The Journey of a impulse generator from EPFL to Calí
© 2014 EPFL
An impulse generator was donated by Prof. Rachidi’s EMC Lab to the High Voltage (HV) Lab of the Universidad del Valle in Calí-Colombia. This has enabled the HV Lab to strengthen its testing capacity.
The impulse generator will further be used for teaching, research activities and services.
Head of the EMC Lab (Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab), Professor Farhad Rachidi took advantage of a visit to Colombia in 2012 of the scientific partners of the EPFL-SDC scientific cooperation programme, which is coordinated by CODEV, to meet the High Voltage research group of the Universidad del Valle (Univalle).
During the same year, Professor G. Aponte from the high voltage research group of Univalle visited EPFL in order to identify cooperation possibilities in the framework of the EPFL-Univalle cooperation plan. One of the results of the exchange was the donation of an 1100 kV / 50 kJ impulse generator from EPFL to Univalle, in order to strengthen the Univalle’s High Voltage Lab testing capacity and R&D potential. The donation process was done in the first semester of 2013 and the impulse generator is now working.
The productive transformation policy led by the Colombian government aims to consolidate the sectors that are major generators of employment and economic growth in Colombia, which require working on adding value aggregation, development and innovation to face the global competition to products and services. One of these identified sectors is electrical energy, which is expected to improve to be on the forefront of the global dynamics, with special emphasis on the opportunities of external markets.
For the Colombian electrical transformers, cables and insulators industry one of the main requirements is the availability of Research, Development and Innovation laboratories, which will allow the quality certification of the national products to be exported to other markets and also, to verify the quality of the equipment imported into the country.
With the development of the research facility in Calí, it is expected to have a laboratory that covers the electrical sector needs in order to improve its competitiveness and to face the challenges represented by new trade agreements. It will also contribute to the national research capability and to strengthen the training of human talent at the levels required by the electrical sector.