ACE: FACING THE CHALLENGES OF A GENERATION

Dr Sarah Prichard has pledged to support the Association of Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and the organisation’s members as they come together and face the “challenge of a generation”.

She believes membership of ACE gives companies of all sizes a stronger voice and a greater impact when it comes to putting the built environment sector at the heart of the global net zero challenge.

The partner and managing director for UK Buildings, Hong Kong and China at Buro Happold is also focused on ACE’s delivery of its 2022 to 2025 blueprint.

Dr Prichard believes this blueprint will support ACE members in being more impactful and driving economic growth across the UK, whilst developing skills for a greener future and ensuring the industry continues to focus on safety, equality and inclusion.

“The Association for Consultancy and Engineering is the industry body responsible for representing the views of 400 member organisations in the sector and has a leading voice, showcasing the industry’s role in tackling climate change,” Dr Prichard says.

“Through working with and representing the views of member firms, from micro-organisations to those representing tens of thousands of employees, it works with the UK and devolved governments to shape policy and ensure the industry gets the recognition it deserves.

“As Chair of ACE, I will support the CEO in implementing the Blueprint, and ensuring it has a significant impact on the industry.”

She adds it is crucial that member organisations unite and promote consultancy and engineering in the UK, to increase the profile of the industry overall.

DECARBONISATION SEMINAR SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 27th, 2023 - IGEM HOUSE, KEGWORTH

An IPowerE One Day Seminar Diverse Solutions for De-Carbonisation’ will be held on 27th September 2023 - IGEM House, Kegworth.

This one-day Seminar is aimed at examining today’s energy challenges demand a full range of solutions to de-carbonise the power sector. Conventional gas fired plant will continue to support the Energy Transition, with changes to despatch, control, and fuels used.

Energy storage will, be it in battery or grid scale solutions, be used to complement renewable systems, deployed at increasing scale. Grid control and management will assume great importance as today’s energy transmission and distribution systems are adapted to meet tomorrow’s requirements. This seminar will bring many of these themes together, providing information and the opportunity for discussion and debate amongst your Power Engineering peers. With the added opportunities for networking and discussions in smaller groups during the day and the excellent venue, this should be both an informative and enjoyable day.

Meetpoint Midlands is a quiet, relaxed and friendly meeting centre based in Kegworth in the East Midlands. Conveniently located just off junction 24 of the M1, three miles from East Midlands Parkway train station and four miles from East Midlands Airport allowing easy access for delegates and free parking.

Please contact the office for more information Tel +44 (0)1234 214340 or email: enquiries@ipowere.org

Key points: Registration is from 9:00am and the Keynote Speaker talk will be commencing at 9:15am. Morning Presentations will be followed by a Buffet lunch. After lunch the Afternoon Presentations will commence, followed by a Panel Discussion and a Finish- approx 16:00pm.

IPowerE Policy Post COP26 - A Brief Statement

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) has highlighted that an unprecedented shift in progress will be needed to enable governments worldwide achieve Net Zero Strategies by 2050. In the lead up to COP26 the UK’s Net Zero Strategy has been discussed as part of the most recent IPOWERE Webinar Series during which the UK’s ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution was discussed by industry experts.

The Powergen System From Qnergy

Qnergy’s PowerGen system is the first generator to enable 100% methane destruction. This unique Free Piston Stirling Engine (FPSE) demonstrates superior environmental performance, exceeding EPA guidelines by orders of magnitude, according to independent third-party testing.

The results conclusively show that, for the first time, environmentally-friendly, utility-grade electrical power can be sourced from methane generation at the site, using a generator with zero methane slip.

The proven system is already in use on more than 1,000 sites across the Americas, where it has delivered more than 15 million hours of reliable power, with a maintenance-free engine. Qnergy’s unique PowerGen technology is based on an external combustion engine, with a clean-burning external combustor designed to work with any gaseous fuel.

It uses power electronics and software to control for variable raw source fuel feedstocks. Third party researchers tested the performance of the PowerGen, finding that combustion resulted in >99.998% (~100%) methane destruction efficiency, with particulate matter, CO, and NOx emissions levels at 0.11, 0.30, and 1.1 g/kW.hr, respectively, that meet and exceed EPA emission criteria.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 84X the global warming potential of CO2 over its first 20 years when allowed to escape into the atmosphere. The productive use of methane waste is a global challenge, given the many distributed sources, from upstream well pads in the energy industry to farms and organic waste sites. These diverse methane sources all require power to capture, store, and/or convert methane into useful energy.

Historically, facilities that emit methane have been unable to use raw gas methane as a fuel, due to the challenges of corrosive contaminants, fluctuations in flow, and purity - until the development of this system. qnergy.com

Battery Cells Benefit From Bus Bar Design

Battery cell types are infinitely adaptable - from cylindrical shapes to punch and prismatic hard cases. Now Mersen and F&K DELVOTEC have joined forces to combine electrical and thermal improvements, leading to a thin and single-layer laminated bus bar.

Thanks to design optimizations and simulations, this technology is compatible with laserswelding, allowing fast interconnection of cells. To reduce cell welding process time and manufacturing cost,

Mersen has developed a new and dedicated laminated bus bar design specifically developed for battery application and laser welding process: the Infini-cell® bus bar. This new welding process is more than four times faster than the conventional combination of wire / ribbon insertion and welding method, and can provide a process time reduction of up to 60%. The lightweight single layer Infini∞cell bus bar solution is a combination of laminated insulation and thin conductive materials. Thanks to the thin conductive layer between 0,2 and 0,5 mm, battery cells can be easily welded to the bus bar connections using laser welding. ep-us.mersen.com

Single Phase Modular Ups Solution

CENTIEL UK has confirmed its new single phase modular UPS solution has been met with unprecedented interest within the market.

CumulusPower 11 now ensures single phase critical loads can take advantage of the same high quality, high availability power protection previously only achieved with three phase UPS.

Centiel’s new single phase modular UPS provides the same increased availability or uptime, and no single points of failure due to its DARA architecture, as Centiel’s three-phase solution. Just like the award-winning three phase modular CumulusPowerTM, the single-phase version ensures “9 nines” (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime; class-leading 97.1% on-line efficiency to minimise running costs; true “hot swap” modules to eliminate human error in operation and high-quality, long-life components to reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

The CumulusPower 11 is available in either 10kW or 20kW capacity or 20kW N+1 redundancy in a single cabinet. A range of CumulusPower 11 cabinet types are available that include integral batteries and rack independent housings for incorporation into existing 19” racks offering increased flexibility and enabling use of space to be maximised.

When asked about the difference the single phase CumulusPower 11 will make to single phase power protection, Louis McGarry, Centiel UK’s Sales & Marketing Director commented: “It’s opened the market right up, single phase critical loads could previously only receive the highest levels of availability or power or uptime through expensive alterations to a site’s electrical infrastructure. Now, Centiel’s new single phase modular CumulusPower 11 can be installed easily into 19” cabinets or into discrete UPS cabinets. The single phase modular CumulusPower 11 is a game changer for the power protection of single-phase critical loads.”

For further information please see: www.centiel.co.uk

VACUUM CIRCUIT-BREAKER

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ABB has designed a next generation extreme weather resistant housing cabinet for its R-MAG® magnetically actuated dead tank breaker for medium-voltage primary substations.

Available for 15, 27 and 38kV units, the housing has been designed to the stringent NEMA 4 rating standards, offering unparalleled protection against even the most severe water and dust ingress.

Featuring seamless roof-to-wall joints and external self-sealing bolts that prevent any gaps, the housing is completely secure and watertight. A new roof overhang also helps limit water exposure, plus the bushings-to-roof interface is secured by a superior aerospace-grade UV-resistant and more robust gasket.

These technological improvements on the traditional NEMA 3R housing make this R-MAG® magnetic outdoor circuit breaker altogether safer and more reliable. Additionally, ABB is also releasing a new Arc Resistant housing variant for the R-MAG® breaker. This new enclosure ensures any fire and gases are expulsed in a controlled manner in the event of an internal arc fault; there is increased protection for substation personnel on all sides of the equipment, much lower risk of failure and downtime, plus faster overall restoration of the system. www.abb.com