Energy Manager Issue 17 January - March 2012

January - March | 2012 | Vol :: 05 | No :: 1
ISSN 0974 - 0996
monitoring and targeting:
metering,
The Gateway to Efficient Energy Management

Utilizing your metered data M&M technologies that enable energy efficiency Energy meters and their reliability Energy efficient computing Wind power developments in Oceania
Advisory Board Dr. Bhaskar Natarajan | C-Quest Capital, India Binu Parthan | REEEP , Vienna Dr. Brahmanand Mohanty | Advisor, ADEME M.C. Jain | President, SEEM, India Dr. B.G. Desai | Energy Expert, India C. Jayaraman | SEEM, India Dr. Kinsuk Mitra | Winrock International, India Dr. G. M. Pillai| WISE, India Dr. N.P Singh | Advisor MNRE, India Prof. P .R. Shukla | IIM Ahmedabad, India Editorial Board Prof. Ahamed Galal Abdo | Advisor Minister of Higher Education, Egypt Darshan Goswami | US Dept. of Energy, USA Prof. (Dr.) Hab Jurgis Staniskis | Director, Institute of Environmental Engg., Lithuania Dr. R. Harikumar | General Secretary, SEEM, India Prof. P .A. Onwualu | DG, RMR&D Council, Nigeria R.Paraman |Devki Energy Consultancy,India Ramesh Babu Gupta | India Dr. Rwaichi J.A. Minja | University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Prof. (Dr.) R. Sethumadhavan | Anna University, India Prof. Sujay Basu | CEEM, India Editorial Consultant Prof. (Dr.) K. K.Sasi |Amrita University, India Guest Editor V.O. Vesma Editor K. Madhusoodanan|SEEM, India Publishing Director Santosh Goenka Co-ordinating Editor Sonia Jose | Energy Press, India Book Design Badusha Creatives Translation Coordinator R. Sudhir Kumar|CPRI, Bangalore Financial Controller K. K. Babu | Energy Press, India Printed and Published by G. Krishnakumar, Energy Press for the Society of Energy Engineers and Managers and printed at St Francis Press, Ernakulam, India Disclaimer : The views expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and the Editorial team | SEEM | energy press | energy manager does not take responsibility for the contents and opinions. energy manager will not be responsible for errors, omissions or comments made by writers, interviewers or advertisers. Any part of this publication may be reproduced with acknowledgement to the author and magazine.
V.O. Vesma Mr. Vilnis Vesma is a trainer and independent consultant in energy saving methods. He specializes in the analysis and interpretation of energy consumption data, and is a council member of the Energy Services and Technology Association, committee of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol and served on the committee that wrote ISO 50001:2011. He is the author of two books on energy management and maintains a free web site providing information and advice for energy managers.
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Armed with both an actual and an expected consumption for each meter, you can evaluate the differences and (importantly) tabulate the financial costs of each of those differences. Now you can wave a
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January - March 2012
January - March 2012 | Volume 05 | Number: 1 ISSN 0974 - 0996
Now you will often hear the saying "you cannot manage what you do not measure" or words to that effect. Nobody knows who first said it or what they really said (which is why there are so many versions) but it does not matter, because in energy management that saying simply fails to tell the whole story. To manage energy you need two things: not just a measurement of actual consumption, but also an estimate of what it should have been. ISO 50001, the new managementsystems standard for energy, puts it succinctly in section 4.6.1 (e) where it calls for "evaluation of actual versus expected consumption" (my italics). Meters give you actual consumption, but expected consumption must be calculated from other independent measurements. The process is not complex. Typically, a given stream of consumption will depend on things such as production throughputs, the outside air temperature, number of hours of darkness or other 'driving' factor-so called because their variation drives variation in consumption-and the trick is to establish, from historical patterns, what the normal relationship is between each metered consumption and its relevant driving factor or factors. The relationship can in each case be expressed as a mathematical formula. At the end of each week (say) the driving-factor values are entered into the formulae, and out come a set of expected consumptions.
a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India
dvances in energy metering and data collection technology have left many energy users here in the UK with a problem: data flooding. The same is either happening already or will soon happen in many other countries including India, and the irony is that even if the flood of data were tamed, it would not necessarily provide information that is of real value for day-to-day management of energy. You might be able to see how much energy is being used, where, when, and for what; but you will not know whether the amount of energy you used was excessive or not. This is critical information because even in the best-run enterprise, things occasionally go wrong or are done incorrectly. From time controls being overridden to heat exchangers becoming fouled, from non-return valves failing to photocells being obscured, from air recirculation dampers sticking closed to employees stealing oil, your organisation is vulnerable to random energy waste which would be avoidable if somebody realised it had occurred. Inside this issue of energy manager magazine features a wealth of advice on how to measure consumption and collect the data. It would be a good idea to step back for a moment and consider how you can filter that data and turn it into information that actively supports your energy-saving efforts.
After collection, comprehension
guest editorial 03
editor's note
The road to efficient energy metering, monitoring and targeting

f all the investments that industrial units make to help reduce their energy spend, Energy Metering, Monitoring and Targeting System (MM&T) is undoubtedly the number one priority. Organisations implement monitoring and targeting systems from the Operational, Economic and Business perspectives. A recent study conducted by the Carbon Trust in over 1000 small businesses has concluded that on average an organisation could save 5% of its original energy expenses through M&T system. Other most recurrent benefits demonstrated through M&T programmes are better environmental performance, better production budgeting and provides support to environment management standards such as ISO 50001. It also helps in improving the prospects of obtaining financing for energy efficiency projects, better forecast of energy expenses leading to improved budgeting, and a diagnosis of energy waste in processes. It is true that at the industrial level (macro level), the key success factors for monitoring & targeting include process energy complexity, consistent production variables, significant energy costs and regulatory support, but the backbone of any successful energy monitoring and targeting programme, is advanced metering. Advanced metering - a wise investment Advanced metering is the most essential energy efficiency investment that any unit wishing to control its energy costs must make. The increased granularity of data provided by an advanced meter will assist units to implement a highly effective energy management programme. The accurate and regular consumption data derived from the advanced metering system mainly allows units to realize Base load reductions - for example by identifying unnecessary constant energy use, Process optimisation -as in the case of limiting the duration of high-energy use at the start and end of working schedules, and Peak usage reduction - analyzing timings and frequencies to establish the causes of peaks in energy usage, and understanding the causes in terms of specific activities or equipment. Saving opportunities identified from advanced meter data can be pursued in several ways, including Information-based (behavioural) energy savings, Process-based energy savings as well as Investment-based energy savings. Combined with an understanding of how employees use energy across the business, possible information based/ behavioral savings can be identified and relevant behavioral changes can be targeted via a motivational programme. Advanced metering data can identify and quantify the effect of implementing these measures and monitor their impact over time. Typically costing nothing to implement, such savings foster a best practice approach to energy consumption within the organization. As mentioned before, data from advanced meters can also identify where processes can be optimised and quantify their impact. Energy savings can be achieved by changing the start-up and shutdown times of specific systems or by altering their power usage and temperature settings. Advanced metering data can identify inefficiencies in equipment and infrastructure as well. The energy consumption of specific systems can be rated against manufacturers' specifications and more efficient equivalents, which can make or break a business case for an equipment upgrade or replacement. Though investment-based energy savings involve significant capital costs, the improvements have higher persistence levels than information-based or process based savings.
Though there are a variety of advanced metering solutions in the market, including the Fiscal meter, Clip-on, Secondary meter, Comms and HH, the half-hourly (HH) meters have become the most commonly used instruments for advanced metering systems. The half-hourly data can also be aggregated for billing purposes, avoiding the requirement for estimated bills. Barriers to advanced metering, monitoring and targeting Advanced metering for generating energy consumption information is only half of the story. What is more important is the analysis of data to relate consumption data with the production to evolve a meaningful benchmark to see whether it is a good, poor or an average performance. The interpretation needs to look at many factors such as capacity utilization level, ambient conditions, physics and chemistry of the process involved etc. Although energy metering, monitoring and targeting is considered to be the most essential feature of energy management system, the key pillars for its successful implementation are people, system and technology. The senior management needs to be committed for a culture change, moving the organization from one that considers energy consumption as a necessary cost to one which views energy as a resource that needs to be managed as effectively as the organization manages its raw materials or its workforce. The organisation should ensure that managers responsible for energy consumption are accountable for it, one way to do this is to allocate energy budget to the individual production departments. The energy budget should be given as much emphasis as all other aspects of the production budget and energy performance should be included in the regular performance review and reward systems. With the organisation motivated to identify energy saving ideas, the organisation needs to be in a position to implement the energy saving projects. Unlike other areas of production management, energy saving will tend to involve a large number of very small projects, hence the organisation requires the capability to identify, evaluate, design, engineer and manage the implementation of such projects. Studies have demonstrated that SMEs using advanced metering can identify an average of 12% carbon savings and implement an average of 5% carbon savings through reduced utility consumption. But given the potential benefits of advanced metering, this technology definitely faces barriers, especially in gaining grounds among the SME community. And these emerge from both ends - from the customer as well as the supplier. Barriers from the Customerside include a less than desirable level of awareness of advanced metering, linking energy use to costs and their transparency, availability of metering services, understanding of available service options and of course limited time and resources, those from the Supply-side point to the capacity of metering service providers, insufficient incentives for suppliers and concerns of stranded asset. A small number of advanced metering service providers currently offer a range of different commercial services for business users, varying from remote collection of data from existing half-hourly meters to installing new advanced meters or providing 'clip-on' meter reading devices for existing
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Cover Feature Maximum utilisation of metered data Raviraj Kadiyala Metering and monitoring - enabling technologies to deliver energy efficiency Jasjeet Singh Hanjrah In-circuit reliability of energy meters Rajesh Nimare Best Practice Hot and cold running savings Fluke Free cooling: an energy conservation measure Balbir Singh and V. K. Sethi
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Opinion Impact of system load factor in transmission & distribution losses 30 K. K. Babu Energy Management Energy efficient computing Soujanya Nemalikanti and Polavarupu Sindhura Renewable Energy Charring-briquetting : a novel cooking fuel technology B. P . Nema
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Global Focus Wind turbines for oceanic areas : innovations and developments 47 Ron Steenbergen Sustainable Living Energy and environment symbiosis A. K. Jain
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meters where compatible. However, there is currently a lack of full end-to-end metering services for the SME market. The smaller service providers tend to specialise in either data collection or meter installation and sometimes form strategic alliances with companies providing complementary services. In light of the significant savings achievable through metering, it is essential that the potential benefits of advanced metering is widely understood. There is also a need to stimulate market demand by developing case studies that demonstrate the reduction in energy consumption and costs made possible using this technology. Also, steps to introduce a mandatory roll out of advanced meters for SMEs will ensure that a significant cost effective carbon saving opportunity is not missed.
K. Madhusoodanan Editor
(Please contribute your articles and case studies to reach the editor at madhukoovaprath@gmail.com or energymanagerhq@gmail.com)
content
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maximum utilisation of metered data
maximum utilisation
of metered data
Raviraj Kadiyala
lmost all organizations acknowledge energy metering or sub-metering as a crucial element of energy efficiency in their facilities. With the maxim 'measure to save', over 5% of energy cost saving is often pegged to granular metering.
Depending on the objective and availability of funds, sub-metering may be considered to provide load-wise energy consumption details. In addition, advanced meters make it possible to get time series data at pre-determined intervals. Over a period of time, these measures can generate a huge quantum of valuable data.
A successful metering strategy requires more than installing the meters. This article explains how to derive maximum use of metered data, especially from interval metering and submetering of energy consumption in an organization. While metered data gives a direct view of the energy consumption at each of the facilities, it also acts as the fundamental piece of information in computing appropriate efficiency metrics. One of the significant merits of having metered data over long periods of time is in enabling prediction of energy consumption. Metered data monitored through a central system not only provide auditable data, but also dramatically reduce the time required for data collection and report preparation.
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Presently, energy consumption is tracked at least once a month at facility level, if not more often. This helps to compare the energy consumption of a facility and track any anomalies. Depending on the objective and availability of funds, sub-metering may be considered to provide load-wise energy consumption details. In addition, advanced meters make it possible to get time series data at pre-determined intervals. Over a period of time, these measures can generate a huge quantum of valuable data. A successful metering strategy requires more than installing the meters. This article explains how to derive maximum use of metered data, especially from interval metering and sub-metering of energy consumption in an organization. Benchmarking In multi-facility organizations, it becomes imperative for management teams to know how each of the different facilities perform in terms of energy consumption and efficiency. While metered data give a direct view of the energy consumption, it also acts as the fundamental piece of information in computing appropriate efficiency metrics. The metrics used could be ones like energy usage intensity (EUI), which is kilowatt-hours per square metres or square feet, or power usage effectiveness (PUE) in the case of computer data centres which is the quotient of total facility energy divided by IT energy. Irrespective of the magnitude of energy consumption, these metrics not only enable determining which facility is efficient, but also enables organizations to set efficiency goals by comparing energy consumption levels between peer facilities and industry benchmarks. Schedule Mismatch Most organizations fix schedules of operation based on work hours of employees, varying equipment/business loads in different shifts, offhour/holiday/weekend schedules and so on which impact energy consumption. Analyzing metered data helps identify compliance to these schedules. Any deviation observed is a potential area for energy savings (Figure 1). In a facility where working hours
are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m, it may be unjustifiable if the energy consumption data indicate that 70% to 80% of work hour energy consumption continues till 8 p.m. The situation should be investigated and appropriate corrective action taken. Base Load Data collected during off-hour periods indicate the base load of a facility. It is the energy requirement of the facility irrespective of any active operations. Hence, it is the minimum amount of energy used by the facility and indicates the minimum energy cost incurred (Figure 1). However, the observed base load may not be justifiable in all cases. By identifying the loads that are expected to be operational, the actual energy consumption data could be verified, and it may turn out to be more than expected. Any reduction that is subsequently achieved in the base load will bring about maximum savings for single-shift facilities and progressively to a lesser extent for extended hours or multi-shift facilities.
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Analyzing energy consumption data over longer time horizons of at least a year helps identify seasonal patterns based on various factors. Checking whether these are in line with known events or cycles could identify energy-saving opportunities.
Seasonality and Weather Impact Energy consumption of facilities could follow a seasonal pattern based on weather, business cycles or holidays/festival periods. Analyzing the data over longer time horizons of at least a year helps identify such patterns. Checking whether these are in line with known events or cycles could identify energy-saving opportunities (Figure 2). Comparison can also be done of cycles across multiple years, which can bring out differences in consumption pattern. Investigation

Fig 1. Schedule Mismatch
Fig 2. Seasonal Consumption Pattern
Load Breakup One of the primary reasons for or benefits of submetering is that it leads to an insight into load breakup and identify loads that are sub-optimal in energy efficiency. This could be either based on absolute consumption details or in relation to other load values. For example, in a data centre (Figure 3), what is the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) load with respect to the IT load? The load relationship can also be studied for different time periods to understand the way it is changing. For example, how is it varying between day and night,
In day-to-day operations, the forecasted consumption can be used as a reference to control energy consumption proactively rather than reactively. Analysis of metered data on an ongoing basis would enable organizations to leverage maximum potential at the earliest opportunity. For example, it could highlight spikes, anomalies in usage pattern, growth or drop in energy consumption, changes in key impacting parameters and so on.
Analytics and Forecasting One of the significant merits of having metered data over long periods of time is in enabling prediction of energy consumption with improved accuracy, enabled through metering and monitoring of different key parameters. In day-to-day operations, the forecasted consumption can be used as a reference to control energy consumption proactively rather than reactively.
Fig 3. Load Distribution
into the root cause of such differences would help better control of energy consumption. Typical optimizations here relate to thermal insulation of facilities and equipment energy efficiency.
work and off day, summer and winter and so on? Such insights would help justify or improve energy consumption.
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Dynamic operating environments can provide energysaving opportunities on a continuous basis. Analysis of metered data on an ongoing basis would enable organizations to leverage maximum potential at the earliest opportunity (Figure 4). For example, it could highlight spikes, anomalies in usage pattern, growth or drop in energy consumption, changes in key impacting parameters and so on.
be possible to determine the efficiencies of equipment like UPS and computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units using sub-metered data. However, metrics like energy efficiency ratio (EER) used for CRAC units would require monitoring of other associated parameters as well. Peak Shaving/Shifting Metered data can help in the classification of peak loads into critical and non-critical. This insight can then be used to determine if any of the peak loads can be shifted to non-peak hours or if non-critical loads can be reduced (Figure 5) thereby helping in decreasing peak load charges. With the demand for energy increasing and supply lagging behind, utility companies face the challenge of meeting peak demand requirements. While augmenting their peak supply capacity, some utility companies offer demand response programmes that incentivize end users to
Fig 4. Actual vs Predicted Consumption
Equipment Efficiency With appropriate levels of sub-metering, it is possible to determine the actual performing efficiency of equipment. This not only tells whether the units are performing at expected levels, but also brings to attention any maintenance needs when efficiency drops unexpectedly. This prevents avoidable losses in terms of energy as well as cost. For example, it would
Fig 5a. Pre Peak Load Shaving
meters allow monitoring of data points that enable determination of power quality, like power factor and harmonics. Enabling them could highlight problem areas which could then be addressed appropriately. Utility Meter Faults and Billing Errors The availability of sub-metering on main lines enables one to detect any fault in the main utility meters. Though rare, a faulty utility meter could go undetected especially if it has been so over a period of time. Installation of sub-meters enables one to detect existing problems as well any new ones that may arise. With a granular view into consumption, metered data can be used to compute utility charges independently. This can then be used to verify the correctness of received invoices and reconcile with utility companies. Billing at Multi-tenanted Sites In multi-tenanted facilities, contracts could be in place that charge based on occupied area and not necessarily on energy consumption. Metered data can be used by organizations to renegotiate for contracts that either do billing more in line with their actual consumption or restructure them so that the tenants are charged based on actuals. Emissions Reporting One of the big challenges in reporting emissions is collecting reliable data on energy consumption. Metered data monitored through a central system not only provide auditable data, but also dramatically reduce the time required for data collection and report preparation. Metering and monitoring requires investment. And, at times, it becomes difficult to justify it. Moreover, it has also been seen that at places where investments have already been made, the use of data is restricted only to a limited subset. It is the author's hope that readers of this article would be able to tap the full value of benefits realizable from their metered data. Acknowledgements The author acknowledges with gratitude the guidance of Mr. Ravi Meghani in writing this article.
Mr. Raviraj Kadiyala is a senior consultant at Wipro EcoEnergy, working in the field of energy management services. His field of work involves providing solutions to organizations in sectors like telecom, data centers and commercial buildings across the world to reduce and maintain energy consumption/costs at optimal levels.
Fig 5b. Post Peak Load Shaving
reduce their demand. Analysis of metered data and peak shaving/shifting would also make facilities eligible to claim incentives from such programmes.
It may so happen that, due to business decisions or turbulent market conditions, the actual energy requirement will be much lower than the figures predicted while applying for a contract demand. Even considering the lead time for procuring additional capacity, such instances may warrant releasing of excess capacity and make the exercise cash positive.
Contract Demand It is typical of organizations to forecast their business growth and the associated energy requirements while applying for a contract demand from utilities. And the projected demand would be much more than what is required presently. This unutilized capacity comes at an additional recurring cost, which is justified by many to be worth the hassle/risk of getting additional capacity at short notice. However, it would be a worthwhile exercise to periodically review the predicted business growth and energy requirement. It may so happen that, due to business decisions or turbulent market conditions, the actual energy requirement will be much lower than the predicted figures. Even considering the lead time for procuring additional capacity, such instances may warrant releasing of excess capacity and make the exercise cash positive. Metered data provides a strong basis for analyzing the peak demand requirement and the demand growth that has actually been seen over a period of time to make this call. Loss Reduction Quality of power has a bearing on performance reliability, efficiency and life of equipment. Many
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metering and monitoring enabling technologies to deliver energy efficiency

Jasjeet Singh Hanjrah
Metering and monitoring are two key aspects for measurement of energy consumption and for the analysis of consumption behaviour. While metering has a role in measuring energy consumption, monitoring, as a first step, helps to identify the key areas of potential improvements. Data analytics/business intelligence is another area that tremendously helps distribution utilities to perform data mining on metered data and come up with consumer consumption patterns. Based upon measurements and analysis, remedial action can be taken to achieve energy savings and energy efficiency.
oday, our planet is trying hard to find solutions to some of the most challenging environmental problems like increasing carbon footprints and concerns regarding sustainability and efficiency. The most pressing need for any utility is to reduce the carbon footprints while ensuring secure and reliable supply of electricity. Moreover, the concern over delivering energy with consistent reliability and efficiency is not limited to a particular geographical region. Such challenging environments re-emphasize the norm 'what gets measured gets done' and stresses upon the two key aspects for measuring energy consumption and analyzing consumption behaviour - Metering and Monitoring.
watt energy usage monitor lets you see exactly where your electricity (and money) is going and helps you focus on reducing energy wastage at home.
A close surveillance over domestic energy usage can be done using an in-home display (IHD). This not only helps to establish the initial level of consumption, but also helps to set up a target for achieving the negawatts. This is applicable equally for domestic, industrial and commercial consumers. There are equipments that can continuously monitor the level of consumption and can give us a beep sound if the pre-defined usage limits are crossed. The HAN (Home Automation) technology help consumers stay aware of the energy consumption and also lends a helping hand while making decisions from remote locations (Smart home application interfaces help through a web browser or smart phones). There are devices available in the market, like the killa-watt energy usage monitor, which help identify energy wastage. While most appliances are marked with their wattage, they rarely state how much energy is getting wasted when they are in the standby mode. The kill-a-watt lets you see exactly where your electricity (and money) is going and helps you focus on reducing energy wastage at home. Thus, it can be concluded that while metering plays its own role in measuring energy consumption, monitoring helps to identify the key areas of potential improvements. Metering is one of the key aspects for monitoring energy consumption, discovering wastages or
A recent IEE report found that rate payerfunded energy efficiency and demand response programmes in the United States in 2010 have saved enough negawatts to power almost 10 million homes, representing approximately 112 million MWh of electricity.
Monitoring is an integral area that contributes to energy efficiency and is inevitably required to have measurable results. This could be referred to as the first step in pursuing the goal of saving kilo Watt hours. Also, it is widely accepted that the energy saved through optimization and efficient operation is the greenest and cleanest energy 'produced', which is referred to as 'negawatts'. Negawatts are known to bring in significant amount of energy savings. A recent IEE report found that rate payer-funded energy efficiency and demand response programmes in the United States in 2010 have saved enough negawatts to power almost 10 million homes, representing approximately 112 million Mega Watt hours (MWh) of electricity.
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A close surveillance over domestic energy usage can be done using an in-home display (IHD), which helps to establish the initial level of consumption and set a target for achieving the negawatts. While most appliances are marked with their wattage, they rarely state how much energy is getting wasted when they are in the standby mode. Devices like the kill-a-
sigma methodology can be used to define the approach towards realizing energy efficiency. Define: Define your Negawatts - your target for achieving energy savings. Measure: Stay close to your meter/IHD to view daily consumption. Smart meters help monitor consumption data at every 15 min intervals. Analyse: Look at your consumption patterns (seasonal, holidays, weekdays and weekends) and compare with previous months' and previous years' patterns. Improve: With the help of enabling technologies and energy-efficient devices, improve on usage. Smart meters help remote control of energy consumption.
Fig 1. The DMAIC approach towards energy efficiency
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inefficiencies, detecting power theft and carving out energy usage patterns as well as for measuring the energy being produced at various generating stations. While metering has been traditionally employed to help distribution utilities in billing their consumers, the concept of energy metering has taken a leap in the world of smart metering and smart grids. In today's era, there are various underlying enabling technologies that help us to take corrective measures and shift consumption patterns to realize energy efficiency. A few of these enabling technologies would be discussed here, but before we delve further into this topic, the approach to achieve energy efficiency should be defined. The DMAIC approach (Figure 1) from the lean six
Control: Stay in control for achieving positive results and be responsive to demand response (DR) signals. With constant feeding of remote signals, consumers can achieve tight control over consumption.
Smart meters monitor consumption data every 15/30/60 minute intervals and facilitate identification of the heavy or abrupt consumption time period. This also enables distribution utilities to locate energy theft by reconciling summated register data with interval data of the smart meters.
Enabling Technologies (Distribution and Retail) Monitoring your consumption at the most granular levels requires AMI or smart metering in place. As mentioned before, smart meters monitor consumption data every 15-/30-/60-minute intervals and facilitate identification of the heavy or abrupt consumption time period. This also enables distribution utilities to locate energy theft by reconciling summated register data with interval data of the smart meters. Along with AMI, HAN and demand response help in monitoring real-time consumption, and utilities can reap the benefits by sending signals to reduce energy consumption during peak periods. Consumers can remote control (ON/OFF/DIM) home appliances with the HAN application interface in their smart devices such as cell phones. One can also limit energy usage with pre-configured algorithms or by taking ad hoc decisions. Data analytics/business intelligence is another area that tremendously helps distribution utilities to perform data mining on metered data and come up with consumer consumption patterns. Utilities can compare the usage data of specific consumers with those of their peers and find out anomalies, which generally indicate theft. Smart analytics also help individuals to identify their abnormal or heavy consumption periods/patterns, for example, times of the day, specific days (festivals, functions) and so on, and take necessary measures to reduce the usage. They can also replace inefficient or ageing appliances to gain more savings on bills by achieving energy efficiency, which is also made possible by smart data analytics. Distribution utilities can go a step further to make consumers save energy by opening energy innovation centres, wherein the public can take a close look at the latest options in lighting, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. Utilities can also help commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers to bring in energy audit experts who can offer valuable tips and feedback to reduce their energy consumption significantly. Taking a look at the corporate sector in India and abroad, data centres are mammoth consumers of electricity. Energy consumption is a critical concern for IT organizations worldwide as the cost of operating data centers increases due to the growing use of computing devices and rising energy costs. To compound these factors, data centers that were considered state of the art just 5 years ago are now lagging behind in energy-efficient technologies. The PUE metric allows data centres to make decisions
that increase efficiency, helping to achieve optimum data centre facility utilization. To collect PUE data, various items can be monitored for potential energy savings, which include UPS and distribution losses, IT load electrical energy utilization, total electrical energy utilization by PAC units in the data centre, electrical energy utilization for running make-up air units for the data centre, electrical energy utilization for cooling the UPS room, electrical energy utilization at the chiller plant and energy utilization with respect to data centre usage and the lighting load. Based upon measurements and analysis, remedial action can be taken which may include paralleling the UPS to increase utilization levels, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing distribution losses; increasing the PAC temperature set point from 20 to 24 C; implementing humidity controls as needed; managing airflow inside the data centre and managing the load spread across the data centre floor.
Enabling technologies might be at our disposal, but action has to be triggered by the human brain. Awareness is the key, and definite measures need to be taken to reap the benefits of existing technologies.
There is a compelling need to achieve energy efficiency, for which smart metering and smart monitoring are essential aspects not only for distribution utilities but for individual consumers as well. Enabling technologies might be at our disposal, but action has to be triggered by the human brain. Awareness is the key, and definite measures need to be taken to reap the benefits of existing technologies by utilizing the possibilities of various media to reach out to the consumers. Relevant Websites 1- The Institute for Energy Efficiency http://iee.ucsb.edu/ 2- Tata Power http://www.tatapower.com/ 3- http://www.intel.com
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Mr. Jasjeet Singh Hanjrah is a senior consultant with Capgemini's EUC Centre of Excellence and a member of the Global Smart Energy Services team. He has more than 6 years of experience in the fields of smart metering, smart grids, sustainable utilities and smart cities. He has previously worked for many utility industry majors including HCL, Siemens, ABB and Ferranti.
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in-circuit reliability of energy meters
Rajesh Nimare
Often, the root cause of poor reliability of meters can be traced back to their poor design or design with little or no head room, compromise on component selection and lack of controlled manufacturing processes. The commonly used procurement criterion of 'compliance to metering standards', which prescribes only the minimum requirements, does not help in meter selection. This article explains the impact of poor in-circuit reliability of meters on customers and utilities, explains the fundamentals of reliability and concludes by helping utilities to develop their own check list for meter evaluation.
the root cause of poor reliability of meters can be traced back to their poor design or design with little or no head room, compromise on component selection and lack of controlled manufacturing processes. The commonly used procurement criterion of 'compliance to metering standards', which prescribes only the minimum requirements, does not help in meter selection. This article explains the impact of poor in-circuit reliability of meters on customers and the utility, explains the fundamentals of reliability and concludes by helping utilities to develop their own check list for meter evaluation. Customer First As an electricity customer, if you thought yourself lucky if your meter is defective and you are getting a zero-consumption or an average bill, think twice. There is a bright chance that you will be levied a bill in arrears to cover the billing based on average consumption. This will be calculated based on the maximum consumption measured in the 'window months' after the meter is replaced. With consumption increasing steadily, the arrears could run into several tens of thousands of rupees. The duration for which this charge would be levied will depend on whether the new meter is installed after the 'season boundary' and the time taken to change the meter. This leads to a possibility of real-life disputes like, for example, if
lectricity meters are ubiquitous in today's world and considering the importance of the electricity they measure, it is absolutely necessary that they do not fail. Unlike electro-mechanical meters, a welldesigned and well-manufactured electronic meter generally does not wear out per se. But, in reality, the percentage that fails exceeds 10% per year. Often,
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you were away all the summer why should you pay the hefty arrears and who will pay the arrears in case of changed tenancy.
under warranty. Therefore the question arises: can utilities predict the performance of meters? Yes, reliability engineering is all about that! Need to Focus
At times, a meter defect like a blown neutral results in a high voltage at the customer's premises leading to burn-out of expensive white goods. The aggrieved customer can sue the utility and the already burdened utility engineers have to attend court hearings, further worsening the situation.
The Utility Too Suffers On the flip side, the electricity distribution office in your locality, whose primary job is to attend to outage calls and line maintenance, with its aging workforce and expanding customer base, has very few or no resources for meter replacement. Replacing meters involves a costly chain of back-office activities like investment in meters; storage of meters under standard, defined conditions; logistics; re-testing at expensive meter test laboratories; warranty returns and scrap management. At times, a meter defect like a blown neutral results in a high voltage at the customer's premises leading to burn-out of expensive white goods. The aggrieved customer can sue the utility and the already burdened utility engineers have to attend court hearings, further worsening the situation. Considering the present conservative estimate of in-circuit meter failure of over 10% per year, utilities are lucky if customers have thought of improving meter reliability. Who Loses? What clearly emerges is that in-circuit failure of electricity meters is a societal loss; its magnitude is way higher than the cost of the meter or the electricity it would have traded. Would you buy a local 'standard compliant' music system or something of repute like Sony when it is your money that is being spent? Surely you would not want to build an electricity infrastructure with unreliable meters that impact the wider society. Utilities too realize the menace associated with in-circuit failure of meters and try to reduce their risk by a range of measures, for example, demanding a prolonged warranty period (up to 10 years) to address the issue. However, such measures have not yielded the expected results. Limited testing facilities and technical specialists to establish the cause of defects constrain utilities in making claims
Poor performance of meters causes customers to lose trust in them and thus increases the liability a utility faces. Hence, it is important that utilities create a knowledge base on the reliability of metering assets and use this knowledge for vendor evaluation and meter procurement. Utilities worldwide have identified in-circuit reliability of meters as a key priority area (KPA) and have created dedicated laboratories for evaluating reliability, conducting failure analysis and running sampling plans for meter procurement, a competitive advantage. These plans are a well-kept secret. The following sections review the fundamentals of meter reliability, the vocabulary associated with it and its measurement. Understanding an electronic meter's block diagram should be a good starting point. Components of an Energy Meter The block diagram of an energy meter is shown in Figure 1. The key components of an energy meter that determine its reliability are explained below: Power supply
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A meter reported 'dead' usually has the roots of its failure in power supply failure, which accounts for around 70% of all cases. Designers use high-dissipation resistors and voltage-clamping devices such as pre-conditioners; however, because they are costly and do not directly add any value to compliance with metering standards, this is often neglected.
The power supply section comprises 35-40% of the total component count in a meter, and its job is to provide the regulated, low-voltage DC power needed to drive the meter electronics. Being exposed to the distribution network, the meter power supply has to endure over/under voltage, sag/swell, transients, resonance, switching surges and lightning impulses. A meter reported 'dead' usually has the roots of its failure in power supply failure, which accounts for around 70% of all failures. Designers use high-
Supply conditioning
Power supply
Voltage transducer Signal conditioning Current transducer

Fig 1. Block Diagram of an Energy Meter
Supply conditioning Measurement Signal Clock Battery Storage (Memory) Display LCD
dissipation resistors and voltage-clamping devices such as pre-conditioners; however, because they are costly and do not directly add any value to compliance with 'metering standards' (which define the minimum criteria), this is often neglected. Therefore, the entire power supply design continues to be an area to examine while evaluating meter reliability. There are two types of power supply used in modern electronic meters: capacitor-based linear power supply and switch mode power supply (SMPS). Capacitor-based supplies use a capacitor divider network to drop the input voltage (230 V) to a usable value. An input capacitor, which experiences the maximum stress, is the critical component in such power supplies, and its rating (temperature, voltage) determines the reliability of such meters. Utilities, during procurement, should insist on the design analysis of each component under stress. Switch mode power supply (SMPS) is used in advanced meters, which have higher power supply requirements. In such designs, the supply voltage is rectified, filtered and then switched to a high frequency (to minimize transformer size) to create the required low voltage which is further rectified and filtered for powering up the meter. As the power supply in the first stage is exposed to the electricity supply, its endurance against voltage variation, spikes, transients, dips and surges determines the reliability of the energy meter. Voltage transducer Often a simple resistive divider is used to step down the mains voltage to a measurable range. As the long-term performance of the voltage divider depends upon the selection of the resistor used, the utility should critically examine this component to ensure long-term performance. Current transducer Modern meters use either a miniature current transformer or a shunt to step down the load current. As the entire load current flows through the
transducer, the integrity of the current circuit is important; it is important to take into consideration its endurance during overload and short circuit. Often, the no-power symbol appearing in a meter is due to burning of the meter bus bar. As the current transformer provides natural isolation between the mains and the measurement circuit, its insulation design should be examined for reliability. For designs using a shunt as the current transducer, the method of handling line surges and the transient load caused by modern gadgets should be critically examined during design evaluation. Display In modern meters, the display is invariably a liquid crystal display (LCD); its performance depends upon its specifications like tolerance to humidity and temperature variation. Real time clock (RTC) The meter needs a battery backup to maintain the clock running during transportation and power outages. Usually the battery used for clock backup is specified for performance during the off-power mode, running to typically 2-4 years, and the shelf life of the battery, which determines the product life. A utility should evaluate the design of the RTC backup battery to ensure that the meter is going to perform for the committed duration. Derating the labelled milliamperehour (mA-hr) of the battery is essential, as there is a native variation of 15% of its capacity owing to the influence of ambient temperature. Understanding Meter Performance: The 'Bathtub Curve Over many years, and across a wide variety of mechanical and electronic components and systems, people have calculated empirical population failure rates as the units age over time and have repeatedly obtained a graph such as the one shown in Figure 2. Because of the shape of this failure rate curve, it has become widely known as the 'bathtub' curve.
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Zone I - the burn-in period The rapidly declining part of the curve, referred to as the burn-in period or infant mortality stage, is characterized by failures due to inherent component weaknesses and manufacturing defects. This relates to the practical observations with new energy meters, where there is a surge of complaints of meter failing within a few months of meter installation. With the passage of time, the failure rate drops. Given that this is the predicted behaviour, quality meter manufacturers follow 'burn-in' processes, where selected components and circuit cards go through a burn-in in the factory before they are integrated into the product. In essence, the infant mortality, which is inevitable, should be precipitated and created before supply to the utilities to prevent expensive in-circuit failure. Utilities should include an evaluation of the manufacturing technique as part of their tender evaluation programme. Value-conscious utilities realize the importance of the manufacturing process (which cannot be measured by metering standard compliance alone); hence they run a dedicated 'vendor manufacturing capability evaluation programme'. A series of open-ended questionnaires are sent to the prospective vendors. The qualification based on the written statement is followed by an inspection of the factory, where the processes, facilities, quality of people, in-work quality test plan and in-circuit failure figures (past) are audited. Often utilities seek the assistance of industry experts in the field of manufacturing, reliability and
Fig 2. The 'Bathtub' Curve Depicting Failure Rate of Energy Meters over Time
Typical to a discussion of reliability is the concept of the bathtub curve. As shown in Figure 2, the curve can be broken up into three portions.
There is a surge of complaints of meter failing within a few months of installation. With the passage of time, the failure rate drops. Given that this is the predicted behaviour, quality meter manufacturers follow 'burn-in' processes, where selected 20 components and circuit cards go through a burn-in in the factory before they are integrated into the product.
QC to frame the entire vendor evaluation programme so that society gets the bang for its buck. Zone II - useful life stage This stage is characterized by a constant failure rate due to random failures. There are techniques available to predict the constant failure rate, and utilities should demand their prediction model from meter vendors as part of their procurement process. Before going for a large procurement, a utility should verify the performance on a small pilot quantity. There are third-party specialist companies that provide such evaluation services; however, considering continuity of business, it is important that utilities develop their own reliability assessment facility. Zone III - Wear out period This stage is characterized by an increasing failure rate because of meter aging and meter deterioration. Because modern electronic meters are largely made up of semiconductor devices that have no real shortterm wear-out mechanism, the existence of a Zone III for electronic systems is a sort of grey area. Usually this area refers to the failing of batteries and fading of the LCD. For most electronic components, Zone III is relatively flat. Reliability Prediction Modeling There is a variety of reliability prediction modeling techniques, which are classified into five main categories such as Similar Equipment Technique, Similar Complexity Technique, Prediction by Function Technique, Part Count Technique and Stress Analysis Technique. Utilities should focus on the details of each technique and its applicability during reliability assessment.
applied building up to a level significantly beyond what the equipment will see in-service. By this method, weaknesses can be identified using a small number of samples (sometimes one or two, but preferably at least five) in the shortest possible time and at the least expense. A second function of HALT is that it characterizes the equipment under test and identifies the equipment's safe operating limits and design margins. Data from HALT are therefore used as a basis for the design of an optimal HASS or ESS test, which is used to screen every piece of production equipment for latent manufacturing defects and defective components. HASS (or highly accelerated stress screening) is an extension of HALT, but is applied during production. There are a number of reasons why the electricity meter reliability is an important attribute for the utility, including Reputation: A utility's reputation is very closely related to the reliability of its installations. The more reliable a meter is, the more likely the utility is to have a favourable reputation. Customer Satisfaction: High reliability is a mandatory requirement for customer satisfaction. While a reliable meter may not dramatically affect customer satisfaction in a positive manner, an unreliable meter is sure to affect customer satisfaction negatively. Warranty Costs: The replacement and repair costs will negatively affect profits, as well as attracting unwanted negative attention. Introducing reliability analysis is an important step in taking corrective action. Cost Analysis: The life cycle cost analysis can prove that even if one vendor's initial cost of purchase might be higher, the overall lifetime cost is lower than a competitor's because the former's meter requires fewer repairs or less maintenance. Competitive Advantage: With competition in the utility business, utilities worldwide publish their predicted reliability numbers to help gain an advantage over their competition who either do not publish their numbers or have lower numbers.
Mr. Rajesh Nimare is DGM, Business Development with Secure Meters Ltd. He is a Certified Energy Auditor with 19+ years of experience in the metering domain and has closely involved in projects like pre-payment electricity metering system for Brunei and AMI development project.
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Accelerated life cycle test Highly accelerated life test (HALT) is a stress test for assessing product reliability. It is commonly applied to electronic equipment and is performed to identify design weaknesses in equipment. Thus it reduces to a large extent the probability of in-service failures. Progressively more severe environmental stresses are
Progressively severe environmental stresses are applied, building up to a level significantly beyond what the equipment will see in-service. By this method, weaknesses can be identified using a small number of samples in the shortest possible time and at the least expense.
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hen Tektronix, a $1.1 billion global leader in test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, scheduled a three-day energy audit, Facilities and General Services Manager Joe Ohama was pretty sure his groups would find opportunities to save money. But he was surprised where they found them. After participating in an energy audit at a sister company that uncovered $365K in potential savings from energy conservation and waste management improvements, Ohama moved fast to schedule the Tektronix audit. "I looked at what it took to do the kaizen,'" Ohama said. "I had pretty much what I needed to do this in-
house and with Linc Facility Services, our facility maintenance provider." Tektronix had already been approached by Portland General, its local utility, which was pulling together an Industrial Energy Initiative through the Energy Trust of Oregon, led by Strategic Energy Group. The goal was to encourage 12 Oregon companies to come together to share best practices related to industrial energy usage. Ohama invited the group to be part of the audit team, along with campus tenants. In all, about 25 people assembled in Beaverton, Oregon, for the three-day exercise. The group divided into two teams-one to focus on electrical usage, one
hot and cold running savings

Fluke
charged with analyzing natural gas, water, waste and everything else. Using a corporate energy audit system for consistency, 72 hours later they had identified $510K in estimated annual savings, with a one-time investment of $233K. $378K of that annual amount is possible in 2009. "We followed the audit process, which breaks down all the different utilities, and we focused in from there," Ohama says. "It's a matter of looking at things on paper and going out into the plant. It's a top down/bottom up approach." Where they looked This wasn't Tektronix's first energy audit, so some easy areas of improvement that many companies find
had already been taken care of. "One of the biggest things typically is lighting. We had done a lot of lighting retrofits some time ago, so we didn't find as much opportunity there." Even so, by updating a few parts of their lighting management system and hanging the settings, they still managed to identify an additional $30K in annual savings. Where they did find substantial savings was in their hot and chilled water systems. "We're looking at actually shutting down the boilers in the summertime," Ohama says. "We have always run boilers and chillers 24/7. Now we're doing some modifications that will allow us to shut the boilers down in certain months, saving
Energy audits do help in finding opportunities to save money, but it can sometimes be surprising to see where the audit team finds these opportunities. This article shows how Tektronix, a global leader in measurement and monitoring instrumentation discovered $510K in utility savings in just three days. The top areas of saving included shutting down the boiler in summer, foregoing summer lawn watering, turning off the fountain, resetting chilled water to 45 F and switching off PCs during off hours.
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hot and cold running savings
natural gas." Instead of keeping the plant's boilers fired up, Ohama's group plans to switch to localized hot water tank systems capable of running targeted smaller applications. Annual savings-$133K "One of the biggest audit findings was the benefit of pulling in people from our different user groups," he says. "Manufacturing, engineering-getting everyone in the room at the same time. For example, we've always run compressed air at 110 pounds. We thought our users needed that much. But our users said, 'We really only need 100 pounds.' Annual savings-$7K. We did the same thing with chilled water for environmental and machinery cooling, going from 43.5 F to 45 F." Annual savings-$20K. No area was overlooked. Foregoing the company's fountain saves $45K; not watering the grass in the summer saves $48K. Optimizing and calibrating air handlers garners $9K; resizing the exhaust fan saves $15K, replacing cafeteria spray nozzles saves $2K. How they did it If many of Ohama's biggest savings came from comparing supply vs. demand, many other incremental savings came from tried-and-true best practices.
controls, so they could stage down to the small chiller and still carry the load at 45 degrees. They'll stay this course until the chilled water flow demand increases in the summer. - Using thermal imagers, the team surveyed their buildings for thermal loss, air leaks, and vent leaks, turning up $3k of annual savings opportunities. - They also used thermal imagers to scan electrical panels, looking for hot spots that could indicate high resistance or connector malfunctions that manifest as wasted heat energy. - This summer the team is considering raising indoor building temperatures from the previous standard 72 F to a higher 77 F. Doing this will require resetting building temperature sensors and controls, using the building management system, and conducting ambient air temperature measurements. Off and running Tektronix Chief Financial Officer Chuck McLaughlin was pleased with the results of the energy audit. "Joe and the team took the time to set themselves up for success, brought the right people together and asked the tough questions. Their results will serve as a great stretch goal for other companies as the energy audits continue." Identifying $510K of estimated annual savings is a solid accomplishment for three days of focus. But Ohama's work isn't done. In the coming months, Ohama will be helping other companies run similar energy audits. Who knows what they'll find-or where they'll find it.
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w Ohama tracks power consumption by building per day and tracks consumption on specific loads with individual power loggers. This both identifies and confirms energy savings. - In particular, the teams identified an opportunity to reduce kWh used by the cooling tower, by adding a VFD. The VFD will drive the cooling towers in accordance with load demand, at an annual savings of $39K. - Running a power logger on the air compressor mentioned above allowed the team to calculate how much they would save from a 10-pound compression reduction. - The team surveyed kWh consumption at multiple motors and VFDs and calculated ROI gains from modulating operation, instead of running at 100 %. w Identifying new opportunities to optimize air handlers. By incorporating some new tuning procedures into the existing preventive maintenance schedule and evaluating the percentage of outside air being conditioned, Ohama's team hopes to save an additional $18K annually. w The team will also optimize the Central Plant Operations (CPO) chiller, saving $2.6K. To do this, the team increased parameters on the chiller
Balbir Singh and V K Sethi
The free-cooling concept has been successfully implemented in around 90 AC plants in BSNL, Haryana, and has resulted in considerable reduction in energy consumption. The switch room/equipment room in telephone exchanges is cooled by pumping cold air from outside through the AC plant aided by the blowers of package AC units.
free cooling:
an energy conservation measure
25
free cooling: an energy conservation measure
ajority of air-conditioning systems are based on the re-circulated air system, in which irrespective of the outside ambient conditions, the conditioned space/equipment area is to be maintained at the desired temperature level. The required fresh air and return air are cooled by refrigeration compressors. All telephone exchanges, big and small, function under controlled conditions and are air conditioned. The temperature is required to be maintained at a certain level throughout the year. Major exchanges are temperature sensitive, and temperature is required to be maintained in the range of 23 3C. There are around 100 air-conditioning plants in BSNL exchanges in the state of Haryana, and the capacity of these plants normally ranges from 21 TR to 50 TR; the majority being of 21 TR. Airconditioning plants are bulk consumers of energy, and there exists a great potential for energy conservation. It is to be noted that even a decrease of indoor temperature by 1C results in an increase of energy consumption by 4%.
winter season; for example, one package unit means 5000 CFM. w Free air from the outside is pumped into the package room and further supplied to the switch room through the blowers of package AC units. w The hot air from the switch room is thrown out using an exhaust fan/damper, or by keeping the doors open if feasible. w The system can be manual or automatic.
Manual: The free-cooling system is started manually, and the dampers are adjusted accordingly. The system is operated when the outside temperature is <20C. The components used are as follows: A 24 SWG GI duct with a mechanical filter, a 600 mm axial fan, a damper, a contactor, cables and so on.
The normal temperature of the cooled air at the canvas connection of a package AC unit is 13-14C. When the outside temp is 26 <14C, no package AC unit is required to be run.
The Concept In northern India the outdoor temperature during winter (November to February) is quite low. Such favourable outside conditions can be utilized for maintaining the switch room/equipment room temperature by pumping cold air from the outside into the equipment room through the plant room by running the blowers of package AC units. This concept is known as free cooling. The normal temperature of the cool air at the canvas connection of a package AC unit is 13-14C. So, when the outside temp is <14C, then no package AC unit is required to be run. When the outside temperature is even up to 20C, the temperature in the switch room/equipment room can be maintained by pumping more air. Design and Methodology w The air flow (in cubic feet per minute, CFM) requirement for free cooling for a particular AC plant is calculated on the basis of average running of the number of AC package units during the
Automatic: Free cooling will start working as and when the outside temperature goes below 20C and will turn OFF when the temperature inside the switch room is below 25.5C; also the compressors will turn ON only when free cooling is not working due to any fault or when outside conditions are not favourable. In this system, the louvers of the inlet and outlet fans shall work automatically with the thrust of the air. The components used are as follows: A 24 SWG GI sheet duct with a mechanical filter, a 600-mm diameter axial fan, a 450 mm exhaust fan, dampers, louvers, digital temperature controllers, contactors, relays, control wiring and cables, and so on. Implementation Pilot automated project: A pilot project has been undertaken with an automated system at the telephone exchange building, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana. The desired inside temperature is 25C.
temperature sensor. This air is sucked in by the package AC units and supplied into the conditioned space, and is drawn out by the exhaust fans.
In this project, 10,000 CFM air is required to cool the conditioned space, that is, switch room/equipment room containing C-DoT and OCB exchange equipment. Two 5000 CFM fans with mechanical filters and suitable duct work are provided to push the air into the existing AC plant room, and four 18" exhaust fans with shutters in the return air path are provided to exhaust the air into the atmosphere. Whenever the outside temperature is below 20C, the fresh air and exhaust air fans start working, sensing the outside ambient temperature through a temperature sensor. This forced air is sucked in by the package AC units and supplied into the conditioned space, where, after taking the heat of the equipment, it is exhausted by the exhaust fans. A temperature sensor is provided in the switch room so that when the temperature is about to go below 25C the system stops and turns ON only when the temperature is about to increase from the desired value of 25C. This also adds further energy savings by switching off the inlet and outlet air fans. The general layouts of the system with and without free cooling are as shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. The control circuit is shown in Figure 3.
OMC
Switch room
OFFICE
AC PLANT
C O N D E N S O R S
OFFICE
X-MISSION BTS
GREEN (SUPPLY AIR) RED (RETURN AIR) BLACK ( CONDENSOR AIR CIRCUIT) RETURN AIR PATH
Figure 1: Layout Plan of AC Plant at the telephone Exchange, Yamunanagar (air circuit normal)
CONDENSOR AC PACKAGFE
Whenever the outside temperature is below 20C, the fresh air and exhaust air fans start working, sensing the outside ambient temperature through a
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OUTER COLD AIR
OMC
Switch room
OFFICE
AC PLANT
C O N D E N S O R S
OFFICE
X-MISSION BTS
GREEN (FREE OUTER COLD AIR) RED (HEATED EXHAUST AIR) RETURN AIR PATH SECTION LINE
Figure 2. Layout Plan of the AC Plant at the Telephone Exchange at Yamunanagar (Free Cooling)
CONDENSOR AC PACKAGE 5000CFM AIR INLET FAN 450 M HOT AIR EXH. FAN
OUTSIDE TEMP. SENSOR TC-2 TC-1
INDOOR TEMP SENSOR
The free-cooling concept has been successfully implemented in around 90 AC plants in BSNL, Haryana. It has resulted in considerable reduction in energy consumption, as detailed in Table 1: From Table 1, it is observed that there is a huge potential for energy conservation by using the freecooling concept. In our practical experience, it has been observed that the actual operating period of the free-cooling concept is around 4 months.
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NEUTRAL
FREE AIR
EX HAUST
Figure 3: Temperature Controller for Free Air Cooling in Winter (Schematic Diagram) Table 1: Energy Conservation Achieved in the AC Plants of BSNL, Haryana, by Means of Free Cooling
Sr. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Description No. of AC plants in which the free-cooling concept is implemented Reduction in running of package AC units (at least one package unit of 7 TR in each plant) No of working hours (round the clock) Power consumption Period of operation of free cooling (October to March) restricted to 3 months for calculations purpose Reduction in energy consumption in units Units consumed for running the free-cooling system @ 1.50 kW per free-cooling system (in units)
Result 90 7 TR 90 = 630 TR 24 h 1.8 kW/TR 90 days 24 h = 2160 h 630 1.8 2160 = 24,49,440 kWh 1.50 90 24 = 3,240 kWh (which is negligible)
Benefits w Reduction in compressor running hours. w Increased compressor life w Lower energy cost w Lower CO2 emission
Er. Balbir Singh is the Chief Engineer (E) at BSNL, Haryana and Er. V.K.Sethi is the Sub Divisional Engineer (E) at BSNL, Yamuna Nagar.
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In appreciation of the achievement in energy conservation in the office buildings sector, BSNL Haryana has won three National Energy Conservation Awards in 2010.
In appreciation of the achievement in energy conservation in the office buildings sector, BSNL Haryana has won three National Energy Conservation Awards in 2010. The awards were presented by Honorable Minister of Power, Mr. Shushil Kumar Shinde, on 14 December, 2010.
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30
impact of system load factor on T&D losses
K K Babu
n going through the annual administration report of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) for 2009-10, it is learnt that during this period the T&D loss came down to 19.41% from 20.45% (1.04% reduction) in the previous year [1]. This was achieved through the execution of the following improvement works: commissioning of 266.4 km of EHT lines, 25 EHT sub-stations, 3398 km of HT lines, 7838 km of LT lines and 5790 distribution transformers.
The system load factor of KSEB during 2009-10 was 65%, which is very low as compared to the other southern states of India (see Table 1) [2]. Nothing is seen mentioned in the report regarding measures to improve the load factor. In this context, it is worthwhile to make a study of the impact of system load factor on T&D loss reduction and the consequent increase in profitability of power utilities, with a focus on the Kerala system. Here it is attempted to make a theoretical study of the impact of system load factor on T&D losses. Ideal System Loss (Ld) The ideal condition of loading of a system occurs when the load factor is 100%. Let us consider a case in which a uniform apparent power of X units flows for a time period T, such that the energy consumption for the period is Q units. Load Factor Energy consumption = 100% = Q units
31
Average apparent power = X units Current, I = X/E (where E is a constant that depends on voltage etc.)
The system load factor of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) during 2009-10 was 65%, which is very low as compared to the other southern states of India. It is worthwhile to make a study of the impact of system load factor on transmission and distribution (T&D) loss reduction and the consequent increase in profitability of power utilities, with a focus on the Kerala system. The study shows that an annual savings up to Rs.99.2894 crores can be achieved through improvement in load factor.
System loss depends on apparent power and not on active power. System loss = D I2 T (where D is a constant that depends on system parameters such as Impedance etc.) = D (X/E)2 T = (D/E2) (average apparent power)2 time period = K (average apparent power)2 time period (where K = D/E2) This is the minimum possible system loss for any given time period and the given system parameters.
That means, it is the Ideal system loss. So, ideal system loss, Ld = K (average apparent power)2 time period (1) Also, system loss if apparent maximum demand (MD) is maintained during the time period = K (apparent MD)2 time period (2) Note that Ld changes when there is any change in the constant K.
Load Factor and Loss Factor In actual practice, ideal loading never occurs and the actual system loss will be more than Ld. Losses in series elements are related to the square of the current flow. It is possible to establish a relationship between peak demand on a system and the average technical losses, through consideration of load factor (GL ) and loss factor (GV). The Actual Loss can be worked out based on the relation between GL and GV. In fact, loss factor is the 'load factor of losses'. It is defined as the 'ratio of actual energy loss during a particular period to the energy loss assuming peak apparent demand throughout the period'. GV = Energy loss over a time period (Power loss at apparent MD the time period) GL = Energy consumed over a time period (MD the time period) According to the Electrical Engineering Hand Book published by SIEMENS, (the relevant extract is given below) we get the following relation [3]:
The Actual Loss can be worked out based on the relation between load factor (G L) and loss factor (G V). In fact, loss factor is the 'load factor of losses'. It is defined as the ratio of actual energy loss during a particular period to the energy loss assuming peak apparent demand throughout the period.
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GV = (GL)1.6 [Extract from Electrical Engineering Handbook published by SIEMENS Section 8.1, Network Parameters, pp 356-357.] Load Factor and Loss Factor GL GV = Au/Pmaxt = AV/Vmaxt load factor loss factor
(GL)2
= (Average apparent power) (Apparent MD)2 = [K (Average apparent power)2 Time period] [K (Apparent MD)2 Time period] = Ideal loss over a time period (Ld) (Energy loss if apparent MD is maintained over the time period)
Pmax : maximum transmitted power (peak load) in MW in a certain period, t Au Vmax AV : duration of the period in hours, : energy transmitted in time t in MWh, : loss power at apparent load power Smax, : energy loss in time t
1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 GV = GL 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 GL Practical Condition
GV
= Energy loss over a time period (Power loss at apparent MD the time period) = Actual system loss over a time period (Energy loss if apparent MD is maintained over the time period)
GV/(GL)2
= Actual loss over a time period Ideal loss over the same time period = Actual loss Ideal loss (Ld)
GV
So, Actual loss = Ld [ GV/(GL) ] But, we know that GV = (GL)

1.6
Loss Factor as a function of Load Factor
at load factor GL1 = Ld [1/(GL1)0.4] Actual loss L2 at load factor GL2 = Ld [1/(GL2)0.4] So, L1/L2 = (GL2/GL1)
0.4
No simple curve, which is correct for every case, exists for the relation GV = f(GL), because of the effect of power factor and load fluctuation. The bandwidth is given by the relation GV = (GL)1-2. The index 1 is valid for a load diagram which only contains the values P = Pmax and P = 0. A load diagram for index 2 would have the power Pmax during a very short period of time, while a constant load would exist during the rest of the time. The emphasized curve can be used with sufficient accuracy under most practical conditions (approximately corresponding to an index of 1.6)]. Now, GL = Energy consumed over a time period (MD the time period) = Average apparent power Apparent MD
Impact of Load Factor on Profitability From the Annual Report for 2009-10 of Southern Regional Power Committee (under CEA), Bangalore, the statistics with regard to the southern states of India can be obtained, which is presented in Table 1. From Table 1, it is observed that the system load factor of Kerala for 2009-10 is 65%, while those of other southern states are much higher. A load factor of 80% can be taken as the target. The T&D loss of Kerala during 2009-10 was 19.41%. Now, let us see what would have been the T&D loss, if the load factor were improved to 80%.
Table 1. Annual Average Load Factor of the Southern States of India
Andhra Pradesh Annual Load Factor (%) 78
Karnataka 70
Kerala 65
Tamil Nadu 83
Pondicherry 77
Southern Region 81
Source: SRPC (2010) Annual Report 2009-2010 of Southern Region Power Committee. Bangalore, India: Southern Region Power Committee (under CEA). www.srpc.kar.nic.in
GV = (GL
So, Actual Loss = Ld [(GL) /(GL) ] = Ld [1/(GL) ] Now, Actual loss L1

0.4
1.6
33
We know that L1/L2 So, L2 = (GL2/GL1)0.4 = LI (GL1/GL2)

0.4
T&D Loss at 65% load factor, L1
= 19.41% (i.e., 0.1941)
Suppose the load factor is improved to 80% T&D loss at 80% load factor, L2 = = = = LI (GL1/GL2)0.4 0.1941 (0.65/0.80)0.4 0.1941 0.920 0.1786 (i.e., 17.86%)
Reduction in T&D Loss = (19.41 - 17.86)% = 1.55% Annual energy sold during 2009-10 Annual reduction in T&D Loss = 14,047.75 M.U. (million units) = 217.74 M.U.
Per unit cost of energy = Rs. 4.56 Annual Savings due to improvement in load factor = Rs.99.2894 Crores (ABT) regime, there will be a monetary benefit if there is any reduction in demand during the lowfrequency period. Action Plan for Achieving Loss Reduction by Improvement of System Load Factor Load factor can be improved only by flattening of the load curve. It can be done only by limiting the evening peak and by creating additional demand during offpeak periods. A detailed and in-depth study is needed for implementing appropriate measures to improve the load factor and thus reduce the system loss. References
1. KSEB (2010) Annual Administration Report 2009-2010 of Kerala State Electricity Board. Trivandrum, India: Kerala State Electricity Board. SRPC (2010) Annual Report 2009-2010 of Southern Region Power Committee. Bangalore, India: Southern Region Power Committee (under CEA). www.srpc.kar.nic.in. SIEMENS (1981) Electrical Engineering Handbook. New Delhi, India: New Age International (P) Limited.
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Capacity enhancement of the system (generation, transmission and distribution) is usually necessitated to meet the evening peak demand. If load factor is improved, evening peak will be reduced and consequently there will be savings due to the reduction in capital investment. Load factor can be improved only by flattening of the load curve. It can be done only by limiting the evening peak and by creating additional demand during offpeak periods.
Additional Savings Due to Improvement in Load Factor 1. Capacity enhancement of the system (generation, transmission and distribution) is usually necessitated to meet the evening peak demand. If load factor is improved, evening peak will be reduced and consequently there will be savings due to the reduction in capital investment. 2. The frequency will usually be low during the evening peak. Under the availability-based tariff
2.
3.
Mr. K. K. Babu, MSEEM is a former Deputy Chief Engineer of the Kerala State Electricity Board. He has 30 years of experience in Design, Planning, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of various Electrical Installations (LT, HT & EHT). He has also actively involved in Energy Audits, Grid Management, Load Generation Balance and Water Management.
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energy efficient computing

Soujanya Nemalikanti and Polavarapu Sindhura
an approach towards
Moving towards a 'greener' era of computing, it is the need of the hour to consider high-performance systems that are energy efficient and thereby are lesser heat and carbon emitters. The conventional approach, on software grounds, includes redefining algorithms that focus on the reduction of time complexity and space complexity of programmes. The authors propose a novel approach that takes into consideration power optimization, with respect to making an algorithm more energy-efficient.
code optimization technique:
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code optimization technique: an approach towards energy efficient computing
o begin with, 'green' computing is defined as "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems - such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems - efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment." This definition was proposed by Samir Botros in Green Technology and Design for the Environment [1].
Table 1: A Green-Computing Version of the 'Hello World' Program for Coarse-Grained (Left) and Fine-Grained (Right) Green Computing
Programme HelloWorld_c print "Hello World\n" low_power_mode()
Programme HelloWorld_f activate(memory_bank) activate(io) print "Hello World\n" deactivate(memory_bank) deactivate(io) low_power_mode()
With the advent of novel technologies to address complex problems in the world of computation, the focal point, to a large extent, remains to be the performance factor, marring the consequences that it renders to the milieu around in the form of carbon and heat emissions affecting humans and the environment equally. Thence is the yearning for ecofriendly alternatives that consume less units of power for execution and also save your money. Case Studies
banks or I/O peripherals. Note that the system is set to the full-power mode when an external event occurs such as a key pressing or a peripheral interrupt. Therefore, on entry into the programme, the system is assumed to be in the full-power mode [2]. With fine-grained green computing (the code on the right-hand side of Table 1), only the required memory banks and I/O peripherals are activated for the programme. The number of memory banks that should be activated and the I/O peripherals that should be turned on really depend on the underlying application. This approach allows energy consumption of the system components to be finetuned, and will further reduce power consumption, as low-power modes do for the CPU alone. 2. Power-aware merge algorithm Components other than CPU will require another control unit in the system. However, this will increase the complexity of the design, and some algorithms may have to be redesigned to achieve this objective. Note that it seems plausible that the green code at the right-hand side of Table 1 involves a higher number of instructions and thus consumes more power. Actually, it is the idle power consumption that makes the non-green code drain more current than the green code.
Fine-grained green computing' refers to running a programme efficiently and effectively via a subtle power control on each computing resource such as CPU, 38 memory, registers, peripherals, clock and power supply. A simple power cut as a whole, like in coarse-grained green computing, yields less leverage on manipulating energy consumption in light of the characteristics and the context of a specific application.
1. Fine-grained green computing 'Fine-grained green computing' refers to running a programme efficiently and effectively via a subtle power control on each computing resource such as CPU, memory, registers, peripherals, clock and power supply. A simple power cut as a whole, like in coarsegrained green computing, yields less leverage on manipulating energy consumption in light of the characteristics and the context of a specific application. Table 1 shows a green-computing version of the 'Hello World' programme with respect to the coarse-grained and the fine-grained green-computing methodologies. The code on the left shows a coarsegrained green-computing programme in which the programme's execution is in the full-power mode, disregarding whether the program is using memory
A big portion of power consumption is attributed to the memory in which programmes and their data are stored. Thus, a compact design of code and data structures is a key to power reduction.
A big portion of power consumption is attributed to the memory in which programmes and their data are stored. Thus, a compact design of code and data structures is a key to power reduction. For example, a regular merge sort algorithm will waste about 50% of memory space in storing sub-type elements, as in the
Table 2: A Power-Aware Merge Algorithm for Memory Power and Size Reduction
Merge (A, L, R) n = k = 0; i = j = 2; while(not (empty(L) or empty(R))) { if (i = 2) W1 = head(L); i = 0; if (j = 2) W2 = head(R); j = 0; if (W1[i] > W2[j]) w[k++] = W2[j++]; else w[k++] = W1[j++]; if k = 2 A[n++] = w; k = 0; end of while // append the rest of lists to A if (notempty(L)) append L to A elseif (notempty(R)) append R to A
unused memory banks to save power. Second, it requires two times more memory loads than if the data were to be sorted in a compact form, for example, two short integers are stored in a 32-bit memory space. Table 2 illustrates a power-aware merge algorithm that reduces memory power consumption and size by 50%, and increases programme efficiency by eliminating a half of the lengthy memory accesses (assuming that all auto variables i, j, k and n can be allocated to registers). The idea of the power-aware merge algorithm is to pack two short integers into one word, which is the basic unit for the CPU, when loading data into registers. Each load instruction will actually load two short integers. The operations of this merge algorithm are similar to those of a traditional one. The only difference is the three 'if' statements to check whether the indices have reached 2. The asymptotic time complexity will remain the same, that is, O(n), but the actual run time will be shorter if m > 4, where m is the number of times the memory access is slower as compared to CPU instructions. The following depicts the time complexity of the merge algorithm of the original version and that of the power-aware version shown in Table 2. T (n) = nm + n T'(n) = nm/2 + 3n
case of, say, a 32-bit CPU sorting 16-bit short integers. Two problems arise: First, it doubles the memory space requirement to store the data, and, therefore, it may not take advantage of turning off
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where T(n) is the time complexity of the original algorithm and T'(n) is that of the power-aware algorithm. However, the energy complexity for the original version is 2 times as much as that of the power-aware version if the data memory is much larger than the programme memory. Therefore, it is necessary to perform fine-grained tuning of the power consumption of an algorithm. To reap that benefit, an algorithm will typically be redesigned. Similarly, when green computing is applied to operating systems, especially its scheduler would have to handle per-process requirements in order to optimally control all peripherals in terms of power consumption. If dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) were
to be added, the scheduler would have to consider CPU power supply in light of the deadlines and priorities of a task. Often there are situations where lower voltage may end up consuming more power for completing a task. Perhaps, the most difficult task is to find where to sneak in green computing and how it improves system performance. A Novel Approach There are two possible domains in which the study can progress: One is software, and the other hardware. On the grounds of software issues, there are four approaches with reference to a typical C/C++ programme, for instance. Source code and instruction-level optimizations appear to be an alternative in low power consumption analysis [3-5].
First, the use of some special operators in the source code can contribute remarkably towards lowering power consumption during its execution. This technique is termed as 'algorithmic transformation'. These special operators include: 1. Shorthand operators like +=, *=, /=, %=, -=, &=, |=, ^=, ~=, <<= and >= 2. Increment/Decrement operators like ++, --. For example, the assignment instruction n = n + 1 can be replaced with the increment operator n++ or ++n requiring only two cycles as against by the former that requires three cycles for that instruction. 3. Tertiary operators like the conditional operator (test condition ? expr1:expr2, syntactically) instead of larger blocks of compound statements like 'If-elseifelse' to compute a selection-based task.
Third, the technique of loop unrolling is being considered. Loop unrolling is an optimization technique where the body of a loop is copied several times. This prevents the amount of power consumed in the overhead otherwise caused during the change in control flow due to loop transformations and iterations. Since loop unrolling has been shown to yield good results in terms of low power consumption for the Intel 8051 platform in previous literature, there seems to be a good sign for the validity of this approach, as demonstrated by Ortiz and Santiago [7]. Fourth, the use of inline functions has a significant impact on power requirement. In function inlining, the body of a function is inserted directly into the code structure where it is used. Also, variable declaration is used to replace variable types used in other methods, which tend to lower power consumption [8]. There are several important works on source codelevel optimization. Source code-level optimization for execution time has been studied extensively by Leupers [9]. Leupers [9] and Sharma and Ravikumar [10] classified source code optimization techniques as machine-independent and machine-dependent. In terms of source code optimization for power reduction, Simunic et al. [11] classified code optimization techniques into algorithmic, data-flow and instruction-flow optimization. In our study, we used algorithmic optimization since it does not take into consideration the target platform. Dalal and Ravikumar [3] studied software-dependent components such as arithmetic circuits, data busses and memories, as a way to lower power consumption in embedded applications. Sharma and Ravikumar [10] presented a study of the implementation of the ADPCM codec benchmark. In this work, optimization techniques applied at the source code level were classified into structural and machine-dependent optimization. Tool Talk MATLAB software serves as an apposite tool for the analysis of the subject being researched here. The following are a few relevant utilities available in this tool. 1. Code Analyzer Report: It displays potential errors and problems, as well as opportunities for improvement, in MATLAB programmes. It displays a message for each line of MATLAB code and determines how it might be improved. For example, a common message is that a variable is defined but never used, as shown in Figure 1. By performing the
The use of inline functions has a significant impact on power requirement. In function inlining, the body of a function is inserted directly into the code structure where it is used.
Second, the use of operands from the registers rather than from the memory will prove to be an appreciable deal. An instruction using register operands costs up to 300 mA of current per cycle, whereas the memory read/write operations cost in the range of 430-530 mA per cycle. Since the register set is limited and hence cannot be used for applications with larger memory requirement, the next alternative is seen in the form of storing operands using caches. Further, the code transformations available in recent scenarios help improve the cache hit ratios and make it a better option as compared to registers. This technique is associated with memory management, as illustrated by Tiwari et al. [6].
An instruction using register operands costs up to 300 mA of current per cycle, whereas the memory read/write operations cost in the range of 430-530 mA per cycle. Since the register set is limited and hence cannot be used for applications with larger memory requirement, the next alternative is seen in the form of storing operands using caches.
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an unexpected and remarkable manner. In the near future, the urge for eco-friendly solutions in computing shall be on the rise, and so will be the advancement in the relevant technology. In the domain of software engineering, there is an imperative requirement for the genesis of poweraware algorithms and such transformations at the instruction and source-code levels to optimize the energy efficiency of a given software product, thereby making it a 'green' software. References
1. Botros S. (1996) Green Technology and Design for the Environment, 3rd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2. Grochowski E. and Annavaram M. Energy per instruction trends in Intel microprocessors, available at http://support.intel.co.jp/pressroom/kits/core2duo/pdf/epi-trendsfinal2.pdf. Figure 1: A snapshot of the Code Analyzer in the MATLAB Tool 3. Dalal V. and Ravikumar C.P . (2001) Software power optimizations in an embedded system. Fourteenth International Conference on VLSI Design, January 2001. pp. 254-59. 4. Oliver J., Mocanu O. and Ferrer C. (2003) Energy awareness through software optimization as a performance estimate case study of the MC68HC908GP32 microcontroller. Fourth International Workshop on Microprocessor Test and Verification: Common Challenges and Solutions, May 2003. pp. 111-16. 5. Yingbiao Y., Qingdong Y., Peng L. and Zhibin X. (2004) Embedded software optimization for MP3 decoder implemented on RISC core. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, 50(4):1244-49. 6. Tiwari V., Malik S. and Wolfe A. (1994) Compilation techniques for low energy: An overview. Digest of Technical Papers, IEEE Symposium on Low Power Electronics at San Diego, CA, USA, 10-12 October 1994. pp. 38-39. 7. Ortiz D.A. and Santiago N.G. (2007) High-level optimization for low power consumption on microprocessor-based systems. Fiftieth IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS'07), August 2007. pp. 1265-68. 8. Zambreno J., Kandemir M.T. and Choudhary A. (2002) Enhancing compiler techniques for memory energy optimizations. Embedded Software. Second International Conference, EMSOFT 2002, 2491:364-81. 9. Leupers R. (2000) Code Optimization Techniques for Embedded Processors. Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 10. Sharma A. and Ravikumar C.P . (2000) Efficient implementation of ADPCM codec. Thirteenth International Conference on VLSI Design, January 2000. pp. 456-61. Figure 2: This Utility in MATLAB Renders the Time Statistics Per Instruction of the Input Code. 11. Simunic T., Benini L. and de Micheli G. (2001) Energy-efficient design of battery-powered embedded systems. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration Systems, 9(1):15-28.
suggested transformations, lesser number of cycles will be needed to execute the instructions. 2. Improving Performance Using the Profiler: MATLAB Profiler helps you improve the performance of your MATLAB programmes. Run a MATLAB statement or any programme file in the Profiler, and it produces a report of where the time is being spent (see Figure 2). The Profiler can be accessed from the Desktop menu, or the profile function can be used.
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This is an indirect approach for power optimization. The segment of the code that consumes the maximum time for its execution, as depicted by the profiler, can be modified so that it consumes lesser number of time cycles for execution. This can contribute to a lowering of the amount of power consumed and thus to the fulfilment of our objective. The contemporary developments towards a greener epoch of computing have so far gained momentum in
Ms. Soujanya Nemalikanti and Ms. Polavarapu Sindhura are affiliated to the Department of Information Science and Technology, Koneru Lakshmaih University, Vaddeswaram, Guntur.
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fuel technology
Nema B P
a novel cooking
charring-briquetting:
Organic material can be charred and crushed into powder, which can then be mixed with a binder and briquetted into compact solid fuel like charcoal. The char briquettes are equivalent to charcoal in burning characteristics and combustion efficiency. The Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE), Bhopal, has designed and developed a high-capacity charring kiln, which can take a charge of 100 kg crop residues in one run, yielding about 35-40 kg of good quality char, and a power-operated briquetting machine, which is basically a full-screw horizontal extruder machine similar to plastic extruders/food product extruders.
charringbriquetting: a novel cooking fuel technology
n rural areas fuel wood, cow dung and crop waste are used as kitchen fuel. Apart from these, people use twigs, hard stalk/straw and so on, as such, to build fire for cooking and heating. These fuels have low heat output per unit of fuel used and release a lot of gases harmful for human health. Over the above, charcoal is a preferred fuel because it produces a hot, long-lasting, virtually smokeless fire. In earlier days, people were using the charcoal obtained from partially burnt wood remaining at the end of the routine cooking process. There also existed a practice of turning powdery coal into balls for use as fuel. Nevertheless, biofuels accounted for 80% of their kitchen energy needs.
deforestation is very high in comparison to the afforestation rate. The rural population is unable to shift to commercial fuels due to their low purchasing power and the limited availability of commercial fuels. Urban poor (25-30% of the urban population) are also heavily dependent on biofuel due to short supply of commercial fuels like kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas. Although a good number of Indian villages are electrified, the supply of electricity is very erratic and uncertain in the villages. Evolution of the Design Organic material can be charred and crushed into a powder. The powdery char can then be mixed with a binder and briquetted into a compact solid fuel like charcoal. The char briquettes are equivalent to charcoal in burning characteristics and combustion efficiency. In the context of using loose biomass for charring and briquetting, the following issues were considered: 1. Performing the charring process locally, thus avoiding collection and transportation of biomass in large quantities and over long distances 2. Converting low-density biomass of poor thermal efficiency into char 3. Converting the char thus produced into briquettes at low pressure, requiring low energy input.
In the years to come, there will be sufficient food but insufficient fuel to cook the food in rural areas as well as among the urban poor, which can be attributed to the higher rate of deforestation as compared to that of afforestation.
In rural areas, according to one expert's opinion, in coming years there will be sufficient food but insufficient fuel to cook the food, as the rate of
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Charring Kiln A number of charring kilns for processing biological waste into charcoal, developed by various organizations like the Tropical Products Institute (TPI), London; Tongon, Tonga; Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Viswavidyalaya (JNKVV), Jabalpur, were evaluated at the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE), Bhopal, with crop residues and other locally available forest wastes. Stationary charring kilns require water to extinguish the fire after operation, which necessitates some time before starting again. Portable kilns do not produce the desired quality of
Table 1: Brief Specifications of the CIAE-Developed Charring Kiln and Briquetting Machine.
CIAE charring kiln Overall length Overall diameter Material of construction 1100 mm 800 mm MS sheets (3 mm), MS flat (35 5) and rod (12 mm dia) 75-80 kg 80 kg/day
char due to improper air control, except the Tongondesigned kiln. The study concluded that the 'Tongon' kiln was better than other kilns in terms of the quality and quantity of char, except that it was neither economically viable nor ergonomically suitable. To overcome the problems in existing charring kilns, a high-capacity charring kiln was designed and developed which can take a charge of 100 kg crop residues in one run, yielding about 35-40 kg of goodquality char. The kiln consists of a metallic cylinder having a diameter of 800 mm and a length of 1100 mm. Both ends of the cylinder are closed. A transverse rectangular lid of 550 mm 450 mm is provided on its side to serve as the feed inlet (for specifications of the kiln see Table 1). A batch of 100 kg of crop residues is fed gradually and ignited. The crop residues get converted into char in about 2-4 h and yield about 35-40% charred material.
Weight Capacity (char output)
CIAE power-operated briquetting machine
Performance of the machine Charring of biomass is done at a low rate of heating, and hence requires a sufficiently long time for the reaction. The CIAE kiln was extensively evaluated with soybean crop residue, and pigeon pea and cotton stalks. About 100 kg of biomass was charged into the kiln in one batch, and good-quality char was obtained in a total time period of about 4 h. A char yield of 36% was realized with cotton and pigeon pea stalks, and 40% with soyabean residue, with a high calorific value of 15.0-17.5 MJ/kg. Long-duration evaluation of the kiln over an extended period of more than 3 years revealed that, on an average, 80 kg char per day can be produced with one kiln in two batches. Two unskilled workers were needed, and cost of operation was Rs 270/q. Briquetting Machine A briquetting machine suitable for use in a village setting should be able to meet the following requirements:
Overall length Overall width Overall height Size of the prime mover Barrel diameter Barrel Length No of screws Pitch of the screw No of exit tubes Length of the exit tube Diameter of the exit tube Power transmission
1.6 m 3.0 m 1.0 m 3.75 kW electric motor 21 cm 42 cm 1 20.7 cm 5 7 cm 3 cm Through belt and pulley
A char yield of 36% was realized with cotton and pigeon pea stalks, and 40% with soyabean residue, with a high calorific value of 15.0-17.5 MJ/kg. Longduration evaluation of the kiln over an extended period of more than 3 years revealed that, on an average, 80 kg char per day can be produced with one kiln in two batches.
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1. It must be inexpensive and easy to operate. 2. It must be repairable and must be economical with regard to energy consumption. 3. It must be suitable for a variety of biomass and should not require sophisticated storage space for the raw material or finished product. Keeping these basic concepts in view, a poweroperated briquetting machine, which is basically a full screw horizontal extruder machine similar to plastic extruders/food product extruders, was developed by CIAE (Table 1). Performance of the machine Char is converted into briquettes very easily even at low pressure. The briquettes prepared from the charred biomass can serve as an excellent domestic fuel. The volume of the briquettes was only 9-11% of the original feed material, that is, biomass. Therefore, it may be concluded that this integrated technology helps to save on transportation charges of feed material. The briquettes can be produced economically using a power-operated machine having a capacity of 75 kg/h and using 10% cow dung as binder.
from state government were trained in the use of the charring kiln and briquetting machine. Under the operational research project, briquettes were supplied to more than 500 families in the nearby villages for use in improved cook stoves.
Present Status of the Technology A number of demonstrations were conducted in the nearby villages to create awareness. Farmers, entrepreneurs, village artisans, village extension officers and engineers from state government were trained in the use of the charring kiln and briquetting machine. Under the operational research project, briquettes were supplied to more than 500 families in the nearby villages for use in improved cook stoves. Improved Cook stove: Specific features 1. Radiation and convection losses have been considerably reduced by enclosing the burning charcoal/briquettes within two concentric aluminium reflectors between which an insulating layer of asbestos cloth of 3-5 mm thickness is riveted firmly. 2. There is a saving of 60% expenditure in the operation of the improved sigri over the traditional method of chulah and fuel wood. 3. CO emission into the breathing zone is 2-3 ppm from the improved sigri, as compared to the emission of 12-15 ppm from a single-mouth chulah. 4. The improved sigri is portable, with a weight of only 2.0 kg.
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Specific Features of the Charring-and-Briquetting Technology 1. Easy handling of crop residues 2. Less space required for storage of briquettes due to reduction in volume 3. Easy to use in traditional and improved sigris 4. Simple and low-cost 5. Eco-friendly and hence reduced smoke density in kitchen 6. High thermal efficiency 7. Technology suitable for rural entrepreneurship Economics of Operation Cost economics was worked out for a system of six charring kilns and one briquetting machine with a production capacity of 500 kg briquettes per day. Life of the charring kilns was considered as 3 years and that of the briquetting machine as 10 years with an annual usage of 1200 h. After considering the cost of operation of the charring kilns and briquetting machine, the estimated annual profit was Rs 97,800.
Farmers, entrepreneurs, village artisans, village extension officers and engineers
Mr. B P Nema is Principal Scientist at Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR, Bhopal
wind turbines for oceanic areas: innovations and developments

Ron Steenbergen
Two of the continuing problems faced by wind power development in most areas of the world are the inability to make real inroads into the use of diesel in power systems (the 'penetration rate') and the inability to accurately forecast the expected generation from wind turbines ('dispatchability'). This article discusses the innovations in the wind power industry in recent months on these two major issues and the ongoing development of wind power to improve its applicability in grid-connected and off-grid situations. 47
ind turbines have a long and productive history in oceanic areas, including the Pacific and Indian Oceans and other similar regions around the world. Wind power plays a vital role in delivering mainstream renewable energy in a sustainable manner and is one of the most widely available, commercial and proven forms of renewable energy that can be deployed in the 'oceanic island' context. Power from wind is able to compete commercially with that of diesel generation in many regions and has helped usher in economic development in many poor countries. Even though many successful wind energy projects have been developed in oceanic regions, they had faced a number of challenges and difficulties. Typical challenges include areas being prone to cyclones, remoteness, low accessibility and lack of suitable cranes. Two of the continuing problems faced by wind power development in most areas of the world are the inability to make real inroads into the use of diesel in power systems (the 'penetration rate') and the inability to accurately forecast the expected generation from wind turbines ('dispatchability'). This article will discuss the innovations in the wind power industry in recent months on these two major issues and provide a taste of the ongoing development of wind power to improve its applicability in grid-connected and off-grid situations. Increasing the Penetration Rate Historically, when fuel prices were significantly lower than they are today, remote locations were supplied with electricity by diesel units in majority of cases, as the technology is reliable, mature and well known. However, evolution of fuel prices, together with increasing reliability of alternative energy sources, has spurred the emergence of a new market for megawatt (MW)-scale hybrid systems, capable of meeting the increasing power demand. Wind energy is often used as the main means of reducing the dependency on diesel.
such skill levels are seldom available, not to mention the financial means or subsidies.
In industrialized countries, much effort has been put in the development of high-penetration wind systems. Attention has been focused on a few operating systems or concepts featuring advanced components and controls, sometimes performing remarkably well and achieving high fuel savings. Such systems are, however, very costly and require a high level of technical competence, and often need public subsidies. In remote locations with very little infrastructure and technical means, such skill levels are seldom available, not to mention the financial means or subsidies. Such solutions are therefore hard to implement or not sustainable in an island context. Comparatively little attention has been paid to solutions designed for meeting such needs, although they concern a much larger share of the population and represent a larger market. Hybrid systems suitable for such locations require a sturdy and proven design, reliable, replicable and easy to maintain. The new generation of wind-diesel (low load) systems, now implemented in the megawatt range, have taken up this challenge. With a sophisticated architecture comprising of wind turbines, low-load diesel power plants and a control system ensuring optimal management of and dialogue between the wind and diesel plants, they can achieve an annual average wind penetration of between 30% and 40%, with low wind energy losses, and do not demand new competencies from the utility staff - diesel sets are off-the-shelf models but sized to match the wind turbine. Efforts have also been underway to achieve 50% or higher average wind penetration, while keeping the
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Attention has been focused on a few operating systems or concepts featuring advanced components and controls, sometimes performing remarkably well and achieving high fuel savings. Such systems are, however, very costly and require a high level of technical competence, and often need public subsidies. In remote locations with very little infrastructure and technical means,
Figure 1: Demonstrated Payback Period for Wind-Diesel Systems
The production units of an effective wind-diesel hybrid system added to a weak grid should contribute to grid support to reach high penetration rates. In particular, they should provide the following services: w Low-voltage ride through: the production unit remains connected to help pass a fault on the grid. w Frequency and voltage regulation: by adjusting the input of active and reactive power to the grid w Operational power reserve: input power to help pass a major fault on the grid w Anticipation of power production: help the utility manage the number and type of production units to run at an efficient load factor in order to increase wind penetration; wind turbines should behave like a diesel generator for a stipulated time period.
There is no unique solution for wind-diesel coupling. Attention is often focused on integrated systems with very high penetration rates. They may be the best solution when financial and technical means are considered. However, the concept cannot be applied to all locations. Different contexts require different approaches and different technical solutions. Even the simplest of solutions may achieve substantial fuel savings if the right approach is adapted.
There is no unique solution for wind-diesel coupling. Different contexts require
Figure 2: Schematic Representation of Wind-Diesel System Control
industrial vision for reliability of the system and deployment on remote island grids. The idea is to have an integrated solution for grid management support together with forecast elements. This allows utilities to have a clear vision of how much energy will be available in the coming hours, anticipating the wind level and the load curve, thus overcoming wind resource variability.
different approaches and different technical solutions. Even the simplest of solutions may achieve substantial fuel savings if the right approach is adapted.
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Case Study 1 - Coral Bay, Australia Technology Installed capacity flywheel, low-load gensets, full automation Wind: 3 x 275 kW Diesel: 7 x 320 kW modified for low load Flywheel: 500 kW 700 kW
Peak load
The system is designed to achieve a very high wind penetration rate with high power quality. Integration of all components was considered from the beginning. w The size of the power station allows flexible management of operating power. Diesel gensets are modified to run at a low load factor to leave room for wind energy and to limit the number of starts, thus reducing maintenance costs. w The wind turbines are rated in such a way to match the size of the diesel generator. w For periods of very high wind penetration, a flywheel supports the stability of the grid and provides high power quality. w Management of the power station, flywheel, wind turbines and the load is fully automated. Installation of the system benefitted from subsidies from the authorities in accordance with their renewable energy policy.
Figure 4: Performance Graph of the System with Flywheel Installed
Case Study 2 - Devil's Point, Vanuatu Technology Conventional diesel power station, manual management of coupling, no storage Wind: 11 x 275 kW Diesel: 2 x 4.1 MW + 4 x 1 MW + 10 MW in Vila 11 MW
Installed capacity
Peak load
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Approach: The asset owner chose to proceed step by step, for a gradual insertion of wind turbines in the energy mix. The idea is both to gradually assimilate the management of a new technology and to test the impact of wind energy on the local grid. 2007: The existing conventional power station is based on low-speed diesel generators. A single 275 kW wind turbine is installed as a pilot project. 2008: Ten additional 275 kW wind turbines are added, together with four containerized high-speed diesel generators. The capability of the grid to absorb wind fluctuations is assessed; operators learn to adapt the management of the power station to the wind profile and wind turbine response. Next step: The asset owner is considering the installation of additional 275 kW wind turbines to reach 30% average wind penetration and the extension of the high-speed diesel capacity of the power station. Automation of the whole system is an option, but may not be necessary at the moment. The system does not benefit from any subsidy for equipment installation, nor from any customer tariff policy or fuel pricing policy. Although the average income per capita of the country is quite low, the tariff policy actually reflects the true cost of energy production. Wind energy is thus cheaper than diesel, resulting in effective fuel savings and reduction of operating cost.
Figure 3: Example of an Automated Flywheel System for High Penetration Stability
Average wind penetration: 70% (source: Powercorp) Instantaneous penetration: up to 98% (source: Powercorp) The flywheel ensures frequency and voltage stability at high wind penetration and serves as a power reserve for very short time periods (see Figure 4).
Figure 5: Devil's Point Wind Farm, Vanuatu
After the first year of operation, as of December 2009: Average wind penetration: 17% (source: Unelco) Instantaneous penetration: >60% (source: Unelco) With the extension of the wind farm to include more 275 kW wind turbines, the average wind penetration is expected to rise to 30%.
Predictability - Forecasting Wind Energy Production Thanks to the extensive experience with weak grids, especially in islands, wind turbines can now offer solutions to address utility concerns: grid support to reach higher wind penetration rates, while avoiding the two drawbacks of high-penetration systems, namely, cost and technical complexity. These systems can then lend themselves to providing accurate forecasts of power generation from a wind farm by as much as 24 hours in advance with a 95% guarantee. Forecasts of 48 or 72 hours in advance can also be offered, with a consequent reduction in accuracy and guarantee. Recent innovations that provide flexibility, certainty and adaptability for accurate energy forecasts include a number of differing technologies. 1. The AC-DC-AC drive (back-to-back converter) buffers power quality fluctuations and also
Figure 6: Wind Farm Output in Grid Supply
These systems can then lend themselves to providing accurate forecasts of power generation form a wind farm by as much as 24 hours in advance with a 95%
guarantee. Forecasts of 48 or 72 hours in advance can also be offered, with a consequent reduction in accuracy and guarantee.
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Figure 7: Example of Forecast (red) v Actual (green) Generation of a Wind Project
ensures compliance to all grid codes w provides fault-ride-through capability w w provides reactive power even without active power production w provides a baseplate for embedded battery storage or development of super-capacity supplements.
Battery storage plugged on to the DC bus of the AC-DC-AC link provides power reserve for grid support and easier production unit management. Several working modes are possible.
2. Battery storage plugged on to the DC bus of the AC-DC-AC link provides power reserve for grid support and easier production unit management. Several working modes are possible:
higher penetration rates of wind energy on small grids, at a reasonable cost and avoiding complex solutions. These innovative uses of a traditional technology improve the technology's abilities in w genuine reduction of fuel usage in dieseldominated power systems w long-term sustainability of commercially viable renewables w forecasting the generation output for the following day w improved power quality and power system reliability w managing demand and load in power system dispatch These processes also lend themselves to further innovation by incorporating low-cost technologies under development at present such as battery storage or super capacity to provide energy buffering.
Note: This article was prepared based upon a presentation made by the author to the Pacific Power Association 2011 Conference in Guam.
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w Production: the wind turbine produces the maximum power depending on wind conditions w Storage (from the wind turbine or from the grid): storage is done by transferring power from the DC bus to the batteries w Power reserve call: if grid frequency drops below a pre-defined threshold, extra power is supplied from batteries to the DC bus, which is then injected to support the grid. Warning is sent to the utility to take appropriate action before the reserve is exhausted (1/4 hour). 3. Production forecast: Together with the embedded turbine power reserve, power forecast at 72 h/48 h/24 h allows the utility to plan production and optimize its spinning reserve: w Power production is based on weather forecasts, which are very reliable today w Thanks to forecast reliability, batteries are little used as power reserve, thus reducing wear cycles. w Power production can be adjusted with either storage or power limitation and remain stable for 30 min With grid support capability, wind energy no longer belongs to the intermittent sources of power, allowing
Mr. Ron Steenbergen is the Managing Director of Projectioneering Pvt Ltd and has over 30 years of technical, environmental and project management experience in renewable energy development.
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energy and environment symbiosis

A.K. Jain
Indian cities are facing a grim situation in terms of energy. To tackle this situation, there is a need to evolve a multi-pronged and multi-disciplinary approach. The basic premise of a sustainable, energy-efficient city is conservation of transport fuels and energy. A sustainable urban structure begins with the urban region, the city and its hinterland; the sustainability of each is dependent on the other. At the level of the city, a 'walkable' community provides the fundamental building block in creating a sustainable urban form.
ith the high growth rate of the Indian economy, energy needs are growing rapidly. India ranks fifth in the world in terms of energy consumption. The average annual growth rate of energy consumption is growing at about 6% per annum with economy growth pegged at 7-8%. This will lead to a growing gap between demand and supply of commercial energy, resulting in an increasing dependence on imported oil.
The total energy consumption of the country in 2007-08 was 570 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE) of which 745 was from commercial sources like coal, oil, hydro and so on, while 265 was from non-commercial sources. The total energy consumption is expected to rise threefold to 1836 MTOE by 2031-32 of which 90% will be accounted for by commercial energy. In India, during the period 1960-2007, the use of commercial sources of energy increased 10-fold and electricity use increased by 100 times. In the non-commercial sector, India uses 200 million tonnes of fuel wood, apart from large quantities of
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cow dung and agricultural waste. The increasing energy consumption is having a direct bearing on the environment and economy. Among the commercial sources of energy, coal and lignite contribute about 59%, oil and natural gas about 37%, and hydro-electric and nuclear power around 4%. Thus, the main source of energy is the stored hydrocarbons (96%) under the earth's crust, which are being utilized liberally. At present, over 70% of the oil requirements are met from imported sources. The cost of energy is ever increasing, and the lack of development of non-conventional energy sources is making the energy situation more challenging. Energy, Emissions and Environment Production, conversion and use of energy play a significant role in global warming, which affects the environment. In the coming decades, global environment issues can dictate the patterns of energy use. The principal international energy issues revolve around supply interruptions and their implications for energy security and price stability, and the impact of energy production and consumption on regional and global environments.
emissions. The industrial sector accounts for more than one-third of the global carbon dioxide emission from fossil fuel combustion (excluding the power sector), the residential and commercial sector 32%, and the transport sector a bit over 21%. Development of eco-friendly energy supply opens up enormous opportunities for international cooperation. It is important to structure pricing mechanisms, relations with other countries and commercial transactions in a manner that meets the long-term objectives of adequate and sustainable energy. Renewable Sources of Energy Harnessing of renewable energy aims not only increasing energy generation but also helping to restore a pollution-free environment. It is estimated that India has the potential of generating more than 1,00,000 MW from non-conventional sources of energy. Table 1 indicates the potential of various renewable energy resources.
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The use of coal on a worldwide basis will increase at an average rate of 1.6% per year. But in India its use will be almost double by 2025 or so.
Table 1: Renewable Energy Resources Potential
In the Indian context, energy efficiency and alternative energy sources offer the biggest scope for cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Two missions - Solar Mission and Enhanced Energy Efficiency Mission have been constituted by the Government of India to address these issues.
The use of coal on a worldwide basis will increase at an average rate of 1.6% per year. But in India its use will be almost double by 2025 or so. The total recoverable reserves of coal around the world are estimated at 1088 billion tons, out of which India's reserve is around 100 billion tons. Between 1996 and 2020, use of coal for electricity generation in India is projected to rise by 3% per year. India is expected to increase its consumption of electricity at an average annual rate of 4.9% from 1996 to 2020. In future years, coal-based energy generation will face tough challenges as far as environmental pollution is concerned. The automobile sector and thermal power plants are the major contributors towards atmospheric pollution. Combustion of coal, oil and natural gas accounts for roughly three-quarters of all carbon dioxide
The town or city depends on its hinterland for food and water, clean air and open space, and, looking to the future, for biomass for fuel. The hinterland depends on the town or city as a market for its produce and for employment and services. Sustainable planning demands a more holistic and integrated approach to the urban region, which recognizes the interdependence and potential of both town and country.
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In the context of surging oil prices and increasing energy demand, urban planning assumes a critical role. The solution to the huge energy demand lies beyond enhancing power generation. It is the form of the city structure, zoning controls, land use and density pattern, together with architecture, building and management options, which have to be tackled in a holistic manner. The basic premise of a
Urban Structure and Transport for Energy Efficiency
sustainable, energy-efficient city is conservation of transport fuels and energy. Sustainable urban structure begins with the urban region, the city and its hinterland; the sustainability of each is dependent on the other. The town or city depends on its hinterland for food and water, clean air and open space, and, looking to the future, for biomass for fuel. The hinterland depends on the town or city as a market for its produce and for employment and services. Sustainable planning demands a more holistic and integrated approach to the urban region, which
recognizes the interdependence and potential of both town and country. At the level of the city, a 'walkable' community provides the fundamental building block in creating a sustainable urban form. The concept is based on a poly-centric urban structure in which a town or city comprises a network of distinct but overlapping communities, each focused on a city, district or local centre, and within which people can access on foot most of the facilities and services needed for day-today living. Each of these communities is defined by the walking catchment or 'ped-shed' around the centre. This is generally taken to be 800 m, equating to a 10-minute walk. In a large metropolitan city like Delhi, the concept of the poly-centric structure has to be adopted, with new centres being created along the railways, metro and transport corridors; this can be described as the 'centres and routes' model. In this model, town centres are the principal community focus, but there are also linear communities developing along the main movement routes between the centres and especially along the principal routes. In other places, different structures can be seen reflecting the differences in geography, landform and economy. All urban areas may not be within the walking catchment of a centre. However, the proportion of areas lying beyond walking distance of a centre increases with distance from the city centre, reflecting both diminishing densities of population and more widely spread movement routes. As such, the following planning and urban design principles can be drawn out: w Work centres, major institutions and services to be focused along public transit corridors, at the convergence of movement routes and around key facilities such as metro stations. w Creating a walkable neighbourhood: All local hubs should be within easy walking and cycling distance. Integrated planning of intra-urban and inter-urban transport can bring about a new pattern of urban population distribution, settlement structure and industrial growth, and lead to environmental conservation. This will require reexamining of the concept of single land use zoning and city structure which should be based on conservation of transport. w Reorganization of land use and urban renewal, including the circulation pattern.
Rationalization of land use and density with due w consideration of parking requirements, pedestrianization and efficient use of road right of way. w Integration of bus and tram routes with metro rail, rail corridors, LRT and waterways. w Integration of bus and rail stations and terminals with dispersal facilities and services such as parking and taxi stands. w Introduction of integrated traffic and transit operation, control and management, and setting up of a unified metropolitan regional transport authority for planning and implementation. w Exploring the potential of using subterranean space for transport and parking. w Encouraging the use of cycles and NMV transport. Planning and Building Design The materials used in construction, their energy content and compatibility with climatic conditions, and the environmental performance of buildings are inter-linked. It is necessary to rationalize the use of building materials for conservation of energy and environmental efficiency of the built environment. By a proper approach and a comprehensive strategy, energy efficiency and economy can be achieved. Besides through the use of energy-efficient building materials, the energy demand in buildings can be substantially reduced by proper designing of walls, roofs, windows and lighting. Improved insulation of walls and roofs can reduce the heating and cooling load by 25%. Improved multi-pane windows can reduce the air-conditioning and heating load significantly.
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Zero-fossil energy development (ZED) envisages an urban form and design of a passive building envelope that reduces the demand for heat and power to the point where it becomes economically viable to use the energy from renewable resources. This involves a holistic approach combining the issues and actions at various levels of planning, design and construction.
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Zero-Fossil Energy Development Protocols Zero-fossil energy development (ZED) envisages an urban form and design of a passive building envelope that reduces the demand for heat and power to the point where it becomes economically viable to use the energy from renewable resources. This involves a holistic approach combining the issues and actions at various levels of planning, design and construction. The following checklist is a summary of the guidelines that should be considered for site analysis, planning, and the design and specification process. Attention at an early stage is vital, because a scheme cannot be redeemed if the basic concept has not addressed efficiency. a. Site Planning: Ensure that the proposed building is appropriately oriented and sensitive to the natural features and micro-climate of the site. Assess its micro-climatic character, taking into account exposure, shelter, natural shading of buildings, interaction of buildings, solar access
through the seasons, atmospheric pollution, water and drainage, and noise gradients across the site. Minimize earth movements and excavations where possible. Respect ground water levels, and design to manage surface water through natural processes. Avoid formation of heat islands and inversion effect due of layout planning. b. Form and Orientation: Minimize solar heat gain during summer and maximize the same in winter to reduce the need for additional cooling and lighting, thus reducing the demand for energy. Design to reduce the surface area for heat transfer through fabric by avoiding elongated thin forms and spread-out low-density developments. Compact forms are preferred, subject to the conservation policies. Group buildings for clustered multiple uses/time zoning of buildings and spaces where appropriate. c. Building Volume and Envelope: Generally, avoid over-sized interior heights and spaces when
designing for specific uses and functions. Thermal characteristics of the building envelope, roof and walls should be compatible with all U and R values of insulation. d. Ventilation/Air-conditioning: Use natural ventilation. Consider the use of atria to achieve some of these requirements and to provide amenity space for building users. Minimize the use of air-conditioning. Consider the interaction between energy and ventilation strategies to balance potentially conflicting demands. Avoid the use of wet cooling where air-conditioning is installed. Explore new methods of cooling, for example, passive energy draft cooling (PEDC), high-efficiency chilling, earth embedded cooling and the thermal storage system. e. Lifts: Consider building forms and heights to economize the reliance on lifts, while meeting the needs of people with mobility problems. f. Resource Recovery: Specify the reuse of materials arising from demolition onsite and recycled materials bought in from other sites locally. Shuttering and so on should be reused wherever possible, rather than destroyed on completion. Allocate space for future recycling of waste glass and a composite facility, where appropriate.
k. Flexibility: Plan the duct routes in such a way as to facilitate future changes in requirements. l. Plant location: To reduce distribution losses to a minimum, locate plants close to areas of high energy consumption. Lag pipe runs to high specifications; use low-temperature storage, time controls and intelligent systems.
m. Waste heat recovery: Consider the use of a heat exchanger if the building is mechanically ventilated. n. Building fabric: Specify insulation standards above the current regulations, where possible. Avoid the use of CFC-blown insulation. o. Lighting installation: Energy-efficient lighting fixtures (LED, CFL, T-5 lamps, electronic chokes etc.) should be used, along with automatic sensors to control and avoid unnecessary energy use. Consider time and intensity controls rather than general illumination. Benchmarks should be as per the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC). p. Wall-to-window ratio (WWR), U Factor, solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) and visible light transmittance (VLT) values: ECBC 2007 recommends a maximum U factor of 3.3 W/m2/K, an SHGC of 0.25 for a WWR of 40%, and an SHGC of 0.2 for a WWR of 40-60%. A glazing area in excess of 60% of gross external wall area is not recommended. The VLT value linked to WWR should be as per ECBC. SHGC value is particularly critical for south, east and west facades. Glazing U factor and SHGC should be minimized, whereas VLT should be maximized. q. Controls: Employ controls that can respond to internal and external conditions. Time and temperature should be sensor-/bionic-controlled according to the need of the occupants. r. Decorative Finishes: Light-coloured finishes improve lighting conditions and reduce the intensity of light required.
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g. Greenery: Landscape of the building should improve the micro-climate and visual amenity, by shading, greenery, green roof, climbing plants on walls, window boxes and balcony gardens. h. Internal Layout: To reduce the need for artificial light and for optimum heat efficiency, cluster the uses that need similar environmental conditions. Avoid open plans to allow for better control of services by the users. I. Windows/Doors: Consider the percentage of fenestration on different facades and plan to minimize the number of different temperature zones. Use southerly orientation for passive solar gain. Consider the type of glazing and summer/winter ventilation. Use blinds, curtains, shutters, draught lobbies and air curtains. Design super-windows that reduce heat loss. Materials: Avoid over-designed structures, footings and so on that may result in waste of materials. Consider alternative foundations and structures where appropriate. Specify timbers from sustainable forests. Minimize the use of chemicals and hazardous materials.
s. Details/Standards of Work: Ceiling joints, insulation, ventilation and thermal installations should all be checked to ensure that the work has been carried out to a high standard. t. Operation: A user-friendly manual for occupants should be provided to explain the efficient operation of building and equipment.
j.
u. Commissioning: Before occupancy, a building should be flushed to remove solvents, gases,
vapours, smells and so on that could affect future users. Check the performance of machinery components and equipment against standards, and put right any defect found that could have major long-term effects on the energy consumption of the building. v. Incentives: Incentives, training and user participation for energy efficiency and energy savings should be encouraged.
two. Unless there is a synergy between land use planning, transportation and energy, we may not be able to achieve sustainable development. An important aspect of the space and energy symbiosis is rediscovering ecological and non-conventional sources of energy, in place of animate energy and man-made sources. Bibliography
1. CSE (Centre for Science & Environment), India-Environment Report, New Delhi. 2. DDA (2007) Master Plan for Delhi-2021. New Delhi: Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. of India. 3. GOI (1998) Development Alternatives, Environmental Priorities of India. New Delhi: Govt. of India. 4. Girardet H. (1997) 'Sustainable cities - A Contradiction in Terms?' In Satterwaite D. (ed.) Sustainable Cities. London: Earthscan Publishers. 5. GOI (2001) Census of India Reports. New Delhi: Govt. of India. 6. Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, (Habitat II), Istanbul 1996, India National Report. New Delhi: Ministry of Urban Affairs & Employment. 7. Planning Commission, GOI (2007) Approach to 11th 5-Year Plan. New Delhi: Govt. of India. 8. Hough M. (1995) Cities & Natural Process. London: Routeledge. 9. Israel A. (1992) Issues for Infrastructure management in the 1990s. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. 10. Jain A.K. (2010) Making Infrastructure Work. New Delhi: Discovery Publishers.
Parallel actions should be taken for conservation of natural resources and exploring renewable and non-conventional sources of energy including geothermal heat and energy from wastes, bio mass and so on. At the same time, it is necessary to resort to management reforms, energy distribution management and audit, adoption of energy-efficient fuels, upgradation of technology and equipment, energy tariff reforms, and controlling thefts and losses.
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Indian cities are facing a grim situation in terms of energy. Unless a holistic and well-worked out approach is evolved, the scenario would be even worse, with the galloping economic development and ever-growing urbanization. To tackle this situation, there is a need to evolve a multi-pronged and multidisciplinary approach. This should begin with increasing power generation and transmission capacity and mobilizing private sector resources. Parallel actions should be taken for conservation of natural resources and exploring renewable and nonconventional sources of energy including geothermal heat and energy from wastes, bio mass and so on. At the same time, it is necessary to resort to management reforms, energy distribution management and audit, adoption of energy-efficient fuels, upgradation of technology and equipment, energy tariff reforms, and controlling thefts and losses. The key to future is a cybernetic form of sustainable energy, which integrates symbiosis, recycling and energy chains. Space and energy are the basic dimensions of the universe. There is a uterine relationship between the
11. Jain A.K. (2001) Ecology and Natural Resource Management for Sustainable Development. New Delhi: Management Publishing Co. 12. McHarg I. (1969) Design with Nature. New York: Natural History Press. 13. Ministry of Urban Development, GOI (1988) Report of the National Commission on Urbanisation. New Delhi: Govt. of India. 14. Rees W.E. (1997) Ecological Footprints and Urban Transportation, Velocity. Barcelona. 15. Steinberg F. (1995) 'Sustainable Human Settlement Development - Is It Possible?' Unpublished paper. 16. UNCED (1992) Local Agenda 21, RIO, World Environment Conference, 1992. 17. World Bank (1994) World Development Report: Infrastructure for Development. Washington, D.C. 18. World Resource Institute (WRI)/United Nations Environment Programme/United Nations Development Programme and World Bank, World Resources 2006-07: A Guide to the Global Environment.
Mr. A.K. Jain is the Ex. Commissioner (Planning) of Delhi Development Authority. He is a member of the UN Habitat Research Advisory Committee and a visiting faculty at Delhi School of Planning and Architecture.
guest editorial
...continued from page 03
magic wand. By ranking this table in descending cost order, you will have, at the top of page one, all your most important problems, ranked by their apparent avoidable costs. I call this the overspend league table. When this logic is built into software (it can be done in Excel) the energy manager's job suddenly becomes very quick and simple: look at what is at top of the list, and if any of the deviations are significant in cost terms, ask the people in charge of those parts of the enterprise what might have caused the discrepancies. Given more space I might add one or two minor refinements but the key idea is managing unexpected waste by reporting and ranking the apparent costs of unexplained losses. Once the data are assembled it is quick-it usually takes less than a minute a week almost regardless of the size of the enterprise-and it requires no
professional knowledge of energy management because all the professional expertise is 'embedded' in the formulae for expected consumption. This means the task can be delegated. The energy manager who adopts this approach soon develops a reputation for asking the right question of the right person at the right time when unexpected hidden energy waste has occurred. Any method can be used for gathering data, from manual meter readings through to high-frequency data collected by automatic meter reading systems, SCADA systems, or indirect estimates from hours-run records, ammeters, and pulse counters. But note: where high volumes of automatic meter readings are being collected, it is no longer necessary to examine charts of every meter every week. The overspend league table will tell you which ones are worth looking at. Energy managers seldom adopt this simple strategy, which has the potential to bring to his table the right balance of data and information amidst legislative and market pressures, as well as data volume. Expensive metering systems might not always be the right solution, the trick lies in not letting your metering system drown you in data and making sure that you don't miss the big picture.
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Power Quality
The APQI - Energy Press Power Quality Supplement Coming soon with Apr-Jun 2012 issue of energy manager
Introduction to Power Quality David Chapman Power quality and energy efficiency Angelo Baggini and Franco Bua Capacitors in a Harmonic-rich Environment Stefan Fassbinder Integrated Earthing Systems (Earthing Grid) Rob Kersten & Frans van Pelt Resilient and Reliable Power Supply in a Modern Office Building Angelo Baggini& Hans De Keulenaer Electricity Systems for Hospitals Angelo Baggini Life Cycle Costing - The Basics DiedertDebusscher (Forte)
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January - March | 2012 | Vol :: 05 | No :: 1

ISSN 0974 - 0996

monitoring and targeting:

The Gateway to Efficient Energy Management

January - March 2012

January - March 2012 | Volume 05 | Number: 1 ISSN 0974 - 0996

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

After collection, comprehension

The road to efficient energy metering, monitoring and targeting

January - March 2012

January - March 2012

January - March 2012

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

January - March 2012

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

maximum utilisation of metered data

maximum utilisation of metered data

January - March 2012

Fig 2. Seasonal Consumption Pattern

Fig 3. Load Distribution

January - March 2012

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

maximum utilisation of metered data

maximum utilisation of metered data

Fig 4. Actual vs Predicted Consumption

January - March 2012

Fig 5a. Pre Peak Load Shaving

Fig 5b. Post Peak Load Shaving

January - March 2012

maximum utilisation of metered data

metering and monitoring enabling technologies to deliver energy efficiency

January - March 2012

January - March 2012

metering and monitoring enabling technologies to deliver energy efficiency

metering and monitoring enabling technologies to deliver energy efficiency

January - March 2012

January - March 2012

metering and monitoring enabling technologies to deliver energy efficiency

January - March 2012

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

in-circuit reliability of energy meters

January - March 2012

in-circuit reliability of energy meters

in-circuit reliability of energy meters

January - March 2012

Voltage transducer Signal conditioning Current transducer

January - March 2012

in-circuit reliability of energy meters

in-circuit reliability of energy meters

January - March 2012

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

January - March 2012

in-circuit reliability of energy meters

January - March 2012

hot and cold running savings

January - March 2012

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

hot and cold running savings

January - March 2012

Balbir Singh and V K Sethi

January - March 2012

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India

free cooling: an energy conservation measure

a quarterly magazine of the society of energy engineers and managers / India