Power Quality, electric technology, electrification
Power Quality survey
A sense of revealing what we already knew
A new Leonardo Energy Power Quality Survey reveals that non-Power-Quality (non-PQ) is costing European industry a fortune. 'Reveals' might not be the operative word here, since most professionals in industrial electricity are exceedingly aware of this fact. But up to now, hard figures - the kind of figures that managements and governments can't ignore - were lacking for Europe.
It is true that the Leonardo Energy Survey is a first estimate and still needs refinement, but let's call it a start. It is unlikely that the actual figures will be very far off from what this survey shows:
- Non-PQ is costing the EU economy more than €150 billion annually
- The largest part of this cost is paid by industry
- In industry, dips and short interruptions account for 60 per cent of the total non-PQ cost
Those figures are the result of 62 completed PQ surveys carried out in eight European countries.
Lighting
There is more to it than just flipping a switch
Lighting is the one electrical application that is the most visible to everybody (sorry, no pun intended). But the fact remains that laypersons are almost unaware of the complexity of contemporary lighting technology. Most people see lighting as a simple matter of flipping a switch on or off. So should we be surprised that such a simplistic view of electrical energy is also being spread by politicians who seem to believe that energy efficiency is really only about switching incandescent lamps to low-energy light bulbs?
To do full justice to the complexity of the domain, Leonardo Energy is publishing a series of articles discussing the current state of affairs in Lighting Design and Techniques.
In addition, we have published a number of comments on the evolution taking place in the LED market. To smooth the path of LEDs to the consumer market, an LED lamp has now been designed that fits into lighting fixtures like a traditional light tube and can simply replace it. But for white LEDs at least, quality assurance will have to be enhanced before they can become competitive for every application. A study by the Lumina project shows that the quality of the white LEDs currently available on the market shows a large and unacceptable variation from the norms.
- Lighting Design and Technique, articles 1 and 2
- Lighting -this Application Note
- Efficient Lighting Initiatives
- Are the LEDs coming our way?
- Quality - The Achilles heel of the WLED
- A challenge to politicians: give a one minute speech about energy efficiency without using the term 'Compact Fluorescent Lamp'
Slum electrification
Can social development and profit making coexist?
Millions of people around the world are living in slum areas without a safe or legal connection to electricity supplies. Many of them risk their lives to make intricate, illegal connections to overhead lines. In the Paraisópolis favela (or slum) in São Paolo, Brazil, a project by the International Copper Association, USAID, and the local utility company is dedicated to changing that situation. The goal is to make safe and legal connections for the favela residents, in return for which they will have to pay a monthly bill.
But wait a minute, aren't those people making illegal connections in the first place because they are too poor to pay? And what's the true goal of that project: development aid or profit making?
An interview by Leonardo ENERGY with Glycon Garcia, project manager, shows that things aren't nearly that black and white. 'One of the biggest challenges for the people in the favela is that they have no official identification and no official residence', says Garcia. 'If they join the electrification project, they receive a form which they can then use for official identification. This is an advantage they greatly appreciate.' Moreover, staff involved in the project are teaching the citizens how to use the electricity more efficiently, and they are distributing efficient refrigerators and efficient light bulbs for free.
According to Garcia, the social aspect of the electrification project is the key to its success. Other slum electrification projects in the past have failed because they did not acknowledge that fact. If the slum residents don't see any personal advantage, they simply returned to making illegal connections again. So what has to be strived for is the thin line of the real win-win situation, the middle course between voluntary social development and pure profit making.
Safe electricity for slum residents - A pilot project in Paraisópolis, São Paulo, Brazil
Passive filters
An active presentation on passive filters
Do you know the feeling? You had to memorize the theory in order to graduate, but then one day someone comes along and asks you to explain it. Oops! You think you still know, after all you are often applying it in your daily practice. But having to explain the theory behind is a different matter. A few graphs and formulas can sometimes be all you need to help you on your way again and remember what you knew you already knew.
Do you need such a refresher on the basic theory behind passive filters and parallel & series resonance? Leonardo Energy has created a simple animation that enables you to refresh your knowledge on this subject in a just few minutes.
