SATS
Organisation
SATS Certification is a non-discriminatory organisation operated independent of the member test laboratories.
SATS Certification is formally organized as a project at SINTEF Energy Research and is governed by a Governing Board, comprised of:
- Four members representing the industrial member laboratories
- One member representing an independent member laboratory
- Three members representing end user organisations
A technical committee comprised of representatives from all member laboratories acts as an advisory to the Governing Board regarding certification, testing and standardisation. Two members of the technical committee represents SATS in the STL Technical Committee. In addition, representatives from the member labs participate in STL Task Groups, IEC Technical Committees and CIGRÉ Study committees and work groups.
SATS inspectors are contracted by SATS for inspection of tests in member laboratories. Our inspectors may also witness, but not countersign, tests in non-member laboratories fulfilling the same requirements as the member labs.
The Senior Executive of SATS issues certificates and reports based on test reports countersigned by a SATS inspector. The Senior Executive is also responsible for the daily operation of SATS.
All SATS personnel are independent of manufacturers and have no commercial interest in the certified products.
The following laboratories are members of SATS
- High Power laboratory, Ludvika, Sweden
- NEFI, Skien, Norway
- Nexans Norway, Halden, Norway
- SINTEF Energy Research, Trondheim, Norway
- STRI, Ludvika, Sweden
International cooperation
SATS is a member of the Short-Circuit Testing Liaison (STL) which provides a forum for voluntary international collaboration between testing organisations.
The chief objectives of STL are uniform interpretation of the Standards and uniform presentation of test results.
Full members of STL are:
- ASTA-BEAB: Certification Services; UK
- CESI: Centro Elletrotecnico Sperimentale Italiano S.p.A.; Italy
- CPRI: Central Power Research Institute; India
- ESEF: Ensemble des Stations d'Essais à Grande Puissance Française; France
- JSTC: Japanese Short-Circuit Testing Committee; Japan
- KEMA: Netherlands
- KERI: Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute; South Korea
- PEHLA: Gesellschaft für Elektrische Hochleistungsprüfungen; Germany and Switzerland
- SATS: Scandinavian Association for Testing of Electric Power Equipment; Sweden and Norway
- STLNA: Short-Circuit Testing Liaison of the Nations of the Americas; Canada, Mexico and USA
- ZKU: Zkusebnictvi; Czech Republic
- VEIKI-VNL: Hungary
History
The Scandinavian Association for Testing Switchgear (SATS) was established in 1974, as a vehicle for harmonisation of testing and interpretation of test results. The founding members of SATS were ASEA AB of Sweden and the Norwegian Electric Power Research Institute (EFI). Later on, STRI AB in Sweden, NEFI and NEXANS in Norway and ABB OY in Finland joined the organisation. SATS joined the Short-Circuit Testing Liaison (STL) as associate member in 1975 and graduated to become a full member in 1984.
SATS Certification was established in 1994, and the Governing Board of SATS was augmented with three representatives from end users of the products certified by SATS.
Following reorganisations within the company, ABB OY in Finland resigned from SATS Certification, effective of December 31., 2005
SINTEF Energy Research (previously known as EFI) has held the secretariat of SATS since its birth in 1974.
SATS Certification was accredited as a product certification body according to ISO/IEC
17065 in 2004. Prior to the accreditation, the organisation was peer reviewed by STL every three years.
