Mission Critical Power Solutions for Airports

More than 110 world-leading experts from 18 countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, UK, and USA exchanged views on current issues, future trends and innovative solutions at the 3rd International Power and Conditioning Symposium (IPCS2014), hosted by Piller at the group headquaters in Osterode last week (15-16 September).

The event focused on uninterruptible and conditioned power in data centers and industry by evaluating the use and difficulties with adoption of renewable energy in these fields.

Ten internationally renowned guest speakers presented new concepts and discussed the possibilities of increasing the energy efficiency in data centers as well as integrating renewable energy sources in sensitive energy supplies. “We are delighted and highly appreciative that so many industry experts from around the world have gathered here at Piller to discuss the topic of energy efficiency and ways in which together we can make a contribution to the global goal of lowering energy use,” says Andrew Dyke, Piller´s Managing Director Global Business.

Andrew Dyke, Managing Director Piller Global Business, welcomes the speakers and delegates

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. The power consumption of data centers and general industry is rising continuously. At the same time, limitations to power consumption and carbon footprint are being made by governments in an effort to slow down the rate of global warming. "The focus within the data center industry has been shifting“ believes Robert Thorogood, Executive Director at hurleypalmerflatt “over the last few years the focus has been to use alternative cooling and UPS systems to minimize losses, make best use of free-cooling from the local climate and arrange systems in their most effective and efficient manner over the whole IT load profile and particularly at part load.”

A shift in energy supply could be a way to solve the problem. Multi-fuel power generation is possible; In this case, different sources (e.g. gas, biomass, hydrogen, and renewables) can be combined in order to reduce diesel consumption. The use of alternative energy sources on site is recognized by many, but it is still a controversial issue. Can this energy be integrated easily and safely? Are there risks for the IT equipment? Juergen Zimmermann, Head of R&D at ABB Australia stated “The renewable energy integration solution must address requirements traditionally fulfilled by diesel generation such as frequency and voltage control, sufficient spinning reserve as well as sufficient active and reactive power supply. Renewable energy generation capacity should be sized to maximize ROI and fuel savings. A proven and commercially available technology for integration and operation of renewable energy does already exist.” However, energy production on site is likely to change the requirements of the utility as well as its infrastructure.

To reduce the energy consumption, a shift to more effective, environmentally-friendly and smart facilities is essential. Introducing the new DeRUPS^TM concept. Piller presented a new UPS solution, which will contribute to improving the clients´ environmental balance sheet.

For DeRUPS^TM, Piller UBT+ and POWERBRIDGE^TM Energy Storage Modules are integrated with a conventional standby diesel engine to offer a fully integrated, efficiency optimized and highly reliable system. The whole system is managed by the DeRUPS^TM control, an active management of different points within the system topology. For example, it can balance the system, slowing down and speeding up the POWERBRIDGE^TM units or shutting down and starting up UPS modules depending on load. Diesel engines are being controlled by DeRUPS^TM as well; they only start when redundancy levels require it and when the extended ride-through of the POWERBRIDGE^TM has been utilized.

This approach reduces energy costs and diesel consumption but maintains complete load security. “The test of DeRUPS^TM was the most impressive thing,” says Marc Smutek, Electrical Engineer at WSP Group.

“It was amazing; we have a lot of things to consider when I get back home to Texas. It [DeRUPS^TM] makes me want to think about the next project, about designing in a different way to take advantage of Piller and seeing how that compares to what we are have been doing before. From what I´ve learnt this week, it´s promising,” Edward Henigin, CTO at Data Foundry, USA, adds.

 More than 110 world-leading experts from 18 countries exchanged views on current issues, future trends and innovative solutions at Piller IPCS 2014

Delegates at the conference were also given a first viewing and pre-launch of the new storage solutions to be offered by Piller. These solutions exhibit enhanced efficiency, alternative cooling methods, increased ride-through and power. For further information please email info@piller.com. or contact your local office.