New Year is a time to make resolutions. But many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.
While making resolutions has become an important ritual, breaking them has always been a part of the cycle.
We are into the third week in the New Year and now’s a good time to review which of our resolutions have managed to survive…
On a more serious note, in this newsletter we take a look at some of the key trends related to electrical systems that are likely to be dominant in the year 2011. Through these trends, we hope to provide some additional perspectives to shape and firm-up your plans and resolutions for the year 2011.
Automation is the new mantra
Smart electrical distribution systems based on SCADA systems have been the buzz for a long time now. While the shop floor will mostly focus on automating the production process, it’s the buildings and office workplace that will see automation of electrical systems.
Intelligent Electrical systems will see greater implementations in 2011. Better energy management will be one of the key factors driving implementation of such systems. In Mumbai for instance, 1/3 rd of the total requirement of 3100 MW is for Air Conditioning units. Intelligent systems could prove vital in improving efficiency of high energy consuming equipments.
For example, systems where AC operations are linked to biometric systems and outside temperature or lighting is linked to seasonal changes in daylight etc. could start to become a norm.
A change in mindset to look at Life Cycle Costs rather than just product costs along with greater affordability of intelligent electrical system solutions will drive automation in electrical systems.
Improving Power Quality
Harmonic distortions have emerged as a dominant cause of power quality deterioration. Use of sensitive equipments in electrical systems and greater dependency on automation will lead to demand for better power quality through elimination of harmonic distortions.
Legal Statuary compliances from State Electricity Boards as well as the need for better power quality at plant level will call for greater investments to eliminate Harmonic Distortions.
The utility waveforms, both current and voltage, could be distorted due to harmonic currents injected in the utility grid. The main effects due to voltage and current harmonics could range from amplification of harmonic levels due to series and parallel resonances to efficiency drops in power generation, transmission and utilization (induced by current harmonics). State Electricity Boards are expected to tighten the knots, on losses induced into the grid by Harmonic Distortions, in near future.
Negotiating risks with scarce resources
Complexity of electrical systems has increased manifold with larger manufacturing plants and commercial buildings, all aimed at achieving economies of scale. Add to it the trends of business clusters like IT parks etc. the need to set up mega plants will continue to gain traction.
With greater complexity, risk associated with electrical systems has also increased multifold. For example, larger plants mean bigger transformers leading to greater fault level. Fault current is the major cause of electrical Arc Flash hazards. With the growing trend towards larger plant/ business set-ups such problems could be more prevalent and so will be the need to address it. However, the awareness about these problems and possible solutions is relatively low.
As electrical professionals, in 2011, we have to work towards building greater awareness and safety practices to address these challenges.
Shift from IEC 60439 to IEC 61439
An electrical system consists of multiple sub-assemblies. IEC 61439 introduced in 2010 needs all the assemblies to meet defined performance and safety criteria; a big shift from IEC 60439. The later approved a component with it’s performance tested individually under standard operating conditions.
However, in an electrical assembly the component is subjected to many forces – thermal, magnetic etc. which affect the performance of the component, circuit and assembly as a whole.
With infinite configurations of components, testing of all assemblies is not a practical option. IEC 61439 will thus focus on verifying capability of each assembly at two stages – design verification and routine verification. The design verification will focus on design performance of the assembly and routine verification will check if the workmanship and materials used are in accordance with new standards.
As the inflow of foreign investments in India continues, foreign companies setting manufacturing shops in India will demand compliance to new global standards. Industry Standards for power distribution and other electrical systems are changing globally and the Indian Customer will also have to learn and specify the new standards soon.
We sincerely hope to have made a valuable addition to defining your priorities for 2011. It would be great if you can share your observations on the trends for 2011 at e-power@accusonic.net. We will be happy to add them to this list and share it with other readers on www.e-power.in.
