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Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (M.E.W.) Experiences Flawless Performance of Si-COAT 570 HVIC in Extreme Desert Conditions

Qatar is a small desert country in the Arabian peninsula mainly rich in natural gas reserves with oil reserves as well. Located on the western coast of Qatar are oil wells and refining facilities close to the city of Dukhan.

In 1996, the Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (M.E.W.) constructed a 132 kV transmission line stretching 85 kilometers across the desert from Doha, which is located on the east coast of Qatar, to Dukhan.

The service conditions for this newly constructed line were to be extreme: Not only would the line be subject to frequent sandstorm conditions, but would also be plagued by salt fog contamination at the coastal terminations of the line and by carbon pollution from the flare stacks of the oil operations in Dukhan.

Transmission lines had been previously erected under similar service conditions in Qatar. Because of the severity of the conditions, these lines required water washing every six months in order to avoid excessive losses and outages due to contamination related leakage current.

Given the heavy costs associated with this type of line maintenance, Qatar M.E.W. decided to coat all of the insulators along the 85 kilometers of the newly constructed line with Si-COAT 570 HVIC. The aim of using the coating was to reduce water washing frequency as had been previously experienced on other uncoated lines.

Si-COAT 570 HVIC surpassed the expectations of Qatar M.E.W. Where the initial expectation was that use of Si-COAT 570 HVIC would reduce the need for water washing, it was found that, in fact, by using Si-COAT 570 HVIC, the need for water washing was entirely eliminated!

Discussions in early 2001 with project engineers responsible for the new transmission line stated that

"...this transmission line coated [with Si-COAT 570 HVIC] is the only line in Qatar that gives us no problems and requires no water washing."

Using Si-COAT 570 HVIC has given Qatar M.E.W. 5 years of flawless operation that has dramatically reduced their requirement and expenses for maintenance water washing. The utility firmly believes that Si-COAT 570 HVIC will continue to perform as exceptionally as ever for many more years to come.