Sekelduin leads the charge

N$394 million high-tech infrastructure energised
Trailblazing fully digital African substation future-proofs Namibia’s grid.
Augetto Graig
  • 2 Days Ago

NamPower’s Sekelduin Substation is the first fully digital substation on the African continent.

On 20 January 2026, the Sekelduin Substation detected a ‘C-phase-to-ground’ electrical fault originating at one of two 66 kV wall bushings and recorded the occurrence with a time-stamp accuracy of within a hundredth of a millisecond.

According to Edward Lazarus, NamPower engineer for multidisciplinary projects, “the intelligent devices picked it up 9 milliseconds into the fault. It took 32 milliseconds from the decision to trip until the clearing of the fault.”

Frans Shanyata, senior manager for engineering services at NamPower, said that the digital substation is where “power engineering, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation converge to create the next-generation grid”.

Lazarus told participants at the Association of Electricity Distribution Undertakings technical conference in Swakopmund in March that Sekelduin is a case study of how NamPower is “wired for the future” and brings technology and efficiency together to prepare the national electricity utility for digitalisation.

Just east of the beach resort town, construction on the N$394 million Sekelduin Substation started in July 2021 as part of ongoing upgrades to NamPower’s bulk electricity supply to Erongo RED, according to NamPower’s managing director, Kahenge Simson Haulofu.

At the awarding of the equipment supply contract, valued at N$100 million, to ACTOM Energy Namibia in October 2023, Haulofu said that the substation “is required as a supply point for the 66 kV supply to Tamariskia and Swakopmund substations, NamWater’s Swakopmund South water reticulation scheme to feed the Husab Mine, and lastly the Erongo RED 33 kV reticulation”.

Actom acted as the principal equipment supplier and integrator, while the custom-built facility was designed to withstand the highly corrosive coastal environment, with partners including SCE Consulting Engineers, TDx Power, and Nexus Building Contractors.

NamPower successfully commissioned and energised its new indoor 132/66/33 kV Sekelduin Substation on 24 September 2025.


Unlocking load growth

This infrastructure addition to the NamPower transmission network unlocks coastal load growth, strengthens reliability, and future-proofs the Erongo Region grid with a digital substation employing process bus application in accordance with IEC 61850 standards, according to the utility.

The substation uses mixed technology switchgear (MTS), compact hybrid AIS/GIS, and metal-enclosed GIS at 33 kV, with ACTOM as the principal equipment supplier and integrator. The Sekelduin Substation is fed from the existing Kuiseb Substation, approximately 35 km south-east of Sekelduin, via two parallel 132 kV overhead power lines. This architecture improves component redundancy and overall system robustness, while reducing single-contingency exposure on coastal nodes, NamPower said.

“The digital substation design employs process and station bus, which reduces copper cable runs, improves remote asset monitoring, enhances fault location accuracy, and strengthens cyber-secure SCADA integration, addressing both performance and copper-theft risks,” NamPower said. “The digital application also provides a platform for future artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) integration, positioning NamPower among the top utilities in the world.”

According to the state-owned utility, central to the secondary system design is a hybrid architecture that integrates digital and conventional hard-wired protection systems based on IEC 61850. The IEC 61850-9-2LE-based main protection system comprises a redundant process and station bus via merging process interface units, utilising sampled values and Generic Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) communication. The backup protection system features a station bus and GOOSE, with hard-wired connections to conventional CTs and VTs.

The Sekelduin Substation functions as a 132/66/33 kV indoor switching station, making use of compact mixed-technology gas-insulated switchgear (MTS) for the 132 kV and 66 kV circuits, while the 33 kV circuit uses gas-insulated fixed-pattern metal-enclosed switchgear. The substation features two voltage transformation levels derived from the 132 kV busbar: 66 kV and 33 kV.

Sekelduin Substation marks a decisive step change in Namibia’s transmission architecture and a continental first, according to NamPower. It demonstrates that Africa can design and deliver world-class digital grid infrastructure. “Built by Africans for Africa, it is a scalable blueprint for AI/ML-ready, cyber-secure substations that future-proof Namibia’s growth and set a new operational benchmark,” NamPower said.