South Africa-based Trafo Power Solutions is boosting the power infrastructure of a mining project in Pakistan, being built on one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold reserves.

Supplying one of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors to the project, Trafo Power Solutions is providing 13 dry-type transformers for inclusion in e-houses on the remote site. The project is located in the Chagai district of Balochistan, close to the borders of Afghanistan and Iran, with terrain that is arid and semi-arid, characterised by deserts, mountain ranges, sparse vegetation and regular dust storms.

According to David Claassen, Managing Director of Trafo Power Solutions, the transformers have been designed to meet the challenges of this remote and demanding mining environment.

“The range of dry-type transformers that we are supplying to this copper-gold project in its early works phase of development include smaller isolation transformers rated at 5 kVA, lighting transformers of 75 kVA, and larger units of between 250 kVA and 1,000 kVA for power distribution functions,” Claassen says.

While Trafo Power Solutions has designed the transformers for indoor operation in the e-houses, the high ambient temperatures of the site have been taken into account. The design therefore caters for daytime temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius – with Class H insulation.

“To improve the turnaround time, we manufactured the enclosures in South Africa and importantly these could be flat-packed for easier logistical handling to site,” he explains. “The dry-type transformers themselves were shipped by our manufacturing partners TMC Transformers in Italy, directly to the site in Pakistan.”

He highlights that while the manufacturing of the transformers takes place in Italy, Trafo Power Solutions conducts the factory acceptance testing with the customer. The order also includes 18 neutral earth resistors (NERs) which are connected to the star point of the transformers to limit the earth fault current.

“We are supplying a number of 690 V air-type NERs as well as 11 kV NERs which are rated at 300 amps for 10 seconds – also capable of operating in air temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius,” Claassen says.

He points to the reliability of dry-type transformers as an important benefit to users on remote sites such as this one in Pakistan, as well as the limited maintenance they require. Unlike conventional oil-cooled transformers, where the oil needs regular testing and replacement, dry-type units are air-cooled and seldom require any active maintenance.

With its depth of experience in installing and commissioning its transformers and other electrical power solutions, Trafo Power Solutions supports the customer during these phases and provides technical support into the future.

“We will work closely with our EPC customer who is installing the e-houses to ensure that the transformers are adequately protected from the severe external environment conditions such as heat and dust,” he says.

This ensures that the transformers require minimal attention after being commissioned, limiting the need for anyone to undertake the costly and time consuming journey to the site. This factor further reduces the total cost of ownership of these units over their operating lifetime.