24 June 2014

Regular monitoring of electrical machines will lead to improved reliability and performance

One of the most innovative and respected gas and hydrocarbon companies in the United Arab Emirates has just competitively tendered and awarded Quartzelec, a leading international electrical engineering group with a significant service and support presence in the region, with a long term Partial Discharge monitoring contract to cover the next three years, with an option to extend.

Electrical systems are amongst the most valuable assets in any plant and are critical for their smooth overall operation; however, failures almost always lead to catastrophic losses that can have significant impact on the bottom line. The extensive list of rotating 11 KV electrical machines covered by the agreement includes almost 30 generators, over 150 motors plus a variety of other electrical machines and others are expected to be added as new facilities in the region come on line. Maximising the performance of any electrical infrastructure is the massive task that’s increasingly being faced by asset managers and this often has to be achieved with fewer qualified technical in-house resources. Stricter regulatory requirements and shrinking maintenance budgets are also compounding the problem.

“This is a prestigious partial discharge monitoring contract and Quartzelec beat off some key and keen international competitors to win it,” stated Dominic Buse, Quartzelec’s International Director of Operationsbased in Abu Dhabi, UAE. “All new electrical motors are required to have couplers installed on key parts of the machines to provide detailed data acquisition. This win immediately makes this an excellent reference contract for our Lifeview®  solution which is the only reliable way to truly monitor the internals of rotating electrical equipment and predict what preventative maintenance will be required.”

The measurements and report preparation for all aspects of this partial discharge monitoring contract will be carried out at regular intervals by Quartzelec’s Abu Dhabi based resident engineers.  Additional analysis and recommendations will be provided by a team led by partial discharge testing expert Dr Bernhard Fruth, managing director of Quartzteq, the Swiss based Quartzelec subsidiary that developed Lifeview, the totally flexible and modular rotating electrical asset condition monitoring solution that’s built on a vast database of diagnoses it carried out over many years.

Partial discharges are small, discrete electrical ‘sparks’ that occur within the insulation of medium and high voltage electrical assets that over time erode insulation and eventually result in insulation failure that often cause hazardous machine failures. By performing online non-destructive partial discharge testing, at regular intervals using non-invasive sensors while the equipment is energised and operating at normal conditions and voltages, vital data can be obtained to develop an overall plan to ensure maintenance is focused on the most potentially undependable assets, minimising both risk and unnecessary spending.

Quartzelec has an annual turnover in excess of £60m and a heritage that stretches back more than 80 years with the ability to design, manufacture, repair, monitor, refurbish and rewind large, project critical motors and generators, relying on its extensive library of design drawings and a full design department. It also has a rapidly expanding electrical contracting business and has the ability to work on any OEM-manufactured machine and/or equipment, including those built by its previous heritage companies such as GEC Machines, GEC Alsthom Large Machines, ALSTOM and Cegelec.

All High Voltage (HV) electrical machinery exhibits partial discharge and Quartzelec subsidiary Quartzteq with its flexible, 'state-of-the-art' real-time Lifeview® solution is building a reputation as a leading global expert in preventative monitoring that meets all major international standards.

For further details on the electrical services available from Quartzelec or the manufacture, refurbishment, monitoring and rewinding of electrical motors and generators, please call +44 (0) 1788 512512 or emailJody.Townsend@Quartzelec.com   or for Quartztec’s Lifeview email: lifeview.europe@quartzteq.com or call +41 56 560 20 60