A web event not to be missed on October 3rd between 14h00 and 15h00! Eric Bonneville from AERE will present a discussion paper on the subject of Liberalisation and Energy Efficiency. Liberalization has improved the administrative efficiency of the electricity system, but what has been its impact on technical performance? Energy efficiency of the distribution system, its technical quality of supply and environmental performance are issues which where largely conspicuous in their absence in the debate, but maybe it is time to address them now. To register click here.

Here another conference on energy - Energy 2005: Challenges Across Europe - As liberalisation continues across Europe creating increasingly competitive markets, greater emphasis is being placed on the need to establish a foothold in these opening markets and seize opportunities effectively. Additionally, as concerns continue over the impact of rising wholesale energy prices and the need to secure future energy supplies, this conference comes at an ideal time, offering an excellent platform for key decision makers to debate these substantial issues.

We just came across this notice from the Central Computing Services at Birkbeck University London. On Sunday 25 September there was a dramatic failure of their uninterruptible power supply which took out power to most of the servers. We do not know what type of UPS technology they are using but an on-line UPS is designed to fail safely to mains as it has a built-in automatic bypass. In case of UPS overload or failure this transfers the load(s) to the mains supply. On-line UPS from about 8kVA upwards can also be put in parallel/N+1 configurations to bring more resilience.