I attended a meeting earlier this week, nothing unusual about that but it was at this hotel where the whole of the front wall of the lobby area was glass. It didn’t take me long to realise why the only available chairs and tables were those right in front of this wall. It was on one of this year’s very rare sunny days and I’d sat there barely five minutes when I started to melt from the heat of the sun beaming in.

It got me thinking: wouldn’t it be great if we could do something about this wasted energy to reduce electricity consumption?

I didn’t have long to wait before I chanced upon a story on Energy Live News about Smart Glass or Electrochromic glazing (to give it its proper name), which changes light transmission properties when a small voltage is applied. It can darken and lighten in accordance with how much sun is shining outside – much like lenses in wearable glasses that become tinted when it’s sunnier.

As my example above highlights, what usually happens now with conventional glazing on sunny days is that air-conditioning use increases to assist comfort and/or blinds or window coverings are deployed and lights switched on. Both of these scenarios result in unnecessary increased energy use.

Scientists at De Montfort University in Leicestershire are currently testing Electrochromic glazing technology (which is also referred to as Intelligent Glass) in two office buildings on campus to find out if it does indeed change workers’ reliance on air-conditioning and lighting over time. They believe the new glass could save the offices, schools and hospitals of the future a fifth of their energy bills.

Unlike blinds and window coverings, Smart Glass allows occupants to maintain a view of the outside world, which is also known to be good for moral and mental health in the workplace.

Smart Glass has its drawbacks, however. The technology is in its infancy. It is more expensive than conventional glass, comes in quite small panel sizes and offers only one tint colour. Never the less, the market for it is expected to grow eight-fold by 2020 and a whole Smart Glass industry is already being founded. New products offering a range of colour tints, larger panel sizes and lower cost are already in production in the USA.

It’ll still be a costly and disruptive business to retrofit and replace every office or premises window with Smart Glass in the future. In the meantime, it’s good to know you can rely on energy efficient UPS to protect electricity supply while cutting energy consumption and cost. Check out these really great energy efficient UPS products:

Multi Sentry UPS – 10-120kVA

Sentinel Pro UPS – 700VA-3kVA

Sentinel Dual Low Power UPS – 1-3kVA

Sentinel Dual High Power UPS – 3.3-10kVA

Multi Dialog UPS – 60-80kVA

Multi Guard Modular UPS – 15-12kVA

Master MPS UPS – 10-800kVA

Master HP UPS – 100-600kVA

Master Industrial UPS – 30-80kVA

Not every instrument in a band or orchestra needs to be played hard and fast to get the best sound out of it, save for the drums perhaps. In fact, if you were to play every instrument in the same way as you play the drums, it wouldn’t be long before you wore them all out.

This is how it is in any electric circuit that has many different pieces of equipment plugged into it – not all of them require the same voltage and without the implementation of voltage optimisation technology, what you get is a supply of electric voltage that could be detrimental to certain equipment. Easy to see how and why sensitive equipment, such as computer loads, can take a hit.

Voltage variation is a known issue in many mains power grids. In the UK, a nominal 230V supply can range between 216V and 253V in practice. Even in highly developed economies, such voltage variations make it hard for electrical equipment manufacturers to optimise equipment for given voltages. Fortunately, voltage optimisation (VO) is an effective way to counter this and the best voltage optimisation technology is usually a correctly specified uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Go to Riello UPS and Read more………..

As Riello UPS has recognised with its successful Sentinel Pro, Sentinel Dual HP and Sentinel Power UPS systems, medical and healthcare UPS applications demand more than just ordinary uninterruptible power supply units. At the heart of compliance for this most demanding, and literally life-critical, sector is the IEC 60601 standard.

Underpinning national and international UPS standards

Worldwide, IEC 60601 is the base standard for others (including the European EN60601, UL2601-1 in the USA and CSA C22.2 No. 606.1 in Canada) for medical electrical equipment. Wherever it’s applied, it covers the following aspects of electrical product design:

• Mechanical requirements
• Markings
• Earthing
• Electrical safety relating to use of equipment during patient care.

Nowadays, most medical systems are PC-based. This means that non-compliant ‘consumer’ PC power supplies require replacement before they can be used in medical environments. Alternatively, medical equipment can be powered by an isolation transformer that acts as an interface between electrical and medical systems. To read more about this most important healthcare issue and the IEC 60601 standard, read this post……

Along with meaningful functionality, value, and reliability, better UPS energy efficiency remains a key objective for suppliers and users in the power protection field. Specifiers and purchasers of UPS systems are under constant pressure to contribute to business energy efficiency – while simultaneously maintaining or improving the protection that their installations provide to power-hungry, business-critical systems.

From the suppliers’ perspective, increasing efficiency, flexibility and reliability is essential to maintain or increase leadership in an ultra-competitive sector. From working with Riello UPS, I know that when new developments meet the needs of customers operating the world’s largest data centres and suppliers alike, it’s a classic win-win situation.

Check out this latest blog post to read more about one of the most energy efficient uninterruptible power supplies available on the market today: Riello UPS Master HP 600kVA.

Today’s retail businesses are highly complex operations, the basic aim of which is to source products from manufacturers, transport and sell them to consumers – as quickly, cost-effectively and efficiently as possible. Depending upon the type of products they sell, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) for example, they may also be restricted to a finite amount of time in which to do so.

All of this moving of goods results in a highly elaborate structure of operational units, working independently and at the same time symbiotically towards the same goal. This is supply chain in the raw and at each critical link, there is a point of crucial dependence, from one to the next and so on throughout the whole chain. At no point can retail system downtime be tolerated without a profound and often damaging affect on other units and the retail business as a whole. It is a business for which power protection is truly critical.

Add to that complexity tight margins and the need to keep costs low, alongside strict regulation and you have yourself one of the more challenging UPS power protection endeavours.

You need to look at the business as a whole and map out where the interdependencies lie, then take each specific unit, such as transport and distribution operations, stock room systems, building management, security, pay points and shop floor and treat each one individually in terms of its power protection requirements.

Riello UPS has worked with a number of retail operations. Its product range includes UPS designed to deliver the right sort of power protection for specific parts of the retail business, like iPlug and iDialog UPS which are compact and lightweight, perfect for sitting under the pay point counter and protecting till points and EPoS machines. Then there are the larger UPS like Dialog Vision and Sentinel Dual that protect vital computer networking equipment and telephone systems and offer high levels of UPS resilience, energy efficiency and redundancy (where necessary).

Anyone who would like to know more about UPS for retail businesses might be interested to read this article on Riello UPS’s corporate site.

From the comfort of our homes to daily commutes into the City of London, there’s bright light and controversy in equal measure when solar power is the topic for discussion. Here are a few of the latest illuminating stories that caught the attention of the Power Protection team…

Controversy about PV cells on rooftops near you

Last year, the Government cut incentives to install solar-powered panels and managed to upset many installers. If you recall, there was a legal challenge to the cuts, which halved the payments for the feed-in tariff scheme, the scheme that pays generators of small-scale energy such as owners of the solar panels popping up on rooftops near all of us. As The Guardian reported recently, the Government lost its challenge, so it’s not really surprising that several leading solar companies have now approached the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) with a ‘letter before claim’, demanding damages. At the time of writing, DECC was considering its response. Either way, I’m sure the matter won’t end there.

The largest solar bridge in the world?

The cut in feed-in tariff incentives may have put off some homeowners, but one project whose developers clearly weren’t dissuaded is the new Blackfriars Station development. The new station, with platforms spanning the Thames on a bridge that was originally built in 1864, features 4,400 solar panels covering an area of 6000 square metres. These make the station’s roof London’s largest solar array – and according to The Guardian, the largest solar bridge in the world. The technology generates half the rebuilt station’s energy needs (an estimated 900,000kWh per annum) and will save over 500 tonnes of CO₂. Other green technology in the design of the stunning new station includes rainwater harvesting and solar light pipes to illuminate its interior.

An extraordinary market opportunity

While the final finishing touches go on Blackfriars Station, a California-based solar cell company has announced that a new design of cell could have delivered more than $6.2 billion (£3.75 billion) of electricity in the world last year. According to Solar Daily, the new product from Solar3D uses innovative wide-angle light collection to capture sunlight more efficiently at low angles, such as at the start and end of the day. A Solar3D spokesperson was quoted as saying that, ‘even with 67,400 megawatts of installed PV today, we generate less than 1% of the total electricity in the world.’ He went on to highlight the extraordinary market opportunity for the company and the solar industry as a whole.

We like the sound of this, but have no doubt that you’ll still need the reassurance of reliable, cost-effective power-supply management solutions. For more details, visit the Riello UPS website. And check out the latest in Riello UPS’s solar inverter technology.

Tap the National Grid for a lucrative
new business revenue stream

It’s never been easier, or potentially more lucrative, to harness the capacity of your large generators and make a direct contribution to your business bottom line. If you run generators with a capacity of at least 200 kW, a new Riello scheme, in partnership with London-based KiWi Power, means you can connect Smart-Grid equipped UPS power supplies (such as our Master UPS Series) to the National Grid and earn a useful extra revenue stream…

Introducing Demand Response

Riello’s interest in the National Grid will be familiar to many of you. Our new partner, KiWi Power, is a Smart-Grid company specialising in managing the demand side of energy consumption. They do this for large industrial and commercial electricity consumers, and government regulators. It’s a service known as demand response.

Lower electricity bills and valuable payments

A contract with the National Grid allows KiWi Power to run a Smart-Grid system of connected generation capacity. This allows rapid response to demands for short-term power. The combination of Riello UPS technology and KiWi Power’s capabilities helps clients manage energy more effectively and avoid the most polluting forms of power. There’s no change to the existing electricity supplier and no upfront cost. Just lower electricity bills and valuable payments for helping reduce stress on the National Grid.

Annual revenues up to £25,000 are possible

Once connected, Riello UPS clients enrolled in the programme receive an annual connection fee. You also get extra revenue whenever your power protection system supplies electricity to the National Grid. Annual revenues of £25,000 are achievable (based on a 1MW generator). You can also use the revenue, consisting of an annual fee and a kWh-related payment, to offset initial capital and operational costs of your power protection system and help reduce your total cost of ownership. Riello UPS’s partnership with KiWi Power also helps customers reduce their overall carbon footprint and is Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme compliant.

More details about the power demand response programme, including a summary of features and benefits, are available on the Riello UPS website.

You may be forgiven for thinking that sizing a UPS system is straightforward. There are, after all, many hundreds of online tools, tables and calculators available to help you do it. However, there are a number of items to bear in mind when sizing a power protection system and a little time spent at the outset of planning it will pay dividends in the long run.

If a UPS is oversized (grossly), it will run inefficiently. Conversely, if it is undersized for its application and thus having to run at (or close to) full capacity, it will be akin to driving a family saloon at top speed continuously – it will very soon wear out!

Of course, it is common practice to oversize a UPS (by around 25% larger than the total capacity required by connected loads) and this is because the system needs to be able to cope with potential overload conditions that can be caused by certain types of load and the characteristics of the electricity distribution network within the facility.

If you’d like more information on this, and to understand a little more about load size and type, UPS energy efficiency and sizing for redundancy and autonomy, click here to read a blog post on Riello UPS’s corporate site. Riello also offers free site surveys that enable UPS system right-sizing.

A recent review of the latest in renewable energy news brought a selection of interesting projects, products and ideas to my attention. Here are a few of the latest gems…

In Northern Ireland, according to The Belfast Telegraph, Amber Green Solar is focusing on the solar voltaic market, which uses cells that do not require direct sunlight to work – in a part of the UK that shares similar solar radiation with Wales, London, the English Midlands and Munich, Germany.

The energy-supply implications of Japan’s tsunami continue to emerge

On the other side of the globe, and hardly surprising in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and the problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the Japanese government is pushing ahead with the adoption of renewables and improved energy efficiency. This accompanies increasing pressure from the Japanese populace for the ending of nuclear power generation – and the urgent need to cut energy consumption following the shut down of all the country’s nuclear plants in May 2012.

Renewable Revolution or Nuclear Nightmare?

Staying out in the Far East, and capturing the current mood in Japan, an online article from The Ecologist was rather ominously headlined as ‘Renewable Revolution or Nuclear Nightmare?’ The piece, which unsurprisingly referenced Fukushima, asserts that the rapid spread of solar power across China, India, Africa and South America is being driven not by subsidy, but by the market.

DECC poised to confirm subsidy banding review

Meanwhile, online sustainability website businessGreen recently reported that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is poised to confirm a renewable energy subsidy banding review. Writing on the site, journalist Jessica Shankleman concluded that the majority of renewables developers expect to see a gradual decline in the level of ROC [Renewable Obligation Certificate] support between 2013 and 2017. She adds that ‘DECC is proposing to increase support for marine energy to 5 ROCs/MWh, up from just 2 ROCs/MWh currently as part of a plan to boost investment in early-stage technologies

Early engagement: the answer for renewables and power-supply
management solutions alike

Coming closer to home again, an opinion column caught my eye in the Devon-based Western Morning News. In the piece, which appeared last weekend, the article’s author highlights our shared responsibility to tackle climate change, fuel dependency and fuel poverty – and in doing so, to embrace renewable energy and all the challenges that it brings. And because renewable energy brings visual impact, the writer recognises that such impact will always spark a reaction in rural communities. The answer? Early engagement on the subjects of what consumers want, feel and fear. It’s an approach that resonates with anyone like me who’s focus is on the power supply management needs of large and small enterprises. As well as the key to appropriate adoption of renewable technology, early engagement is also vital in the selection of suitable power-supply management solutions.

By the way, anyone wanting to know more about environmentally friendly power protection might be interested in visiting the Riello UPS corporate site. And check out our solar inverters.

Over the past few years, development of energy storage technologies has received renewed interest, driven largely by the upturn in renewables like Wind and Solar. The task is to build an energy storage solution that mitigates many of the issues associated with batteries and sources of renewable energy. Batteries have a finite lifetime and there are environmental concerns associated with their production and disposal. Renewables such as Wind and Solar power are vulnerable to the natural elements. If the sun isn’t shining, Solar panels will store only limited amounts of energy and when there is no movement of the air to turn wind turbines, they won’t be generating electricity. Some form of large-scale storage is required to overcome these issues.

Of course, any company investing in the research and development of energy storage technologies is not going to limit their market to large utility solutions and so the phenomenon will undoubtedly bear fruit for UPS (uninterruptible power supply) applications with the eventual invention of new technologies for alternative power generation and energy storage, such as supercapacitors or superconductors – available now but not commercially viable for any but the largest of installations.

In the meantime, however, most power protection installations combine battery storage with power generation, provided by onsite generators. It works well and is a stable and proven solution. There are installations, however, that may not require both (or in which it is not possible to accommodate both a generator and UPS batteries) in which case it becomes a question of either/or: do we make sure we can generate an alternative source of electricity if the mains utility goes off (generator) or do we ensure we have enough electrical energy stored in UPS batteries so that we can ride through any mains interruption?

There are alternatives to UPS batteries that are already making credible inroads in commercial applications such as flywheel UPS, which uses kinetic energy to store electricity but they are viable primarily for larger installations.

For anyone interested in reading more about the question of energy generation v energy storage, visit Riello UPS’s corporate blog where you will find an interesting article.