In August 2020, a natural catastrophe struck Macedonia, in southeastern Europe, flooding a coal mine located under a thermoelectric plant that is managed by a state-owned ESM – in North Macedonia. More than 300,000 cubic meters of water flooded the bottom of the mine, stopping all its working operations. The coal from the mine supplies the thermoelectric plant, which generates about 70% of the country's electricity. 

For the solution of this problem, quick drainage of the area was required in order to provide the quality of life and regular life conditions to the population of Macedonians. The state-owned company ESM contacted the local WEG distributor Simtech Solution, who has supplied pumps, panels designed with WEG soft starters SSW900, installation and startup of the equipment intended for the drainage of the mine. 

The customer decided to buy the SSW900 particularly for a package of built-in features including, fault history and diagnostic features, fault resolution with date, time, and network communication interface. This SSW900 soft starter is designed to provide energy savings, integrated electronic protections and extended lifetime for electric motors. The equipment has an internal by-pass that contributes extending its operating lifetime, optimizing the electrical installation and minimizing heat dissipation. 

“WEG was fundamental to help choosing a system that would comply with the application requirements. We knew that we could count on WEG for this high-risk project,” said Igor Novevski, Simtech´s project & business development engineer.