Consulting-Specifying Engineer - April 2008 - (Page 15) M/E Roundtable We have seen a growing number of industrial customers deploying highefficiency UPS systems for their factory production systems. As these systems become more automated, utility interruptions cause loss of automation control, which in turn influences production rates. In many instances, downtime required to restart a process after a sag or outage causes control computers to reboot and is far greater than the downtime of the utility itself. COOK: Certain facilities such as semiconductor fabrication plants and data centers can utilize whole building UPS systems that maintain power until a backup generator starts. CSE: What technologies do you see being used to prevent grid unreliability and utility-caused power quality problems from affecting facilities? COOK: The application of new energy storage technologies such as NaS (sodium sulfur) batteries can reduce peaks. Such storage devices also can allow parts of the grid to continue to be served with power when the larger distribution system is down. This is referred to as islanding. Distribution automation also can reduce the time it takes to isolate a faulted section and restore power to the balance of the system. PERKINS: Again, the most common means of preventing grid related power issues from affecting facility operations is through the use of UPS and backup generation. Reducing facility peak demand is usually done for economic reasons (i.e., peak demand charge and/or time of use charge avoidance, etc.). Load shifting systems such as ice storage have been used in many buildings, particularly in the southern U.S. states, to reduce peak air conditioning demand. CSE: What are some innovations in the area of in-plant power metering that help a facility safeguard Input #210 at csemag.com/quickResponse Consulting-Specifying Engineer • APRIL 2008 itself from power quality problems coming in from the utility grid? COOK: The broader deployment of lowercost power quality and energy demand (usage) meters will make power quality problems more obvious—and more quickly. Demand meters promote conservation. PERKINS: There are a variety of power quality analyzers available that can indicate if some corrective action should be taken. However, meters alone cannot provide the 15 Photo credit: John Swain/Photographer, HOK, and Beverly Prior Architects http://www.wattstopper.com/psg http://www.wattstopper.com/psg http://csemag.com/quickResponse
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