KEMA and Comisión Nacional de Energia (CNE) of the Dominican Republic have initiated a protection and coordination study for the Dominican Republic’s national electrical grid system. This study funded by the World Bank loan IBRD No. 7217-DO is aimed at providing technical assistance to the energy sector. Working in close cooperation with protection engineers of the Organismo Coordinador and Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica Dominicana, the study will assess current protection settings and perform an integrated coordination study using CAPE, a software suite developed by Electrocon International Inc.

As global electric utilities work to coordinate financial decisions and system reliability, effective protection of the power system against major power failures will require an innovative use of automation and information technology related to transmission and distribution assets.

With the formal signing of the contract between CNE’s, Licenciado Aristides Fernandez Zucco, Secretario de Estado and Presidente de la Comision Nacional de Energía, and KEMA’s Dr. Renato Cespedes, Director for Latin America, the parties agreed on a program to migrate the current electric model platform to Electrocon’s CAPE, to perform a protection and coordination study using CAPE, and to set and conduct commissioning tests on relays in the field.

KEMA’s experts will conduct a comprehensive analysis to implement the most appropriate technical and financial solutions for the island’s new relays.

CNE selected KEMA based on the firm’s highly regarded transmission and distribution expertise and objective knowledge, experience and analytical resources. The combination of KEMA’s technical skills and the implementation of Electrocon’s CAPE software makes this relationship unique and significant for the Dominican Republic.

A significant part of the activities includes migration and usage of Electrocon’s CAPE software. CAPE’s graphical network modeling and system simulation support automatic relay setting, detection of miscoordinated settings, and event analysis. With more detailed and accurate models, CNE will be able to simulate real-life conditions, perform wide-area reviews and predict protection system performance to ensure proper electric reliability for its customers.