In the next few days (August 2015) at the Sea Marconi general offices in Collegno (TO), the Ivorian Electricity Company (CEI) will accept and validate their new purchase: the oil and transformer treatment plant DMU 150.B10.

This is the third plant for the Ivory Coast, confirming maximum client satisfaction for the first two plants, which are currently operating throughout the entire Ivorian territory. CEI is in fact a private company, to whom the State has designated the management of generation and transmission plants and the distribution and commercialisation of electrical energy throughout the entire country.

Speaking of the plant’s technical aspects, its objectives are: oil circulation, heating at a pre-set temperature, mechanical filtration of suspended particles in the oil, degassing and vacuum dehydration of oil. The system is able to perform on-load treatments with the transformer energized and loaded, and also includes a richly equipped monitoring system allowing the plant to operate in complete safety, without the permanent presence of an operator.

Unlike previous plants, this latest one has been requested in a containerized configuration, allowing the plant to operate even in the harshest environmental conditions (rain, sand storms, etc.).

The plant is constructed in AISI 304 stainless steel and is fitted with guide slots for forklifts and eye-bolts for crane lifting. All elements of the hydraulic circuit, including the connection points for intake and output, are assembled above an oil collection tank, an additional measure in the case of accidental losses.

After winning a hard international tender. Sea Marconi developed and built two plants for the physical decontamination under vacuum of mineral insulating oils, procured by Compagnie Ivoirienne de l’électricité (CIE), the company involved with the transportation of electric power in the Ivory Coast (North-Western Africa).

The test of the plants and the training of the Ivorian operators took place from 3^rd through 5^thOctober 2011 at our headquarters in Turin. At the moment, the plants are being shipped and upon arrival, they shall be immediately operational.

The plants, DMU-HLD 6000 and DMU-HLD 4000, have been designed and built entirely by Sea Marconi scrupulously responding to the Customer’s specifications. Each plant performs the reconditioning of the insulating oils both in off-load and on-load modality. i.e. with the transformer in operation during the entire treatment of the dielectric fluid.

Each plant can operate under absolute safe conditions also without the presence of operators, thanks to the implementation of advanced monitoring and control systems, such as: safety thermostat, pressure sensors, photo cells, oil flow sensors, water-glycol flow sensors, oil level sensors, protection valves for the vacuum pump, spill sensors. The plants are mobile installations, i.e. they can be transported with the integration of a trailer and possibly unloaded on the ground by a forklift truck or a crane.

In details, the plant is finalised toward:

1. sucking and pumping the oil (circulation)
2. heating the oil to an pre-selected temperature
3. mechanical filtration of the particles suspended in the oil
4. degassing and dehydration under vacuum of the oil
5. application of vacuum to the tank of the transformer.

The vacuum pump of the plant DMU-HLD 6000 is sized to treat dielectric oil with a concentration of dissolved water of about 50 mg/kg and dissolved gases of about 10% in volume with a single passage.

After a passage at a temperature of 60° C, with vacuum at 1 mbar and a flow of 2,500 l/h, the out flowing oil shall have a water content of about 5 mg/kg and dissolved gases < 1 %. The performance refers to new oils.

The nominal flow of the circulation in the degassing phase is 6,000 l/h. the nominal flow of the circulation during the heating and filtration phase is 6,000 l/h. The plant can be moved by a trailer with a total payload of 3.5 tons.