Electricity + Control June 2018

ELECTRICAL PROTECTION + SAFETY

Harmonic filtering on board diamond mining vessel Namibia in southwest Africa has 3 700 square miles of diamond concession at sea, which is expected to yield millions of carats of marine gemstones over the next five decades. T o ensure the vessels carrying out this mining are equipped, supply, installation and repair spe- cialist, CP Automation, helped mitigate harmful harmonics on board the prestigious Debmar Pacific diamond mining vessel. Land-based diamonds in Namibia are expected to run out in the next decade and to avoid a shortage, the government of Namibia has been strengthening its offshore diamond mining capacity. In a joint ven- ture between the Namibian government and the De Beers Group, Debmarine Namibia, the country’s lead- ing marine diamond mining company was established in 2002. The company operates five diamond mining ves- sels including the Debmar Pacific, which mines dia- monds from the ocean floor using advanced drill tech- nology. Having been built in 1977, the Debmar Pacific’s elec- trical system was in desperate need of an upgrade. Debmarine Namibia was experiencing difficulties with a particular lighting circuit, in which several transform- ers had blown due to suspected poor power quality supply. This is a classic symptom of an electrical cir- cuit experiencing harmonic noise related problems. John Mitchell, CP Automation

18 Electricity + Control

JUNE 2018