POWER MANAGEMENT
Dynamic grid Why power quality is vital to research facilities by David Evans, Public Sector Segments Leader at Schneider Electric UK&I
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cience and research are vital to addressing some of humanity’s biggest challenges. In the 2020 budget, the UK government announced the largest ever expansion of support for basic research and innovation. Initially, over £10 billion has been allocated to BEIS programmes and partner organisations from 2020 to 2021, with future investment set to reach £22 billion per year by 2024/25. Without doubt, technology has transformed the academic research landscape. In 1968, the statistics
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software SPSS was created. The software, which is still used today, removed the need for researchers to perform linear regressions by hand. Fast forward to 2021, technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and automation have provided scientists with new analytical capabilities that go beyond what is humanly possible. As the operator or facility manager of a research facility, streamlining processes and reducing operational costs without compromising data reliability and validity is vital. A key component in
achieving these outcomes falls to the – at times overlooked – power environment. The equipment and instruments within a laboratory rely upon the power supply to conduct tests, some of which can be sensitive and critical. Alarmingly, “90% of the electrical disturbances that impact the integrity of the power flowing through the sensitive instruments in laboratories are invisible”. Energy consumption has never been under such high scrutiny as it is currently. Not only is their concern about the cost of energy
