TRAINING MEANS POWER

Life today would be unimaginable without electricity because it is virtually the basis of modern civilization. It is always there, making our lives more comfortable and convenient and production more effective. That is why the quality of energy and regular supplies of it are extremely important today even in the most isolated villages, not to mention a large city such as Baku.

In 2006 the capital's electricity network was handed over to the administration of the state-owned "Bakielektriksabaka" open joint-stock company, and since then a significant stage of reforms has begun in this sphere, eventually leading to global positive changes on the way towards a complete improvement in energy supplies both within Baku and to the outlying villages.

An energy ring

Among the important achievements in the sphere of electricity distribution in Baku over the past six years has been the construction of new 110- and 35-KV substations, providing overhead circuit cables, and so on, which has played an important part not only in improving the quality of energy supplies, but also in enhancing the aesthetic appearance of the city. There has been similar significant progress in low-voltage networks, thanks to which nearly 100,000 private homes built in the outskirts of Baku in recent years have been provided with energy supplies. Incidentally, I would like to point out another fact in this connection: whereas before the capital's network was handed over to "Bakielektriksabaka", urban construction outstripped the expansion of the electricity network, now the opposite is true, and this complies with international standards.

As a result of work carried out in the electricity sphere, "Bakielektriksabaka" has already begun to adopt the ring circuit supply system which, along with the reliability and stability of the distribution and transmission networks also ensures efficiency. One of the main advantages of this system is that it has the potential to fully provide consumers with electricity at any time.

Apart from this "Bakielektriksabaka" is focusing particular attention on the question of metering consumed electricity, first setting up electronic meters which optimize this process and reduce the human factor in mutual settlements to a minimum. Today the company is already announcing the end of the "era" of electronic meters and switching to new Smart-meters for more precise and convenient monitoring of energy consumption and obtaining payments. These apparatus have a number of important advantages, among which is the possibility of controlling via SMS work on the prepayment principle and downloading the balance onto the meter with the aid of SMS from the central system. Moreover, meters provide for the use of differentiated tariffs of electricity consumption. In other words, the use of different tariffs in the course of 24 hours (one at night, another during the day), a month (holidays, working days), and also different types of subscribers (commercial, industrial or private). What is remarkable is that these meters also make it possible to obtain a credit balance of electricity if supplies are suspended at an unreasonable time for the consumer.

Along with an improvement in energy supply services for consumers the concept for the development of the network includes an improvement in working conditions for employees, part of which is that the list of administrative buildings has been considerably extended - at the present moment such offices may be found in virtually all districts of the capital, apart from Yasamal, and construction of four new ones is still being carried out. Moreover, the company's vehicle transportation system has been considerably improved and new models of vehicles, specific types of transport, cranes and derricks required to clear up after disaster situations have been purchased.   

"Bakielektriksabaka" sees one of the main attributes of its development as the adaptation of state-of-the-art technology, and so it is vigorously studying the experience of advanced countries and purchasing new equipment.  It is not by chance that the company's partners in this sphere are recognized leaders in the sector such as Siemens, ABB, Bauer, Schneider Electric and other companies. Thanks to this technology new closed-type substations have been created in Baku which are much more efficient from the point of view of safety, operating life and working area and compliance with the principles of the aesthetic appearance of the city.

So it would be very difficult for the uninitiated person to guess that behind the beautiful fa?ade of the building situated along the road to the village of Bayil stands the Icari Sahar substation with a capacity of 110/35/10 kV, providing electricity to a major residential area, as well as a number of enterprises, etc. Icari Sahar is an integral part of a 110-kV dual-beamed ringed electrical circuit "Baku I", which was set up between the Musvig and Xirdalan substations. Built by the Siemens company, the Icari Sahar substation is a gas-insulated separated bus-bar substation. In supplying electricity to the central area of the city and the factories and residential areas around it, this powerful substation also has a technical importance for the creation of a ring circuit. The networks feeding from a substation of 35- and 6-kV contours are linked with the networks of other tie-stations, which creates a reliable and stable system. All the substation's electrical and relay protection equipment and automatic installations connected to the SCADA remote control system are controlled simply, easily and efficiently. A fire alarm system has been installed at the substation to protect the equipment and materials from overheating and explosions.

In short, this is the first closed-type substation in the CIS, equipped with gas-insulated equipment and it takes up ten times less space than open-type substations.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attended the opening of the Icari Sahar substation. He was also present at the launching of another substation of the Ganclik open joint-stock company, which will feed electricity to a number of facilities nearby and is an integral part of the 110-kV dual-beamed ringed electrical circuit "Baku II", which was created by the Sanqacal and Xirdalan substations. The 35/10-kV substation Ganclik, which is the source of electricity supply to the offices and enterprises in the vicinity, is linked with substations 215 and 96 by means of a 35-kV power transmission line which also ensures the unit's reliability and the creation of the 35-kV ringed circuit.

About theory in practice

As we have seen, "Bakielektriksabaka" is doing serious work to improve the capital's electricity supply, using new-generation technology and helping to raise the effectiveness and extend the practical life of the facilities that are being created. However, the rate of development of the network year on year means attracting more and more staff, and highly-qualified specialists with a grasp of modern technology and the ability to use it are already needed now.

Unfortunately, there are only two higher educational establishments in Azerbaijan that are training professional electrical engineers. Even then, to be fair, the training course for them lags behind current practical requirements, and what is more there is not a single laboratory where this material can be reinforced. In connection with this, "Bakielektriksabaka" is constantly coming up against the problem of a shortage of personnel and every year is forced to send many of its staff abroad for training. This forced measure has taken substantial amounts out of the company's budget. Therefore the management quite rightly calculated that creating their own training centre, complying with the most up-to-date requirements, would be much more effective, both from the point of view of training costs and in increasing the number of qualified specialists.

The fact that President Ilham Aliyev attended the opening of "Bakielektriksabaka's" training centre shows that this decision was timely and necessary.

The basic directions of the work of the training centre are as follows: training staff, improving qualifications, re-training personnel. The centre's main distinctive feature is the fact that students will be offered not only theoretical material, but also be given the opportunity to make practical use of their knowledge.

Everything has been taken care of here down to the smallest detail: on the second floor of the centre are two 10/04-kV substations, relay protection equipment and automatic electrical equipment, departments for cable line testing, a SCADA monitoring system, classrooms for alternative and renewable sources of energy and a conference hall. Furthermore, the electricity network at the training centre will be controlled by an automated system.

The training classes at the centre are fully equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual aids, equipment and computer technology. Everything here, including the creative design of the classes, is aimed at improving the training process. Specialists from leading world companies (Siemens, ABB, Bauer, Schneider Electric, and others), as well as local staff, are being attracted to run the courses.

The first experience from running the course is already at hand - specialists from Bauer showed the staff of "Bakielektriksabaka" the workings of a mobile electronic laboratory complex used during the diagnostic operation and testing of high tension lines which are situated in the grounds of the training centre. It is significant that certificates on the completion of this course were issued to only four employees. This shows that the purpose of the training centre is not the nominal organization of all kinds of courses and giving out certificates willy-nilly, but to provide necessary theoretical and practical knowledge and to select the most worthy candidates to merit the tag of "specialist".

The work programme of the training centre is a very full one. As we have already said, "Bakielektriksabaka" needs many highly-qualified staff in all kinds of spheres. However, in time, when this need has been partially met, the centre will be open to the public. Thus, along with the workers in the network, graduates from higher educational establishments will also improve their qualifications at the training centre and ordinary school leavers who want to get an elementary grade will have the same opportunity. 

Thus, the training centre will help to solve not only such an important task as training highly-qualified and modern personnel in the energy sphere, but will also to some extent help to solve the unemployment problem.