By Jonathan Manson / Published on Mon, 2009-01-12 16:45
By Jonathan Manson and Roman Targosz
Since the end of the 1990s the European Copper Institute [ECI] has been concerned about the impact experienced by commerce and industry of the changing nature of the energy demands organisations face as a result of equipment technological advances, the increasing need o build in resilience into their electrical power installations and the presumed mounting costs of not taking either adequate preventative or reactive action to accommodate the changes.
After some preliminary small scale studies into the impact of poor power quality on such organisations and as the empirical but anecdotal evidence mounted being discussed at length among the growing membership of the Leonardo Power Quality Initiative [LPQI*], so ECI decided to mount an extensive research project into what the impacts were on key energy suing industrial sectors of their not coping with poor power quality.
The project itself took over two years to complete and its results have been exposed in 2007 to a broad technical academic community with a view to securing their support and agreement for this work, the findings of which, whilst not surprising to us, make very negative reading in terms of the avoidable wastage and economic losses incurred by these industrial sectors at a time when energy and resource efficiency are the demands of today. Apply this to more commercial interpretation and it is clear that the EU’s competitive position is also unnecessarily undermined asa a result of this wastage.
This report presents the European PQ Survey – it is clear that the industrial sectors interviewed annually lose upwards of €150 billion as a direct result of their electrical power installations not being sufficiently reliable and resilient for today’s and future operating demands.
The causes of these losses are not new nor are the Power Quality [PQ] phenomena involved. What was both surprising as well as concerning was and we suspect is still the relative lack of analysis and measurement that take place among these power critical industries to be able to know what is causing these damaging interruptions to their operations.
Read full story
By Isabelle Heriakian / Published on Mon, 2008-12-08 15:49
The hotel business is one of the most competitive sectors, where profit margins are continuously under pressure.
It is essential for everything to run smoothly both to preserve margins and to maintain a reputation for comfort, efficiency and value.
The more people enjoy being on the premises, the more they will want to use the facilities – bars, meeting rooms, conference venues, business and fitness centres.
These valuable sources of added revenue are all dependent on a reliable electrical power supply.
Read full story
By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Mon, 2008-11-10 16:30
This Application Note aims at describing the use of energy and the potential energy savings in the hotel sector, on the basis of theory and practical case studies. Hotels and restaurants represent some 9% of total energy consumption in the utility buildings sector. Utility buildings are offices, shops, hotels, restaurants, educational establishments and care institutions.
Read full story
By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Mon, 2008-07-21 17:14
Modern dimmable electronic ballasts provide excellent versatility for lighting scenes in conference rooms, theatres and the like where magnetic ballasts cannot compete, although a new technique to make magnetic ballasts dimmable is presently under development in Canada but not yet available on the market (for news on this see here).
Read full story
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Thu, 2008-06-05 13:26
The SEEDT project, a cooperation between energy agencies, institutes, electrical utilities, transformer manufacturers and academic institutes, presents its new selection guide for energy efficient distribution transformers (EEDT).
Read full story
By Antoni Klajn / Published on Sun, 2006-01-01 01:00
Many industrial and commercial consumers require higher power quality than that available directly from the supply network. Improving the performance of the network is both difficult and expensive, so it is left to the consumer to take action to mitigate the effects of poor power quality.
There is no single solution. The most appropriate solution will be determined by the power level involved, the quality and reliability level required, the quality and reliability of the incoming power, geographical location and cost.
Read full story
