Current Issue Articles

The benefit of experience
An Indonesian university gets a Canadian education

By John Vickery

In 2003, John Vickery, owner of Vickery Electric and a professor of electrical techniques and systems at OIT Durham College, was invited to a university in Indonesia to share his electrical expertise. Indonesia is a country with an electrical system that lags several decades behind Canada technologically. The following are his experiences and impressions of the country during the first part of his 14-day trip. Part two will appear in our April issue.

In 1997, my company, Vickery Electric, had just finished working with Durham College and the Ministry of Training and Education to establish a new network cabling apprenticeship program. I was asked to contribute based on my education as an industrial and C&M electrician and a certified electrical machine and control methods technician. This was quite exciting and helped to establish the Certificate of Qualification in network cabling as a trade recently. I support increasing the educational opportunities for the trades and improving the profession overall through the educational system. Being that I am a third-generation electrician/contractor (my son is fourth generation), my insight is based on my own experiences and those of my predecessors.

Having heard about the apprenticeship program, EB approached me in 1998 and asked if I was working on any other projects that may be of interest to their readers. It just so happened that I was installing the electrical system on the Maid of the Mist, in Niagara Falls, ON. I wrote a case study about this experience and my company was catapulted to front and centre. What this article did was bring attention to my company and specifically to myself and my son. As a result, an opportunity to teach technical programs was offered to me by the Durham College of Applied Arts and Sciences, which I accepted.

In 2002, a delegation from the Universitas Jeneral Soedirman (UNSOED), or General Soederman University in Perwokerto, Central Java, Indonesia visited the University of Guelph in Ontario as part of a UN-sanctioned memorandum of agreement between the two universities. One of the professors at the University of Guelph suggested I meet with the Indonesians and have an informal talk concerning their directions. It was a very good fit. Indonesia has been struggling to improve their electrical systems since the Dutch left in 1949. With my background, I was able to offer significant insight into how Canadian electrical systems have developed over the past 80 years. And, as an expert in electrical analysis, I have a detailed understanding of the disruptions generated by the newer technologies of today's equipment. Before the delegation left, I called the manager of the Maid of the Mist and asked if he would host our guests. He placed them on the boat and sent them off into Niagara Falls. It just so happens that in southeast Asia it is considered a high honour to have travelled to Canada and been on board the Maid of the Mist.

About a year later, an official invitation arrived from UNSOED to visit their country. Brian McBride, an animal husbandry professor from Guelph, Jeff Cairns, an English language professor from Japan, and myself, representing technical support to the faculty of engineering, accepted the invitation. We left for Indonesia on September 11, 2003.

September 13 & 14: Our first stop was a tour of Hong Kong. Then, the next day we were off to Jakarta, Indonesia, a city of 12 million people. We met with our hosts and were taken to an exposition of pavilions representing different architecture found throughout the country of Indonesia. This included a visit to the Museum of Electrical History and Development. Electrical equipment used in Indonesia is primarily of Dutch, German or Chinese manufacture.

September 15: The following day we had a six-hour train ride (which turned into eight because the train broke down twice) into central Java. Although we were on the executive train, we often passed the commuter trains, which were overrun with people hanging off the sides and sitting on top - even the electric trains with the cables on top. On board the train, the toilet facilities were a ceramic toilet with a hole in the floor and a hose to wash everything down when you are finished. You walk from that circumstance into the passenger car and everyone there has a cell phone. The contrasts are incredible; we're missing fifty years here.

Along the way, I took about 100 pictures of poverty-stricken areas - women doing laundry in rivers, water buffalo ploughs, barefoot construction workers, miles of farmland and dilapidated farm shacks with children playing in the runoff of the rice paddies. Yet, it's a tropical paradise. The people would all smile and wave as I hung outside the train door to take my photos. Everywhere I looked was a photo opportunity. When I've seen pictures in National Geographic I've always thought that they represented isolated circumstances, but now I realize that they represent day-to-day life in these regions. The trip gave me a very good understanding of the lifestyle of the agricultural and suburban communities.

We arrived in Perwokerto, where we met with our counterparts from the university at our hotel. The hotel was comfortable and clean. It was a secured facility.

September 16: I spent the day at the faculty of engineering. I met with I.J. Sasmojo Kamsari, the dean of engineering, and professors Hari Prasetijo (electrical engineering) and Retno Suprianti (telemedicine and network systems). In a private conversation with Dean Kamsari, he expressed his wishes concerning my visit, and I indicated the areas where I felt that I could be of assistance. An itinerary had been established, however, for security reasons it was altered each day. Safety was a concern. We drew a crowd everywhere we went. For example, I decided early in our visit to take a walk outside the hotel area. Everyone was staring at me and the traffic came to a near standstill.

September 17: Today was spent lecturing to the students, faculty and other interested parties. An interpreter was present but, surprisingly, not always needed. The students and staff are all functionally literate in English. The information I offered in my lecture was representative of today's sophisticated electrical systems and the challenges in North America. But, keeping in mind that their existing electrical system is circa 1940s I was, in fact, showing them the future. Our hindsight is 20/20 and Indonesia can take advantage of that. A question period followed, with a number of enthusiastic and challenging questions and, of course, some questions that were politically sensitive because we were dealing with forward-thinking university students. After four hours of lecturing and questions, I was beat. The rest of the day was spent meeting and talking with the faculty.

September 18: We spent the day traveling to the mountains in Diang. We visited hydro generation and geothermal generation sites. We visited the ancient Hindu temples (500 BC): Puntadewa, Bima, Ajuna, Nakula and Sadewa. We also visited the Sikidang volcanoes which generate the geothermal and natural wonder of Coloured Lake, a lake that changes from red to turquoise depending on the volcano's underwater eruptions.

September 19: My lecture two days before stirred up considerable activity within the academic and industrial community. Ir. Harry Iswanto (Ir means a bachelor's degree in Indonesia), a representative of Indonesia Power, and Dr. Malik Fadgar with Bada Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi, an agency for the assessment and application of technology, arrived to meet with me. The meeting with Mr. Iswanto concerned a hydroelectric plant. We visited a site that was being considered for future generation possibilities. The first thing that entered my mind was how to introduce generating stations without disrupting the beautiful tropical environment.

The hope was to build a working classroom for the university at the hydro site, incorporating construction, operation and maintenance as part of the course outline. Once Indonesian students have completed their education they really have three career avenues: power generation, transmission or the local utility. Dr. Fadgar had a less traditional approach. Indonesia, although economically challenged, has many alternatives for power generation and engineering: geothermal, solar, wind, wave, tidal, hydro, biomass and more. He is directing his efforts to independent electrical systems.

His intention is to offer a decentralized system by incorporating individual solar systems allowing each consumer to generate and maintain their own power source. I'm a big fan of this approach. I explained to him the recent east-coast power outage, and the issues that concerned me as a contractor. Our service staff encountered a number of economic, safety and security issues that were of extreme concern to our customers and the community. Bigger is not necessarily better. There are a large number of issues that can be avoided, such as pollution and system requirements, if the consumer is allowed to establish independent supply.

I also believe that consumers are better equipped to maintain energy levels and to conserve electricity if they are in control of it. Electricity generation is a huge drain on our economy; independent systems would actually create industry and opportunity by impacting our tax system positively. Not to suggest that any country would operate effectively without significant power distributors, but I believe the two systems can work together more effectively without burdening our tax structure and, in fact, can enhance our economy. I believe that Indonesia is positioned to take advantage of this knowledge. With today's technology, electrical and communication systems can now be run without incorporating cumbersome transmission lines and all of the associated costs.

That evening, we were invited to a performance by the English department students. It was a full evening of entertainment and interaction with the university students. Local Bamboo marching bands and Javanese dancers were the highlight of the evening.

In our April issue, John will discuss the state of the Indonesian electricity structure in detail, his further lectures to the students and his encounter with a local pickpocket.

John Vickery is a professor at Durham College and owns Vickery Electric Contracting Limited, based in Whitby, ON.