The Electricity Blog

By Stefan Fassbinder

The German Federal Minister for the Environment would like to ban the use of incandescent tungsten-filament light bulbs. For instance, one of the issues raised is that of dimming. As most of the dimmers installed are used to control incandescent bulbs, it’s worth taking a closer look at the issues involved.

A clever tool to provide electricity for anybody anywhere

Engineers tend to see things big. So much so that they sometimes forget that the biggest impact can often be achieved by seeing things small and simple. This tendency to opt for the big certainly doesn’t hold for Colin Bulthaup, founder of Potenco. The mission of his company is huge: making clean power universally available and immediately useful anywhere and everywhere in the world. His solution is surprisingly small: a pull-cord generator the size of a yoyo that can safely power rechargeable batteries and provide energy for applications such as lighting, cell phones, or water purifiers.

By Sergio Ferreira.

Electricity is a high quality energy carrier, and its inefficient use needs to be avoided by all means. But more important than the question ‘can we save electricity?’ may be to ask ourselves whether electricity can save energy.

The use of electricity is growing fast, and it’s growing faster than the consumption of primary energy. Paradoxically, this may be an opportunity rather than a problem, since electricity’s high efficiency at the point of use in combination with increasing options for low-carbon generation can be one of the main roads towards a sustainable energy system.

While requirements imposed on the electricity system increase, the growing amount of decentralized generation risks reducing reliability, and requires us to rethink system operation. Fortunately, many of the technical solutions needed are already within sight, and some even available today.

High oil prices and mainly the instability of the price and supply will make the sector turn even more to indigenous or renewable energy sources, and to improve the efficiency of generation and distribution. This carries significant consequences for the electricity sector for two reasons: the need to incorporate more decentralized solutions and a more efficient use. But on the other hand, it may carry a big overall benefit, as the precision and efficiency of electricity may be the key to reduce our environmental impact without compromising economic and productivity growth.

Leonardo ENERGY recently participated to the World Sustainable Energy Days Conference in Wels, Austria, presenting this poster and paper discussing energy efficiency improvements in electricity using equipment and through the use of electricity.

This report presents the interim results of the international project Efficient Servers which is conducted within the EU programme Intelligent Energy Europe.

The project’s central objective is to support the market development for energy efficient servers thereby exploiting energy and cost saving potentials. In the first project phase, the European market for servers, the server energy consumption and energy saving potentials were analysed.

The annual electric power consumption of servers in EU-27 was calculated based on market data from IDC and energy consumption data for the most popular server models provided by manufacturers.

Electric power consumption in Western Europe (EU 15 plus Switzerland) in 2006 amounted to 14,7 TWh for servers and 36,9 TWh for data centres including storage, network components and infrastructure (cooling, UPS, lighting). The number of servers installed was 6,77 Mio units. The Eastern European countries only account for 7 % of the total EU-27  electric power consumption of servers. The total electric power consumption of data centres in EU-27 is close to 40 TWh.

Moderate measures to support energy efficiency of servers and server infrastructure could help to reduce the energy demand significantly. Annual energy consumption in data centres could be reduced by about 25% by 2011. An application of forced measures would allow annual energy savings of 50-60% and cost savings of up to 5,5 billion €. 

More information, as well as the complete reports, are available at the project website. 

But expensive to implement

In recent years, peak summer demand for electricity has been rising more steeply than the average energy demand, especially in sunny countries where air conditioning is becoming standard.

Contrary to what you might expect, electricity generation and retail companies are not pleased with these consumption peaks. With the current pricing model, the cost of providing the marginal peak kWh is often higher than the revenue. Electricity transmission and distribution companies also see a high peak demand as a burden since it requires extra transmission capacity. A high peak demand is also negative from an environmental point of view, because it often requires the use of peak power production units with a poor environmental performance.

Based on a discussion webinar, Friday 15th February 2008

Two major concerns exist about our electrical power system. The first is the reliability and quality of the electrical power, summarised under the term ‘Power Quality’ (PQ). Poor PQ affects the profitability and productivity of our economy. The second concern is the energy efficiency (EE) of the electrical system. Poor EE affects both the environment and the profitability of the economy.

But how do measures to improve PQ influence the efficiency, and vice versa? Are PQ and EE measures synergetic, or rather counter-productive?

Leonardo ENERGY addressed this subject in a discussion webinar on 15th February 2008. The following are a few of the major points arising from that discussion.

By Guy Kasier, E&D Systems

This briefing paper presents the findings of the project 'Telemedicine and the consequences for urban planning and development' running from 2003 to 2007 in 4 countries. Its main findings are presented below:

Using telemedicine applications reduces the effects on the patient that can be caused by the place where care can be provided and by time-related factors. When drafting or modifying an urban plan, consideration will have to be given to a change in attitude towards this subject. As telemedicine affects the daily life of people (patients and carers), there is a direct influence on the daily routine, on transport requirements, on the planning of housing and accommodation and on the planning of healthcare services. Today, however, certain influences are still difficult to predict due to a lack of information and research. The change in transport requirements, for example, will depend largely on the way people use (or do not use) ICT’s potential in this regard. However, as the need for “face to face” contact will never entirely disappear, neither will classic transport functions, although, in theory, that is also a possibility.

Politicians and policy-makers must provide the necessary resources to explore telemedicine applications properly. Urban and rural-planners will also have to develop new models in which telemedicine has a place and, along with care-providers (doctors, nurses, etc.) they will also have to be adequately trained to understand the potential for and use of these new technologies. As in many other cases, the will to change and develop will be vitally important to implementing these new technologies.

This Interreg IIIC Telemedicine project provided an impetus to investigate the influence of telemedicine on urban planning. However, a great many questions remain unanswered. At the end of this conference, the closing sessions consequently highlighted the options of starting a European project to investigate the relationships between an ageing population group, an increasing number of people presenting chronic medical conditions with the promising developments in telemedicine as they relate to both urban and remote rural areas’ planning.

These 2 case studies demonstrate that high-quality rewiring of domestic electrical systems in older residential buildings can yield a significant increase in home comfort.

We describe some examples of electrical refurbishment work aimed at illustrating how electricians can tap into this market.

We begin in the city of Jena in Thuringia in the east of Germany. Many of the residential areas in Jena are situated on the slopes of the Saale valley. One such development comprises detached and semi-detached houses all built in the 1930s and 40s.

These solid, comfortable residences were built with typical German thoroughness, but with electrical systems that reflect the requirements of that time.

For its time, the electrical installation work was fairly modern using copper wires within a protective metal sheath. However, each house was fitted with only a few wiring circuits comprising two copper conductors with a 0.5 mm² cross-section and protected solely by a 6 A fuse.

One such semi-detached house is owned by the seventy-year-old pensioner Herta Engels:

The second case takes us to the Rapp family from Jena that owns a detached house built in the 1950s that is situated on the slopes of the Saale valley.

The original quote for the electrical installation work was for €3,500. The final bill, however, totalled €10,000 – not because the electrician failed to do the costing properly, but because he succeeded step by step in explaining to his customer the added value and long-term benefits of carrying out a comprehensive electrical modernization programme.

This article demonstrates that the big challenge facing electricians today is convincing their customers that, when comparing quotes, the bottom line is not enough – they have to ensure they are comparing like with like:

By Angelo Baggini, University of Bergamo
& Franco Bua, Engineering Consulting & Design

In industrial plants, power transformers are expensive components of high strategic importance. Unavailability due to faults generally results in high costs, both in relation to repair work and in terms of lost production.

Efficient diagnostic monitoring capable of highlighting incipient faults and therefore able to reduce the fault rate and downtime of the transformer within considered physiological limits are generally of extreme interest for maintenance departments.

This article introduces a number of general considerations on fault statistics, and explains the main on-line diagnostic monitoring approaches.

The NERC 2007 Long-term Reliability Assessment

Last October, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation published its '2007 Long-term Reliability Assessment'. The conclusions of this study are more than a little alarming. The North-American grid is ageing rapidly and it is no longer adequate to cope with today’s energy landscape, containing large quantities of renewable energy systems. Transmission capacity continues to lag behind demand and will need to increase by more than 10 per cent over the next 10 years. According to the Assessment, there is also the need to develop reliable storage capacity to better manage demand.

The cost of building a high capacity, integrated, and smart grid system is estimated to be $100-150 billion. However, the economic impact associated with a failing grid would quickly amount to the same order of magnitude.

In this first webcast, of a series of 3, Bill Howe, Program Manager Power Quality with EPRI introduces the concept of retrofit energy saving devices, their definition, what claims they make and what technologies they use.

View webcast (14 minutes)

Related

Proceed to part 2

Proceed to part 3

By Guy Kasier, E&D Systems

As national demographics see an ever increasing growth in the older age groups, so there is a significant demand for homes that cater to this market and to people who, for whatever reason, require some form of assisted living in their home to enable them to stay there rather than being cared for away from home – privately or by the state.

This article reports on a guided tour around service flats, reviewing the modern technologies used in them to improve comfort, welfare, safety and energy efficiency. These service flats had been built in Flanders (Belgium) by a company called Serviceflats Invest, a fixed capital investment company that was set up in 1995. This company has to date completed 46 projects comprising a total of 1,063 service flats specifically designed for the elderly. As a further indication of the demand levels, there are currently 4 projects on the go with 99 flats under construction and 13 projects with 331 flats in the design stage.

Download briefing paper

New DOE standard for distribution transformers

The US Department Of Energy (DOE) has created a new, tighter efficiency standard for distribution transformers. The final version of this new rule was published on 12 October 2007. The standard applies to liquid-immersed transformers as well as to dry-types.

According to EERE Network News, this new standard could raise the cost of distribution transformers by 12 to 13 per cent but reduce their energy losses by about one fourth.

Download paper (pdf)

Once upon a time there was a buyer at a large company who had to purchase a large three-phase induction motor with a power rating of 1 MW that was to be used in a big machine. As usual, he invited suppliers to submit bids. Before drafting the tender documents he spoke to the head engineer and technicians at the relevant technical department about the expected number of operating hours per year, the machine’s level of utilization and its load profile. Talks then began with potential suppliers about what sort of efficiencies could be achieved. As is normal, the buyer and supplier agreed on a penalty clause that would allow a price reduction to be imposed should the motor fall short of the efficiency level agreed in the sales contract. Equally, in the event of the motor exceeding specifications, the supplier would receive a bonus.

Once upon another time there was another buyer at another large company – or perhaps it was even the same buyer at the same company. This buyer needed to buy 1000 small three-phase induction motors each with a 1 kW rating that were to be built into the numerous small machines at his large company. He put out requests for quotes, specifying the voltage, design and con¬figuration and the number of poles, and then placed his order with the cheapest supplier. The word ‘efficiency’ was nowhere to be seen: neither in the request for quotes, nor on the motor’s rating plates. Perhaps it was mentioned in the manufacturer’s catalogue, but, as so often, it remained unread.

The sad thing about these two fairy tales is that they aren’t actually fictional at all, but a fair description of current industrial practice. Had we swapped the two stories, then we would at least have avoided the most absurd aspect of the situation: the fact that large motors are inherently far more efficient than small ones.

Download paper (pdf)

LE3D is Leonardo ENERGY's virtual world on sustainable energy. For a flavour of the 3D world, view the slideshow below.

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By H S Bronzeado

Deregulation has revolutionised the electric industry. Electricity has been treated as part of a business instead of being a public service. Traditional monopolies has been deregulated and split up into different business units, and electricity has been offered as a product and subjected to competition. Voltage quality issues, which were discussed separately from the deregulation process, now need to be discussed together as there is a close connection between them. This paper examines the main aspects of the quality of the electric power supply and raises questions that should be taken into consideration in a competitive electricity market.

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By S Bhattacharyya et al

Electricity as a commodity should satisfy strict quality requirements. In the last two decades, the customer’s urge for good quality of power supply has increased due to the use of more sensitive electronic devices which on the other hand might influence the electricity network too. At present, no definite responsibility with respect to power quality (PQ) aspects at the point of connection (POC) is defined in the European standard EN50160 or other standard. Also, the limiting values for various power quality parameters differ in different standards available in different countries of the world. For implementing power quality regulation in the future electricity infrastructure, it is required to evaluate the actual performance level of the electricity network. In this paper, various PQ related problems in different countries of the world are highlighted. A brief overview is presented on the present PQ status of the Dutch network and other PQ related activities.

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By C Stanescu et al

Transelectrica is the Romanian Transmission System Operator and the Meter Operator of the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM). Some of its partners are Electrica and the eligible consumers. Maintaining the Power Quality (PQ) indices within admissible limits, in the common coupling points (CCPs), is one of the most important of the WEM actors. This paper addresses the salients results of the the first PQ permanent monitoring system, on the Romania WEM.

View paper (pdf)