The National Grid is buckling under the pressure of increasing demand for electricity – and modernisation is not happening fast enough. In densely populated areas like large towns and cities, it is a real problem exacerbated by the fact that more and more renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines and solar installations are being connected into the grid. These facts are introducing even greater instability into an already precarious system.

The primary purpose of a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and generator is to provide an immediate source of back up power in the event of a mains failure. A secondary, but increasingly important, purpose for a UPS is to condition the voltage that is delivered to connected loads, but this can only happen if UPS and generator are properly synchronised to work together.

Power Problems

Power problems associated with raw mains energy are defined as any variation in electrical power resulting in a malfunction or equipment failure. Power problems include: sags, surges, brownouts, electrical noise, spikes, transients and harmonics, alongside frequency variations and complete blackouts.

It’s not only problems brought about by external mains power, however, that can cause problems for connected loads. Certain types of power load that are connected internally to the site electricity distribution system – such as motor loads (lifts, mechanical machinery), certain types of lighting (Tungsten) and air-conditioning can cause problems for equipment upstream without the correct filtering and power conditioning.

A generator must be able to accept the load of the UPS and the UPS rectifier and static bypass supplies must be able to operate with (and synchronise to) the output of the generator. There are several elements that enable this to be achieved: correct generator sizing. In UPS installations, generators are typically larger than the installed UPS so that they can deal with the harmonics the UPS generates and any overload conditions that may occur during operation.

For load acceptance to occur, a UPS must be able to synchronise to the voltage waveform supplied by the generator. UPS normally have a wide input voltage window, which will more than accommodate most generator output but the frequency can vary and this potential problem can be simply overcome by widening the UPS operating parameters to accept wider frequency ranges.

There is a whole chapter on generators in The Power Protection Guide – the design, installation and operation of uninterruptible power supplies, which offers more information. Visit the Riello website for details of the power protection products and services we supply.

Friends of the Earth lawsuit against UK Government over its latest FiTs Decision

More on the latest Government announcement of cuts to the FiTs tariff: I read on energylivenews.com in November that Friends of the Earth issued the UK Government with an ultimatum: amend their latest Feed-in Tariff decision or face legal action.

The charity wrote to Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker, and gave him until Friday 11^th November to make changes or face the consequences.

The Government has slashed financial support for solar under its FiTs scheme to over half what it was a year ago, from 43.3p/kWh to just 21p/kWh. This is for schemes 4kW or less and will come into force as of 12^th December 2011. Friends of the Earth claims that this date, which is two weeks before the consultation process the government brought into force earlier this year ends, makes their move unlawful.

The eco campaigning group carried out its threat and issued legal proceedings because they didn’t get a satisfactory response from the government by the appointed deadline. Friends of the Earth is calling for the Government to maintain existing tariff payments to all qualifying solar schemes completed by April 1^st 2012 and to extend the consultation period to Friday February 17^th 2012 at the earliest.

In a letter from the Treasury Solicitor to Friends of the Earth, the Government said: “The Secretary of State retains an open mind in respect of this proposal. Indeed, that is the reason why the proposal is out for consultation”.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

We offer solar inverters that provide maximum energy, efficiency and safety. They come with advanced communications, easy installation and maintenance, plus conformance to international standards. More information is available on our website or contact us if you have any questions.

The UK government has merely loosened the head collar but it hasn’t yet killed the beast.

There is plenty of life left in Solar but the industry needs to build business models centred on delivering real value and market the many benefits of Solar installations rather than simply relying in subsidies from the FiTs scheme.

There was serious industry backlash against the UK government’s latest announcement of a massive cut in feed in tariff for Solar energy on schemes up to 4kW in size, from 43.3p per kWh down to 21p/kWh, earlier this month.

Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association, Gaynor Hartnell, was reported in the Guardian as saying that she did not believe the department for energy and climate change was winning its argument with the Treasury on the benefits to the economy of renewables. She is also quoted as stating that the government chopping and changing its mind like this and not honouring its commitments (this is the second major cut this year) was undermining confidence in the industry as a whole.

Other industry experts quoted in press articles within hours of the announcement were stating that thousands of contracts had already been cancelled and some Solar companies had started laying people off and making redundancies.

I’m in two minds about this. Firstly, cuts to payments under the FiTs scheme will make some people think twice about Solar installations, but unfortunately much of the subsidy has already been diverted to large commercial energy companies rather than individual home owners or public sector projects as it was initially intended. In my mind the Government should have acted sooner and made a much clearer distinction between the different market sectors. Spending controls are unfortunately now a necessity.

Every fledgling industry needs a helping hand but there comes a time when it should be able to stand on its own two feet. Perhaps that time for the solar industry is now.

There are many benefits and reasons why residential or commercial customers should invest in solar technology. FiTs is just one of them. Alongside the many ‘green’ issues, an other benefit is security of supply and having more control over your energy supply and usage; solar customers can at least rest assured that they can generate energy for their own needs at times when mains electricity may be unavailable. And with talk of possible energy rationing at some point in the future and political unrest globally, that benefit is looking increasingly attractive. Once payback has been achieved, Solar energy is always going to be less costly than many other sources – or even free in certain circumstances.

We offer solar inverters that provide maximum energy, efficiency and safety. They come with advanced communications, easy installation and maintenance, plus conformance to international standards. More information is available on our website or contact us.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh is not shy about letting his feelings be known. We (the British Public) are used to reading about or listening to his latest verbal gaffe in newspapers and on the news.

In November, the Duke was reported in the Sunday Telegraph as having a pop at renewable technologies, specifically wind turbines, which he declared “Absolutely useless.” According to the newspaper, his comments were directed at a representative from a wind turbine manufacturer to whom he declared: “they are absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace.”

His comments are unfortunate given the UK government’s widely broadcast renewable ambitions and support for onshore as well as offshore wind farms.

As you know, Riello UPS is a big fan of renewable energy, particularly as part of a mix of supply options, and particularly Solar. All new technologies need a subsidy to get them off the ground and solar is a case in point. In countries, such as Germany, where it has been subsidised for almost a decade, it has really taken off and as an industry will soon be able to stand on its own two feet. Wind farms (on and offshore) are the same and there are many instances where they are established and offering competitive enough electricity prices but there are many installations that still have some catching up to do and are reliant on subsidies.

On that note, I read an interesting article in Electrical Review talking about the ETI (Energy Technologies Institute) taking wave energy to the next level with a project to design and demonstrate a low-cost wave energy converter system.

Extracting energy from waves using wave energy converters (WECs) is one method of exploiting the energy potential of the seas around the UK – and as we are an island, why not? However, capturing as much energy from waves as possible while building technologies that will withstand the harsh environment is not easy and this project will identify areas for improvement and new developments. It is being commissioned in two phases, the first is looking for design concepts for wave energy converter systems and the second will see the designs being developed and demonstrated. Requests for proposals have been issued for any organisations wanting to get involved. Updates and more details are available at www.energyytechnologies.co.uk.

The first ever CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Performance League Table was published in November by the Environment Agency, which is responsible for running it. It showed that 60% of organisations have taken action on energy management by installing smart meters and obtaining certificates for ‘good energy management’.

Ranked organisations count among them some of the largest energy users in the UK; large businesses and public sector organisations that use more than 6000 Megawatt Hours of electricity a year.

The scheme is intended to help the UK meet its carbon reduction targets and encourage large energy users to be smarter about how and where they consume electricity so that it can be reduced.

At Riello UPS, we think anything that encourages users to focus on reducing energy consumption is a great idea and we help our customers do so (and thus reduce their energy bills) while securing power continuity. We do that by providing products that are efficient, reliable and functional. I cannot help thinking, however, that the UK’s efforts to reduce energy consumption overall and meet carbon reduction targets could be given a real boost if energy suppliers started installing smart meters as standard. Only those that stand to benefit the most from so doing can afford to install smart meters and while that is the case we will continue to see the waste that is associated with a haphazard approach to measuring energy consumption.

For more information about UPS and power protection, visit our website.

Could the trend be spreading here?

An article on climaterocks.com earlier this month stated that despite American homes being cluttered with electronic consumer gadgets (Smartphones, tablets, wireless routers that run all the time, and TVs that light up in high definition), demand for electricity is levelling off.

Over the next ten years, experts are predicting residential energy use in the USA will actually fall, the first time it has happened since Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric light bulb.

Edison’s light bulb has now been replaced by more efficient types of lighting and electrical devices of all kinds are much more energy efficient than they used to be. Manufacturers have focused on that aspect as part of their research and development of new products for the past ten years. There are other factors too: new homes are more energy efficient and old ones are being made so by home energy savings programmes. Plus, utility companies say it is symptomatic of the economic slow down and not something to worry about for the future.

As energy costs continue to rise and users become more educated about their use of electricity, there is every indication that this will happen in the UK and Europe too. This may lead to the big six energy utility companies having to reinvent themselves and their business models, and perhaps even for the first time in years, reducing their tariff charges to encourage us to use more.

It’s a nice thought but I wouldn’t bet the house on it just yet.

If you would like more information on UPS and selecting energy efficient power protection, visit Riello AROS UPS’s website.

A report published by the Energy Saving Trust last month claims that our love of electronic gadgets, such as flat screen TVs, tablet PCs, Smartphones, electronic toothbrushes and big fridges is leading us away from reaching our emissions targets and that we should be weaned off them.

The government has set down a target to reduce domestic electricity emissions by 34% by 2020 but the Energy Saving Trust says that we will fall far short of this is we don’t cool our love affair with gadgets.

The number of domestic devices and appliances in the average UK household increased by three and a half times between 1990 and 2009, according to the report, and overall energy consumption from consumer electronic goods rose by more than 600% between 1970 and 2009.

Reported in The Guardian last month, a spokesperson for the Trust pointed out that consumers would never buy a car without checking out its fuel-efficiency first and yet we are happy to fill our houses with electronic consumer good without sparing one thought for their electricity consumption and how much it will cost. “People need to be educated about these things.” She said.

It’s not just consumers either. In business many people now work from home or use equipment at home and in their personal time that is provided for business use, such as laptops, smartphones, GPS navigation systems (that require home charging), tablet PCs and so forth. Between 2000 and 2009, electricity use from home computing more than doubled and the number of devices in Britain’s homes rose from 30,000 to 65,000.

Five years ago, the Energy Saving Trust issued a report The Rise of the Machine, which found that the number of electrical appliances, products and gadgets people typically own had trebled since the 1970s. Although such appliances are more efficient now, electricity consumption has doubled between 1970 and 2002.

The Energy Saving Trust does good work, no doubt about that, but trying to get we -the people – to give up our love of gadgets is akin to King Canute trying to hold back the tide. As we move ever deeper into the technological age, our love of (and use of) devices will continue to rise and unfortunately gadgets these days are mostly electronic. It’s up to the electronics industry and technology inventors to ensure they are the most energy efficient they can be, but I agree, users should be more aware of the implications of using such implements on electricity consumption and educated as to responsible energy use.

If you would like to know more about energy efficient UPS, or any of our comprehensive range of power protection products and services, visit Riello AROS UPs’s website.

Electricity generated from renewable energy sources in the UK has increased 50% in the past year, according to statistics released by DECC (Department for Energy and Climate Change) in October 2011.

Electricity from renewables comprised 6.3% of the UK’s total energy consumption when the figures were announced in April 2010 and that figure rose to 9.6% this year, a healthy 50% increase.

Supplies from hydro and wind rose by 74.7% and 120% respectively but renewables still only supply around 10% of the UK’s total energy needs and that has got to change if we are to meet our carbon reduction targets alongside our growing energy needs.

However, the wind industry is making a tremendous contribution to the nations energy supply and is now providing enough power to supply nearly 3.25 million homes in the UK.

Electricity sourced from nuclear generation accounted for 21.3% of total according to DECC. So, despite the massive rises in low carbon energy and encouraging growth in the renewables industries, we are still relying on fossil fuels for two thirds of our energy needs.

As you know, here at Riello we are big fans of renewable energy and have developed our range of UPS and ancillary products to support renewable energy installations such as Solar (with our AROS solar inverters). We are continuing to bring products and solutions to market that support the drive towards renewables.

Some high-profile players in the data centre world have received column inches of late not least because of their ‘green’ credentials. Facebook, Google and Yahoo are all using innovative and environmentally-friendly cooling systems, building on brownfield sites and investing in renewable energy.

Colocation players have the same desire to be green but are somewhat constrained by the needs and demands of the customer.

Bourne out of the realisation that computer equipment can withstand hotter temperatures, a recent initiative by collocation data centres is to run warm in an attempt to lessen the need for cooling and use less electricity. Ambient temperatures of around 21 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) – often as high as 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) are now acceptable. The lower the temperature, the more cooling is required to maintain it, thus more energy is being consumed and the whole system is less efficient. However, there are two major problems with running data centres at higher temperatures.

Firstly, customer comfort: colocation customers need to visit their servers and do so regularly. They are used to data centres being a certain temperature and comfortable. However, what’s comfortable for machines is not always pleasant for humans.

The second problem with running data centres or server rooms at higher temperatures is how it affects UPS batteries. The batteries will continue to work effectively but the higher temperatures (above 20/21 Celsius) will compromise their design life and they will need to be replaced more often. This necessity will significantly increase the lifetime costs of the facility and UPS system.

Flywheel UPS is ideal for this type of application as it is not temperature sensitive like batteries. It will quite happily operate at 10 Celsius as it will at 40 Celsius. It can also offer high efficiency, low running and maintenance costs, the lowest possible PUE ratios and highest operational resilience. Riello’s Master MHF VDC 100-500kVA Flywheel UPS has been designed specifically for critical environments such as data centres, hospitals and large industrial installations. It is a scaleable system, incorporating a VDC or VDC-XE flywheel, which requires 50% less floor space than a similarly rated, traditional UPS and batteries. Flywheels have a much longer design life (20 years) than traditional UPS batteries and a far lower total cost of ownership (TCO). It also offers an instantaneous recharge time. To find out more, visit our website.

With low PuE scores the aim of many data centre operators, they are always on the look out for greener alternatives to UPS batteries. There are a number of different technologies receiving attention right now but so far none has risen up as a real commercial competitor to traditional UPS batteries or flywheels.

When you’re talking about components of an electrical back-up system – the cornerstone of a data centre’s livelihood – any alternative has to be the real deal and proven, not just a pretender. Some of the technologies being talked about now include: Ultracapacitors (or Ultracaps as they are colloquially known), flow batteries, superconducting magnetic energy storage and lithium-ion batteries but none has yet managed to gain a foothold in the UPS market place.

Here at Riello we are keen market watchers of new and alternative technologies so we keep a constant eye on developments. Here’s an overview of where some of these up-and-coming technologies are:

Ultracapacitors

Ultracaps are electric double layer capacitors, a promising technology that at some point may give orthodox energy storage a run for its money. The way they work is that they store energy at the surface of two carbon plates with opposite charges, separated by a sheet of paper dipped in a liquid electrolyte.

The advantages for the data centre environment are that they require less floor space than their UPS battery equivalents; their maintenance needs are low; they can operate in higher temperatures (and therefore need less cooling) and they use more environmentally-friendly materials in their manufacture.

However, the disadvantages are that the capital cost of buying an Ultracap at today’s prices means that they are not a cost-effective alternative. They also have a short ride-through time (less than 10 seconds), which is not enough for critical data centre environments. Also, as they are a new technology, they may require specialist engineering and not many engineers will be familiar (or experienced) at working on Ultracaps.

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage

Or SME as they are known; is only just in research and development so is nowhere near ready for the open market but it uses a coil made of superconducting material, which is cryogenically cooled below its critical temperature, thus giving it zero resistance. A dc current is applied to the coil, which creates a magnetic field. The coil’s lack of resistance prevents the energy from dissipating as heat and allows for energy to be stored in magnetic form until required.

The advantages of SMEs include an absence of harmful materials and mechanical simplicity, which makes it more reliable. However, as with Ultracaps they currently carry a high capital cost and short back up time (again, only around 10 seconds). Also, their requirement for a cryogenic cooling system to keep them at below critical temperature would render their lifetime costs hugely expensive.

Sodium Nickel Chloride Batteries

There are a few companies planning to launch such batteries on to the market within the next few years, such as GE, for example, which is planning to bring to the data centre UPS market an energy storage solution with zero cooling requirements. As you know, UPS batteries do not respond well to temperatures outside of a constant 21-25 degrees centigrade and so the ambient temperature around them has to be controlled.

GE’s battery (it claims) will also offer a design life of 20 years, long discharge rates and will serve both ac and dc loads.

It has always been hard to compete with standard VRLA or Sealed Lead Acid batteries but then flywheel UPS started offering a real, commercial alternative some years ago and has gained real ground in the data centre market. Compared with the alternatives outlined above, flywheel UPS offers low initial and lifetime costs, a long lifecycle, high storage density, wide operating energy range, and environmental advantages. Flywheel UPS is also highly efficient and offers a compact footprint.

In July 2011, Riello AROS UPS unveiled details of a new range of flywheel UPS. Master MHF series is a modular, scalable, power protection system incorporating flywheel UPS technology. It is ideal for eco-targeted data centres looking to get the most out of their UPS investment.

The new Master MHF series offers 99% efficiency and is Smart-grid ready. It also boasts a 20-year design life. More details can be found on our website.