Leonardo ENERGY - The Global Community for Sustainable Energy Professionals

Distribution transformer replacement

Bruno De Wachter — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:05:12 +0000

What are the decision factors in replacing an operating distribution transformer with a new one

Usually, distribution transformers are only replaced after failing.

IT and Telecom: maximum system availability demands continuous power supply

Isabelle Heriakian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

To achieve system availabilities of the order of the six “9”s and beyond, IT and Telecom service providers are totally dependent upon a continuous power supply. Power variations or interruptions create significant disruptions for sectors that are judged by the reliability of their services.

Power Quality Control In An Industrial Estate

Isabelle Heriakian — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

This case study presents a methodology for improving power quality in an important industrial estate. A project was initiated to reduce the number of interruptions and enhance power quality in the estate and focused on reducing weak points in the power distribution system by inspecting distribution lines in both customer and utility areas. Once weaknesses were identified, corrective action would be taken and preventative measures taken to prevent re-occurance in order to provide high power availability to customers.

Quality of supply

Isabelle Heriakian — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

From Low Carbon Electricity Systems congress, here is the full recorded video presentation made by David Chapman, from CDA UK, including slides.

Pharmaceuticals: unplanned interruptions generate high costs and create long delays

Isabelle Heriakian — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:09:18 +0000

Setting up a production process for the pharmaceuticals sector is not a trivial undertaking.

Electrical power variations or even minor interruptions can neutralise tightly controlled biological working conditions and ruin an entire batch, resulting in irretrievable production losses.

The longer the event, the harder a pharmaceutical company’s profit margins are hit. Ensuring continuity of power supply is therefore of fundamental importance for this sector.

Science Magazine reports on the efficiency gap

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:30:00 +0000

How to do more with off-the-shelf energy efficient technology

The August edition of Science Magazine dedicated an eight page long focus article on how to leap the efficiency gap. This gap consists of the imbalance between the wide range of energy efficient technology that is readily available on the market and the rather small share this technology represents in the daily practice of industry, buildings, and transport.

Circuit Breaker Tripping in Semiconductor Plant Caused by Voltage Dips

Isabelle Heriakian — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:36:18 +0000

A semiconductor plant experienced a problem where the LV side main circuit breaker was tripped by voltage dips. As a result, power to all connected loads was interrupted and manufacturing processes were halted. The main cause of this problem was the unsuitable design of the under-voltage protection system. When a voltage dip occurred it was misinterpreted as an under-voltage event by the protection system, which erroneously tripped the circuit breaker.

Webinar - Silicon technology’s role in sustainable building

HDK — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:16:42 +0000

Workshop on smart grids

Isabelle Heriakian — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

From Low Carbon Electricity Systems congress, here is the full recorded video presentation made by Peter Vaessen, from Kema, including slides.

The mobile smart grid

Isabelle Heriakian — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0000

From Low Carbon Electricity Systems congress, here is the full recorded video presentation made by Andre Postma, from Enexis, including slides.

Electricity storage

Isabelle Heriakian — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:15:03 +0000

From Low Carbon Electricity Systems congress, here is the full recorded video presentation made by Jillis Raadschelders, from Kema, including slides.

Reverse auction market feed-in tariffs

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:30:00 +0000

California stimulating middle-scale renewable energy projects

California regulators have designed a new market system for stimulating middle-scale renewable energy projects in a competitive way. The main idea is to create a reverse auction market where renewable energy companies can offer their services for green energy projects. The company that offers to sell electricity at the lowest rate wins a particular purchase agreement. Subsequently, the state will pay the developers the feed-in tariff that is sufficient to bring that particular project online.

Aggregated Electricity Load Modeling & Control for Regulation and Load Following Ancillary Services (PSERC Webinar)

HDK — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:26:01 +0000

When ICT & Electro-technology meet

Guy Kasier — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:19:23 +0000

Once an electrical installation had been installed in a home in the past, that was it. So, when a domestic electrical installation was fitted, it was and in a many cases still is considered to be an unmodifiable fixture. In fact, it has always been quite difficult to make any changes to a classical electrical appliance once it is installed. Fortunately the arrival of integrated home systems means that such flexibility is now available to us (see: Definition of integrated home systems), even if the communications aspect (see: Increasing communication) is, admittedly, still in its infancy.

Support for small renewables in Australia

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Avoiding a high administrative burden

The Australian government’s Department of Climate Change has created a new system of Renewable Energy Credits (REC) for systems up to 1.5 kW. Those small systems are mainly comprised of PV systems, along with small wind and hydroelectric installations. The problem with the former Renewable Energy Certificates system was that the resulting administrative burden for such small systems was too high and the resulting income too low to result in a successful incentive.

In the new RECs system, the energy production is not measured but estimated. The certificates are paid for in advance, at the time the system is purchased, for a lifetime of fifteen years. The production estimation is based on standard figures of mean solar irradiation in the local region. To provide an extra incentive for small systems, this figure is multiplied by 5 for systems installed between June 2009 and June 2012. This multiplier will decrease gradually after 2012 and be set at 1 from June 2015 onwards.

Ocean energy

Isabelle Heriakian — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

From Low Carbon Electricity Systems congress, here is the full recorded video presentation made by Hans Christian Soerensen, from EU-OEA, including slides.

Concentrated solar plants

Isabelle Heriakian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:53:45 +0000

From Low Carbon Electricity Systems congress, here is the full recorded video presentation made by Luis Crespo from Protermosolar including slides.

Geo-engineering does not offer an easy way out

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:30:00 +0000

No effective, affordable, low risk solutions available

If we are able to influence the earth’s CO2 density and climate in a negative way, it seems logical to assume that we are also able to influence it in a positive way. That is the basic idea behind geo-engineering solutions to climate change. Those solutions generally include such ideas as afforestation, CO2 air capture, ocean fertilisation, cloud albedo (using sea water spray to whiten clouds and increase cloud reflectivity), surface albedo (using specifically coloured roofing and paving materials), creating stratospheric sulphur aerosols, and space solar reflectors.

Is CCS geo-engineering?

A recent article on the subject in the Financial Times also includes CO2 capture at the stack ('Carbon Capture and Storage', CCS) among other geo-engineering solutions. This is noteworthy primarily since this solution is generally seen as more realistic. CCS already receives significant amounts of R&D funding, in contrast with the other geo-engineering solutions.

US invests in Energy Frontier Research Centres

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Focus on PV, CCS, nuclear, hydrogen, biomass, and energy storage

In August, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the delivery of $377 million in funding for 46 new Energy Frontier Research Centres. The centres will be hosted by universities, national laboratories, non-profit organisations, and private companies. The research domains that were chosen offer a good sampling of those technologies the US Department of Energy (DOE) sees as potentially important in the energy landscape of the future. The funded projects are focussed on:

Improving the efficiency of photovoltaic systems; with particular projects dedicated to hybrid inorganic/organic PV cells and nanometre-sized PV cells
Advanced nuclear techniques
Carbon capture and geological storage (CCS)
Hydrogen, including the production of hydrogen as well as hydrogen fuel cells
Biomass, including energy-rich plants and the conversion of biomass into chemicals and fuels
Energy storage systems
Superconductivity (1 project)

Integrating wind power in European power systems

Isabelle Heriakian — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:47:59 +0000

From Low Carbon Electricity Systems congress, here is the full recorded video presentation made by Frans van Hulle from EWEA including slides.

Training Module on Electricity Market Regulation - SESSION 3

Fernando Nuno — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:49:15 +0000

Training Module on Electricity Market Regulation - SESSION 2

Fernando Nuno — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:42:33 +0000

Training Module on Electricity Market Regulation - SESSION 1

Fernando Nuno — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:24:04 +0000

Intelligent communication between EVs and the grid

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Car makers collaborate with utility companies

A successful transition to electric vehicle (EV) transport will require more than electric cars that perform well on the road. It will also require charging systems that fulfil the consumer’s needs.

The development of such systems can only be accomplished through collaboration between car makers and utility companies. The latter have to ensure that the appropriate charging technology is in place and that the national electric grid can support the increased demand.

Since drivers will need to be able to charge their vehicle wherever they are, smart charging meters will have to be installed in large numbers. Moreover, car makers and utility companies will have to agree on an industry standard to ensure that those meters communicate with the EVs.

Harebrained solutions for the energy problem

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Thinking out of the box

Surfing the Internet, one frequently comes upon articles on new inventions for harvesting energy and solving the energy problem. Last week, we reported on the concept of 'solar highways'. That idea is certainly not the craziest one to come along...

A functional approach for studying technological progress: Extension to energy technology

HDK — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:04:24 +0000

This paper extends a broad functional category approach for the study of technological capability progress recently developed and applied to information technology to a second key case—that of energy based technologies. The approach is applied to the same three functional operations—storage, transportation and transformation—that were used for information technology by first building a 100 plus year database for each of the three energy-based functional categories.

Training Module on Electricity Market Regulation

Fernando Nuno — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:45:25 +0000

TRAINING PROGRAM on ELECTRICITY MARKETS REGULATION

Effects of Ancillary Service Markets on Frequency and Voltage Control Performance of Deregulated Power Systems

HDK — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:55:00 +0000

In cooperation with PSERC, we are pleased to offer access to this archived webinar. To watch the recording (56 minutes), click the link in the further reading block.

The future of power? The future is power

HDK — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:35:14 +0000

Solar highways

Bruno De Wachter — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Integrating road networks and power networks

The US Department of Transportation has awarded funding for building a 'solar highway' prototype. A solar highway contains photovoltaic (PV) modules covered with bulletproof glass as a road surface. The surface also contains a grid of LEDs that can light the roadway, draw lines, and flash warnings that react to traffic sensors. Apart from supplying power for the LEDs and sensors, the energy generated by the PV modules will also be used to heat the highway when required. The remaining energy can be used for houses and businesses alongside the road. If this systems works as projected, it could well make power stations and power lines superfluous. According to an article on Matter Network, covering all American roads with this system would produce an annual yield of energy three times as large as the entire U.S. energy consumption in 2006.