4.30.2012 
Ergon Energy's $3.1 million Toowoomba power factor pilot project has passed a major milestone with the first of almost 30 targeted businesses having correction equipment installed.
Homestyle Bakeries became the first major energy consumer to have power factor correction equipment installed 12 months ahead of schedule under the Queensland Government-funded project.
The aim of the project is to use incentive payments to reduce peak demand by a total 4.7 MVA, with subsequent customer savings and carbon emissions reduction.
http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2012/04/12/power-factor-correction-sparks/
4.12.2012
When you think of the value of the electronics and appliances in your home, the amount really adds up. Local electrician Steve Janiszewski from Mister Sparky - Fort Wayne tells NewsChannel 15 that most people have between $8,000 and $12,000 worth of such items in their homes and that, "if you don't have surge protection for your home, the major risk is that you'll lose your electronics [due to surge damage]."
Lightning strikes can deliver significant surges in power that can damage electronics and appliances, but lightning is by no means the most common cause of power surges.
In fact, each of our homes experiences power surges daily as a result of our own appliances and electronics that are consuming power. According to Janiszewski, "8-10 surges a day just from the items in use that are already plugged in."
While these surges may not be as powerful as those brought by lightning strikes, they can still damage items over the course of time.
Other common sources of power surges include blown transformers and high demand on the power grid.
In order for a home to be properly protected from power surges, the home must be well grounded to allow any excess power to be channeled back to the ground safely. Homes recently built are more likely to have a "good ground" than those built decades ago. However, in order to know for sure, a homeowner must call an electrician.
With a "good ground" in place, a homeowner needs to implement two types of surge protection to ensure the maximum safety of items connected to the home's power supply.
The first type is whole house panel protection. An electrician installs a protector at the point where the electricity enters your home.
The second type of protection comes at the point of use - basically, where the item is plugged in. A "surge strip" allows multiple items to be plugged in to a single outlet while providing surge protection at the same time. However, not all "power strips" provide surge protection. When looking to purchase a "surge strip", make sure you read the packaging carefully and that you are, indeed, buying a strip that will provide surge protection.
Also, "make sure with whatever surge protector you buy, make sure it's UL listed," said Mike Fisher, appliance sales manager at hhgregg's Fort Wayne store. When you see the UL mark, a circle with the letters UL printed inside, that means the product has been tested by UL and meets safety requirements.
Fisher also says to look for the warranties offered by manufacturers of the surge strips. They can provide thousands of dollars of protection. But, these warranties do not always cover surge damage from lightning strikes.
"Coupled together [panel protection and surge strips], you're going to protect 95% of your equipment. There's always that 5%...that lightning strike...you can't protect everything 100%," said Janiszewski.
Remember, though, there are additional items - not connected to the main power supply - that are still at risk for surges, like phone lines and coaxial cables from cable or satellite TV connections. An electrician can also provide guidance on how to properly protect these items.
http://www.wane.com/dpp/weather/protecting-home-electronics-from-power-surges
4.4.2012
A year ago, a Reno clean energy businessman warned the Public Utilities Commission that if it didn’t set a few standards for NV Energy’s wind rebate program, its customers could end up footing the bill for turbines that rarely produce electricity.
One reason behind his concern: To be eligible for rebates, customers didn’t need to prove that the wind actually blows enough to justify installing a turbine on their property.
“This could allow unscrupulous developers to sell turbines to unsuspecting customers who will not generate electricity from an installed turbine because there is no wind to power the turbine,” Clean Energy Center managing member Rich Hamilton told the PUC last May. “This problem is especially vexing because ratepayer money could be contributing to the cost of such turbines, which could give the Wind Generations program and the wind industry a black eye.”
The PUC agreed that such a standard would be a good idea but sided with NV Energy’s position that it was too early to move forward with it just yet.
A year later, however, Hamilton’s warning appears to have been spot on.
The electricity produced by NV Energy’s $46 million wind rebate program has fallen far short of expectations.
In a startling example, the city of Reno’s wind turbines — for which the city received more than $150,000 in rate-payer funded rebates — produced dramatically less electricity than the manufacturers of its turbines promised.
“These manufacturers, when they gave us the turbines, they said they were designed to be mounted on a parapet at this height, and that’s what we did,” said Jason Geddes, who runs the city of Reno’s renewable energy program. “But when we started getting actual wind flow patterns, we realized their claims were wrong.”
STEVE MARCUS
Jinxiang Lu, left, Chairman/CEO of A-Power, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, center, and Kai Huang, deputy mayor of Shenyang, China, stand during the dedication of a new A-Power Energy Generation Systems manufacturing facility in Henderson Tuesday, October 12, 2010. The company, based in China, will produce wind turbines and LED lighting.
As first reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal, one turbine that cost the city $21,000 to install saved the city $4 on its energy bill. Overall, $416,000 worth of turbines have netted the city $2,800 in energy savings.
Not all of the city’s turbines performed so poorly. But on average, the small wind turbines installed statewide through NV Energy’s program have yielded disappointing results.
“There is a lot of difference in some of the generators relative to what the (manufacturers) claim,” said John Hargrove, who manages NV Energy’s Renewable Generations program. “A generator can claim to put out 100 kilowatt hours, but that’s based on an assumption that there’s a certain amount of wind. If you don’t have the wind, you won’t have the output.”
That’s exactly why Hamilton pleaded with the PUC to impose a requirement that customers first prove their wind resource before winning a rebate.
“I’m terribly worried about the future of the program,” said Hamilton, whose company does solar and wind projects. “We really, really feel strongly about this. I’m a rate-payer. And if the rate-payers are paying for this, the rate-payer should be getting the most bang for their buck.”
Hamilton also believes equipment standards should be in place to minimize faulty turbines, some of which have fallen apart.
That’s happened both in Reno and in rural Nevada. Geddes said one of his turbines that was rated to 110 mph fell apart in a 105-mph gust.
A more catastrophic failure occurred on a farm in rural Nevada, when a large turbine spun apart only days after it was installed. No one was injured, largely because it was in a remote locale.
“It was very spectacular,” said Matt Newberry, who runs NV Energy’s wind program. “It was only up for a matter of days. We’re relieved we haven’t had any more of those.”
Unlike the solar industry, which has figured out how to correctly install productive solar generators on rooftops and in parking lots across the state, the wind industry in Nevada is still in its infancy.
So far, statewide, about 150 turbines have been installed through a rebate program created by the 2007 Legislature.
Under the demonstration programs, cities, schools, businesses and homeowners are eligible for a rebate up to the full cost of the turbine depending on a variety of factors including the system’s wattage.
The vast majority of the projects are in Northern and rural Nevada. Most of the cost of the program is born by rate-payers of Sierra Pacific, as NV Energy’s Northern Nevada sister company is known, and not the utility’s Southern Nevada customers.
The PUC is again considering the requirements advocated by Hamilton — requirements that will govern the program statewide.
Power company officials first worried stringent requirements could strangle the budding industry. But after a year of experimenting with the program, they appear on board with both resource and equipment standards.
LEILA NAVIDI
Searchlight resident George Beyer listens while sitting next to a photo of a wind turbine during a Searchlight Town Hall Meeting at the Searchlight Community Center about a proposed wind energy project Thursday, June 25, 2009.
“I think it’s a really smart evolution of the program,” Newberry said. “When it was instituted, nobody really knew much about wind in the state. The market itself, even the Legislature, labeled it as a demonstration program.
“But we want to make sure customers are getting good things. We don’t want to see people install them in places where there’s not good wind.”
Hargrove declared the demonstration successful, largely because of how much the company has learned about small wind projects. He noted the wind program doesn’t make much sense in Nevada’s urban centers.
“Rather than putting a little one in the backyard of a home, we’re focusing on much larger projects that go out on a farm,” he said. “While some early projects are not producing great results, it’s not because wind doesn’t work. We’re tightening up our standards.”
In its newest filing before the PUC, the company is advocating a 10-mph average wind speed standard to be eligible for the rebate.
Not so fast, Geddes warned.
He noted that models used to calculate average wind speed aren’t reliable. For example, the city’s two most productive wind turbines wouldn’t have been eligible for the rebate because wind studies said the average wind speed was below 10 mph.
The only accurate way to test average wind speed is to install an anemometer and take readings for a year, Geddes said.
Geddes would rather see a performance-based incentive. To get a rate-payer-funded rebate, a customer would have to prove the turbine produced electricity.
Such an incentive was passed by the Legislature last year. But Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed the bill after NV Energy won a last-minute amendment to fund a major transmission line project.
Hamilton countered that investing in an anemometer might not be such a bad idea.
“If you are going to invest tens of thousands in something, it may be worth waiting to do a wind resource assessment,” he said.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/mar/30/nv-energy-windmill-program-generates-rebates-littl/
3.5.2012
Arguably the two biggest offenders in custom electronics hyperbole are the cabling and power conditioning/surge suppression categories.
Other than power cables, the topic of cabling safety has always been innocuous because of the products’ low-voltage characteristics. Taking the safety issue to the next level, however, are power conditioner/surge suppressor components that are said to protect and enhance everything from amplifiers and projectors to wireless modems and telephone systems.
Sorting Through the Hype
When it comes to safety issues, there aren’t many resources that dealers or consumers can turn to for guidance, but standards that have been developed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) provide some assurances. UL is an independent safety company that offers a variety of industry testing services.
There are five major UL standards that CE pros should look for when considering a power product: UL 1283, UL 1363, UL 514, UL 498 and UL 1449:
UL 1283: Covers the requirements for electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters that are installed on or connected to 600 volt or lower circuits that operate at 50Hz to 60Hz, and meet National Electrical Code (NEC) requirements.
UL 1363: Defines the requirements for relocatable power taps (RPT). UL says the standard covers RPTs rated at 250 volts AC or less and 20 amps AC or less. UL says that RPTs are intended strictly for indoor use as an extension of a grounding alternating current branch circuit for general applications.
UL 514: This standard is for nonmetallic outlet boxes, flush-device boxes and covers, and other related products. The standard stipulates that these types of products must comply with NEC, as well as National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 70.
UL 498: Designed for attachment plugs and receptacles, it states that these types of products that connect to a branch circuit must comply with NEC and ANSI/NFPA 70.
UL 1449: Covers surge protective devices (SPDs) and its requirements include provisions for repeated limiting of transient voltage surges as specified for 50Hz and 60Hz circuits that don’t exceed 1,000 volts. Within the standard there are four designations, and it does not include power cords or plug-in SPDs that are designed for medical equipment applications.
Safe and clean power are qualities that can be tough to verify, so integrators such as Richard Ades, owner of Oklahoma City, Okla.-based Contemporary Sounds, have turned to UL listing as an important part of the power conditioning/surge protection product evaluation process.
Today, Ades says, because of all the diverse technologies that installers are working with in the home it’s easy to get swept up in the terminology of components. When it comes to power protection devices, Ades says his company keeps things simple by educating clients about key points like UL listing over spec claims.
“We all remember the old adage that advises someone to build their audio system by starting with the speakers,” he says. “In today’s world of switch-mode power supplies and tiny processing chips we advise to start where things plug in. We stress the importance of proper certification of power products and we do not sell or recommend products that don’t have certification.”
UL Listing Minimizes Risks
Throughout the past decade, the power conditioning/surge protection category has grown significantly. Much of this growth can be attributed to an increasing interest in the benefits these products theoretically provide, and the desire for dealers to monetize as much of their system sales as possible.
Surprisingly, the UL (and for that matter, CE - the similar safety requirement of the European Union) stamp is not mandated for products sold in the U.S. Because of this, many of the manufacturers entering the category aren’t going through the UL listing process, which includes the adherence to National Electric Code.
It is perhaps understandable, as the cost of listing is steep and that investment may not correlate into sales, so many of the small companies eschew the process.
Companies that do go through the rigors include APC, Tributaries and Tripp Lite, to name a few. In the case of Tributaries, president Joe Perfito says that in 2004 the company decided it was worth the investment because UL listing validated the technologies it was implementing and provided a level of safety for Tributaries’ consumers.
Perfito says installers should consider the benefits of selling UL-listed products not only because it ensures a quality solution to their clients, but can protect the dealer as well.
“It [UL listing] is extremely important because it assures our dealers and the end-user that the unit, having been reviewed and tested by a competent authority, has been engineered according to the National Electric Code [NEC] safety standards, and it is manufactured with 100 percent compliance to the listed specifications and will operate as design,” he says. “From a liability standpoint, if there is a fire that is traced back to an electrical source in or near the A/V equipment and that equipment did not have UL certification, the dealer, salesperson, rep and manufacturer would be in jeopardy of being drawn into a lawsuit.”
When broaching the topic of power and UL listing to clients, Perfito recommends dealers keep it simple by pointing out such products’ safety and reliability in a home environment. “[The message I would tell] dealers and consumers is that when looking to purchase a product that plugs into a 120-volt AC outlet, make certain that it has been certified by a professional safety testing company and that it [the product] has achieved a UL listing,” he advises.
“Anything in a home that carries electric power must be UL rated for safety to protect a family and their investment into their home. Look at the wiring in your walls, your outlets, lighting, HVAC and appliances - all of these products must have UL listing to be sold to a consumer and installed in a home. For safety and compliance with the NEC many of these products must be installed by licensed electricians … a non-UL-rated product may be cheaper, because the company making the product did not invest in the testing and certification.”
http://www.cepro.com/article/power_protection_are_you_ul_listed/
2.22.2012
National Security Agency director General Keith Alexander believes Anonymous could have the power to take town the United States’ electrical grid this year.
The Wall Street Journal’s sources say the director admitted his concern over the hacktivist group at the White House, though he has made no public statement regarding this group in particular. But cyber security is a huge issue for the government as Anonymous continues to “attack for good,” with the expectation of exposing corruption. Anonymous routinely attacks the government on what it calls “F**k FBI Friday,” and recently hacked into a phone call between the FBI and Scotland Yard, where the two agencies were discussing the group itself.
The NSA declined to comment in an e-mail to VentureBeat.
Recently Anonymous’ attacks have seemed to be fairly surface value. Denial of service attacks, which simply attempt to access a website so many times that it overloads, have been behind some of its most high-profile “take-downs” in the last few months. This includes the Department of Justice shortly after the FBI shut down file-sharing company MegaUpload. A similar strategy is currently proposed by the group to shut down the 13 servers that run the Internet.
But the group certainly isn’t limited to DDoS knowledge, and has performed much more intricate attacks in the past. These include the hack on security firm Stratfor where credit card information was compromised. E-mails regarding the Haditha Massacre were leaked from the law firm representing the Marine accused of spearheading the civilian-casualty-riddled mission. Not to mention the slew of website defaces that have hit law enforcement agencies across the country.
An attack on the electrical grid, however, would more likely be blamed on a country with which the U.S. has tensions. China has already been caught hacking into U.S. Department of Defense key cards to gain access information, though it is unknown if the attack was associated with the Chinese government.
Those in charge of the electrical grid, however, told the Journal that they are prepared for attacks, have backup to restore power quickly should an attack occur, and already face regular attacks which they are able to deflect.
But Alexander isn’t concerned about tensioned governments acting on their own behalf, so much as “leaking” knowledge to local cyber criminal groups.
“A near-peer competitor [country] could give cyber malware capability to some fringe group,” Alexander said, according to the Journal. “Some hacker, next thing you know, could be into our electrical grid. We have to get after this.”
We have reached out to the NSA and will update the post upon hearing back.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/21/idUS414489442720120221
2.15.2012
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission has exempted small and medium industries from paying power factor correction charge.
The commission on January 10 issued the order after the small and medium entrepreneurs and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers and Commerce Industries had demanded the waiver.
The commission ordered the power distribution agencies to realise the power factor correction charge from consumers who use power at a rate higher than 50kW with a retrospective effect from December 2010.
Small and medium industries usually use power at a rate between 30kW and 50kW.
The power distribution agencies earlier realised an extra charge from industrial consumers who used power at a rate higher than 30kW.
The commission also exempted farmers from paying the charge who use power-run pumps of 15 horsepower for irrigation as an incentive to marginal farmers to ensure smooth farming.
The power distribution agencies realise the charge for maintaining power supply at a stable voltage to consumers using an external device on the supply line.
The Energy Regulatory Commission’s member member Salim Mahmud on Monday told that the commission had considered that the PFC charge had put an additional burden on small and medium industries.
He said that small and medium industries were losing their competitiveness because of additional expenditure caused by the PFC charge.
In the order, the commission said that the Bangladesh Plastic Product Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association and the FBCCI urged the commission on several occasions to exempt SMEs from PFC charge considering its contribution to the national economy.
The order also said that the PFC charge would be imposed on specified categories of consumers who would fail to keep the power factor at 0.95 lag or above.
The consumers eligible for the PFC charge are Domestic and charitable organisations having approved load above 10kW, commercial or office consumers using power at a rate more than 20kW, domestic consumers using power at more than 10kW rate, consumers using power from 33kV and 132kV lines and consumers using power from three-phase distribution line at 400V not for street lights and water pumps would need to pay the PFC charge.
The PFC charge would not be higher than 18.75 per cent of total electric bill, whatever the average monthly power factor recorded at supply point may be, for domestic users, charitable organisations, street lights, water pumps and irrigation pumps categories.
http://energybangla.com/2012/02/08/272.html#.TzvZHnY9w_4
2.15.2012
WEST NORRITON, Pa. - February 7, 2012 (WPVI) -- Some residents in the 100 block of Clemens Circle in West Norriton say it was about 1:30 a.m. Monday that they were awaken by a disturbing noise.
"We heard a pop and you could actually visibly hear almost like a little explosion," resident Al Barth said.
Worse, Melissa Miller in the unit block of Galbraith could smell something burnt.
"I could smell burnt plastic and rubber and I looked at the wall, it just caught the center of my eye, I just saw the wall all charred up and I called PECO and the fire department to make sure that my house wasn't going to catch fire," Miller said.
Fortunately, for Miller, she had a surge protector on her circuit box that protected everything in her home. But others without such protectors lost a number of appliances.
"We lost our dishwasher, we lost our oven, the GFI downstairs is pretty burnt and it was pretty scary," resident Rob Snyder said.
Al Barth lost two flat screen TVs and DiLeo's Auto Service lost its computer system for its gas pumps
"We need power supply parts and some of that stuff isn't really in stock cause it's not a common thing to really go bad," Bob Novey of DiLeo's Auto Service said.
What they did not know at the time is that according to West Norriton Police, the surge was caused when the driver of a 2009 Chevy Impala crashed into a power pole at the intersection of Burnside and Chestnut avenues.
Police later charged 36-year-old Eric Gutowski of Norristown with DUI and related offenses.
The obvious question is who do people who lost items because of the surge turn to now to try and get reimbursement?
The short answer is to contact PECO either on line or by phone requesting to file a claim.
"Depending on the cause of the surge will depend on whether or not PECO is liable to compensate the customer. If it's something that's out of PECO's control, the company would not be liable, but we will help the customer to identify the liable party," PECO spokesman Bob Armstrong said.
And for future reference, it may also be a good idea to invest in power surge protectors just in case.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8535260
2.7.2012
It is a stunning view of New York City as you’ve never seen it before.
Researchers today revealed an interactive map showing the energy consumption of every single building in the five boroughs.
The team at Columbia Engineering School hope their interactive map will help people see exactly how much energy is consumed by their building compared to others.
Burn baby burn: A new interactive map from Columbia engineers shows how much energy buildings use per year
Big bills in the Big Apple: Manhattan had the highest annual energy use, with many buildings totalling more than 5,000kWh
They hope the map will help residents and businesses become more eco-friendly in a city where over two-thirds of the energy consumption is from buildings.
‘The lack of information about building energy use is staggering,’ said lead author Bianca Howard, a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering at Columbia.
New York tops list of best cities for shopping in the U.S. - but Indianapolis, Portland and Charlotte also get a look in
See the interactive energy map from Columbia School of Engineering
‘We want to start the conversation for the average New Yorker about energy efficiency and conservation by placing their energy consumption in the context of other New Yorkers.
‘Just knowing about your own consumption can change your entire perspective.’
The map uses publicly available data to work out which buildings are using the most energy and how they are using it.
Big spenders: Midtown Manhattan, the Upper East Side, and the Upper West Side all have buildings that used a surmountable amount of energy
Financial capital: The Financial District, at the southern tip of Manhattan, was another neighbourhood using vast amounts of energy
Then, it displays the energy use on a zoomable colour-map.
‘This map will enable NYC building owners to see whether their own building consumes more or less than what an average building with similar function and size would,’ said Professor Vijay Modi, who oversaw the project.
‘This is the first time anyone has provided an estimate like this for New York City and the first time anyone has offered information to the public in the form of an interactive map.’
The researchers plan to use the map to find where solar panels and other eco-friendly energy sources would be most effective.
Outer boroughs: Buildings in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island used far less energy per capita than its neighbour Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan and the Financial District are two major culprits in energy consumption. Not surprisingly, that is where a majority of high-rises and businesses are located.
The outer boroughs of Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Brooklyn were mostly in yellow and orange zones of energy consumption.
Buildings tend to be lower, and therefore use less energy.
Modi sees the project as a way to improve energy efficiency.
‘What is perhaps the most valuable contribution of this map,’ Modi said, ‘is that it enables New York City building owners and energy services providers to explore the possibility of two or more buildings, or an entire block, or even a neighbourhood, to share resources and infrastructure, and thus save considerably on both energy and emissions.’
FOR MAPS AND IMAGES
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097530/Map-shows-energy-use-EVERY-building-New-York-City.html#ixzz1lhcO47IU
2.2.2012
Why Correct Power Factor?
A power supply’s power factor affects the harmonics that an AC-DC supply generates on the powerline. To understand the effect of power factor and harmonics, we first have to look at their effect on AC power distribution. Electric utilities have major difficulties when distributing power for loads that include AC-DC power supplies without power factor correction. These power supplies are nonlinear loads that:
Distort the AC waveform.
Cause harmonics currents that can impact operation of other equipment on the same utility line.
Can cause fires, from neutral wires overheating.
Can overstress and shorten the lives of power transformers.
Can overload AC-power generators.
Starting In the 1980’s, the European Union decided to place the burden for solving these problems on the manufacturers of products employing AC-DC power supplies. Since then, it has undergone several revisions to set standards for limiting the amount of current products may draw at harmonics (integer multiples) of the powerline frequency. The LT3978 complies with power supplies rated up to 100W. Table 2 lists the equipment classifications of the IEC 61000-3-2 Standard for Harmonic Line Current Emissions.
In the U.S., there is the Energy Star program of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy that promotes use of energy efficient products and practices. Products that qualify with these requirements may display the Energy Star logo. Power supplies that meet Energy Star requirements must meet strict guidelines that specify efficiency and power factor (power factor value also affects harmonics). Table 3 lists the requirements for internal and external power supplies. Internal power supplies rated at less than 75 W must meet the minimum efficiency specified in Table 3. Internal supplies rated at ≥75 W must meet both the efficiency and minimum power factor requirements.
Power factor is relevant because typical AC-to-DC power converters load a powerline with a diode bridge driving a capacitor (Fig. 2). This load is nonlinear because two diodes of the bridge rectifier are in the direct power path for either the positive or negative half-cycle of the input ac line voltage. This type of load draws line current only during the peak of the sinusoidal line voltage, resulting in line current input peaks (Fig. 3) that cause power line harmonics. Line harmonics are comparable in magnitude to the fundamental harmonic current at line frequency. Fig. 4 shows the magnitude of higher order harmonics currents normalized with respect to the magnitude of the fundamental harmonic at line frequency.
The magnitude of line harmonics depends on each power supply’s power factor, which can vary from 0 to 1. A low power factor value causes higher harmonics and a high power factor value produces lower harmonics. Minimizing the harmonics produced by a power supply requires correcting a power supply’s power factor so that it is as close to 1 as possible.
Harmonics minimization requires an understanding of power factor (PF), defined as:
Where:
P = Real power in watts
IRMS = RMS line current
VRMS = RMS line voltage
VRMS × IRMS = Apparent power in volt-amperes (VA)
Power Factor also equals the cosine of the phase angle () between line current and voltage; re-writing Equation (1):
The value of is a decimal number between 0 and 1.
1.31.2012
Real-time production and power moni- toring software linked to new or old equipment using direct protocol interrogation, or programmable logic controllers and sensors, improves the efficient use of the avail- able time of equipment and ensures that work is performed at the expected or costing rate, says monitoring software development company LiveMonitoring Technologies sales and marketing executive Pierre Boshoff.
“For example, when implementing our power monitoring module, PowerMon, in conjunction with various power factor correction initiatives, such as State-owned power utility Eskom’s demand-side management and savings projects, there is significant potential to save electricity,” he says.
The company is also developing a new system to provide carbon and environmental monitoring, which will make use of the knowledge base of other savings projects, he reveals.
“Our systems are protocol independent and can support multiple, concurrent protocols in one system. Typically, we have proprietary equipment protocols on site linked to process control equipment with the data stored for use in a single system,” he explains.
The PowerMon module tracks a number of power variables that influence power use efficiency. The power factor that is recorded can be used to ensure efficient use is being made of the power supplied, while linking consumption to time of use can help to determine if power is consumed efficiently during peak times and effectively during off-peak times.
The production monitoring module, the ProduMax system, provides a patented display that enables clients to gauge how efficiently their production processes are operating on a real-time display. This enables them to identify when issues occur and take immediate corrective actions at the production stage to prevent a knock-on effect on delivery dates or quality requirements, he notes.
When used jointly, these two systems provide insight into the energy use for each item produced, as well as the average energy or carbon output to produce the item.
“LiveMonitoring is working closely with a large international emissions company, PE International, on implementing these factors in a real-time carbon system,” he says.
The ProduMax display is universal in most industries, incorporating downtime recording, use and efficiency recording and reporting into one linear graphical display. The system reports can be customised to suit individual client needs at installation or as needed. The overall design of all of LiveMonitoring’s systems is undertaken in consultation with clients and often results in new features being added to improve the base system, he says.
“We are continuously improving our products to meet all new requirements identified by our clients and suppliers,” he emphasises.
“Currently, work is being done with providers of power-quality equipment. There are many ways that our systems assist companies in improving efficiencies. One example of improving the flow of information in a manufacturing environment is auto- matically [notifying] fitters that a machine needs attention or maintenance when the monitored machine goes into a downtime period that schedules it for maintenance. As soon as maintenance staff take responsibility for the alert, this then automatically gene- rates work tickets within the third-party maintenance system,” explains Boshoff.
Meanwhile, machine use and output are automatically recorded and can be linked to a counter alert to indicate when specified tasks need to be undertaken.
“We have implemented some of this for the plastics industries, where we count the number of impressions and notify them when they need to service the mould. Further, when monitoring other variables, such as power, we can set alerts for maintenance if there is a peak demand or drop in the power factor. Some of our clients have used the downtime recording to work out the return on investment for equipment and make decisions on when equipment should be taken out of service and replaced when it becomes costly to maintain,” he says.
The importance of having green accredited products will be vital to the success of companies in the future, he adds.
“Companies should look to the local software industry to fulfil their needs. The LiveMonitoring software management systems are versatile, user friendly and cover a wide range of application, designed specifi- cally to improve industry efficiencies, productivity, energy or power saving and asset use through [the provision of] quality real-time, instant, management information,” concludes Boshoff.
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/improved-productivity-from-real-time-power-production-emissions-monitoring-2011-12-16