Protection & Control (P&C) conducted its 50th five-day Mini-APPS course in February this year.
ACTOM’S protection, control and metering solutions business unit, along with Measurements, its predecessor, have been running the Mini-APPS course for protection engineers and technicians from all over Africa since the mid-1980’s.
“We are very proud at having reached the 50 mark in the courses we have run to the benefit of the protection industry as a whole,” commented P&C’s Joe Steyn, who has been Course Co-ordinator for the Mini-APPS course since 2005.
“Attendees include electrical practitioners from all sectors of the industry, utilities, municipalities, industrial end-users, primary equipment suppliers and consulting engineers. At least 30% of those attending each course comprise people from outside South Africa,” he pointed out.
The Mini-APPS course was developed locally as a shorter version of the original six-week APPS (Analysis and Protection of Power Systems) course that was run in Stafford, England, by Alstom, a major stakeholder and technology principal of ACTOM’s predecessor Alstom SA at the time.
“Our Mini-APPS course is by far the longest-running course of its kind on offer in South Africa and the demand for it has been very consistent over the years.
There were only two years during that whole period when we did not run the course, which were in 2020 and 2021, when the restrictions on movement and gatherings to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were in full force,” Joe said.
“At one stage – for a number of years in the 1990’s – the course was so much in demand that we were able to provide two courses a year, but in the main they have been held once a year. To ensure that delegates could get the maximum benefit out of it, attendance has always been limited to no more than 32 people per course.”
The course covers the full range of protection applications and is presented by senior P&C staff, complemented by at least one visiting protection expert from industry or a university at each course.
Although the technologies of protection schemes have changed radically over the years, from electromechanical systems in earlier times to microprocessor relays today, the content of the Mini-APPS course remains essentially unchanged, because the electrical fundamentals are the same as always.
“In the course we teach advanced theory and on the practical side in the tutorials the participants are required to carry out mathematical calculations,” Joe stated.