendations. Protective relay co-ordination and determination of relay settings. We can also manage customer databases with respect to protective systems. The organisation offers Engineering Services including factory acceptance tests. ZETDC uses state-of-the-art analysis, design, measurement and test equipment and tools. Key features of our protection services includes:
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Responding to requests for testing and breakdown and maintenance within the shortest period possible Flexibility allowing us to fit well in projects scheduling A well-documented quality control and assurance program Test Centres distributed throughout Zimbabwe.
+ 263 425 0407 9 www.zpc.co.zw
(0)1603 618 000 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, Ferndale Business Centre, 1 Exeter Street. Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4QB