Electricity + Control July 2017

COVER ARTICLE

FEATURES: · Power solutions

· Drives,motors+ switchgear · Control systems+ automation · Flowmeasurement+ instrumentation · Valves+ actuators

Altaaqa Global A Conduit of Power and Education

EC July2017 cover.indd 4

6/27/2017 11:32:09AM

Recognised energy-efficiency

How Altaaqa Global and Caterpillar promot- ed economic and social progress in Came- roon by bringing electricity and transferring knowledge to local technicians. D ouala, Cameroon’s economic centre and most populous city, was facing challenges in meeting the electricity demand of its residents, businesses and industries. The city’s existing pow- er infrastructure was unable to cope with the in- creased demand for electricity. As a result of this, load shedding was imple- mented in the city. The regular power interruption brought inconvenience and health and safety risks to residents and financial and opportunity losses to businesses and industrial operations. In recognition of the urgency of the situation, the government of Cameroon and the country’s integrated power utility provider Eneo sought for immediate solutions while long-term energy plans were being developed and carried out. Thus, Altaaqa Global, together with natural gas supplier Gaz du Cameroun (a subsidiary of Victoria Oil & Gas), approached Eneo and presented a case for fuel-efficient and cost-effective rental power solutions. Recognising the potential of the propos- al to help immediately resolve the power shortage in the city without putting additional financial bur- den to Douala’s residents and businesses, Eneo agreed to hire the services of Altaaqa Global. We installed two natural gas power plants with a combined capacity of 50 MW. The power plants were installed and powered on in only 21 days from the day the equipment arrived at the agreed sites. To date, the plant has continuously provided supplemental electricity to Douala, mak- ing it possible for the city to bridge the difference in power demand and supply. We, however, did not only bring electricity to Cameroon; we also transferred technical knowl- edge and skills to our customer’s local technicians by hiring and training them and letting them work

in our sites alongside our in-house engineers. We believe that training the local technicians in oper- ating and maintaining gas power plants will allow them to actively participate in the development of their country’s power industry and, thus, perpet- uate the economic and social development pro- moted by the country’s long-term power projects and our rental power plants. Our customer training program comprised classroom teaching conducted by our Service Managers, on-the-job mentoring with our in- house engineers and technicians, and on-line learning through Caterpillar University, Caterpil- lar’s own online training platform. The first batch of trainees graduated in late March 2017. They received a Level 1 Preventive Maintenance certification, and are now eligible to advance to the next level of training. Through the training program, our customer’s technicians were able to modernise their techni- cal knowledge and skills, and are now playing vital roles in operating Eneo’s own power plants, help- ing bring electricity to the more than 2 500 000 residents and businesses of the city.

Enquiries: Altaaqa Global Jerome Sanchez jsanchez@altaaqaglobal.com Altaaqa Global Caterpillar Rental Power Nalen Alwar Nalwar@altaaqaglobal.com Our natural gas power plant in Douala was certified en- ergy-efficient in accordance with ISO 50001:2011 stand- ards. ISO 50001:2011 specifies requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving an energy man- agement system to enable an organisation to follow a sys- tematic approach in achiev- ing continual improvement in energy performance within its operations and projects. Al- taaqa Global is a pioneer rent- al power plant provider to have been granted this certification.

H.E. Atangana Kouna Basile, Cameroon’s Minister of Water Resources and Energy (Centre) at the inauguration of the natural gas power plants.

Electricity + Control

JULY 2017

7