Swarbhaskar Pandit Bhimsen Joshi

Posted on January 27, 2011 by

On last Monday, light has suddenly gone out of the lives of millions of Hindustani classical music lovers of this world. May be we have been so naïve in our belief that this light was immortal that we cannot reconcile to this seemingly sudden, inexplicable yet inevitable loss. The rays of this divine light have warmed our lives for so many years, that we are used to taking every opportunity to bask under them to soak in their warmth in the numerous winters of our lives.

I still remember the words of “Abhangwani” that first fell onto my ears, way back in 1980′s. Those were the times of my college days and we all considered listening to the western rock or pop music as fashionable and did not know that anything else existed. But hearing the “Swarbhaskar Pandit Bhimsen Joshi” singing ”Tuka Akasha Yevdha” suddenly gave me a feeling for the first time there may still be God somewhere in this world. After that has began the journey of listening to the divine performances, where ever one could or otherwise making do with listening to the recorded voice. But believe me, heard on an excellent music system, either is as good as the other.

His has been a lifelong SwarSadhana, bringing joys & enlightenment to the millions of the mankind. There are fairy tale memories about incidences throughout his life. Like the one about Panditji wanting to visit Ladakh. Mr. Yashwantrao Chavan was the defense minister then, so a visit was quickly arranged.

During a stroll on the snow clad mountains in Ladakh,Panditji heard his voice over a transistor. When he asked the person carrying the transistor, who was singing, he was told that it was the voice of “Pandit Bhimsen Joshi”. Such was Panditji’s reach and popularity that made people his “Devotees”. Some enjoying his Khayal gayaki, whereas others, enjoying the Abhangwani and most, like me, enjoying every rendering.

When I shifted to Pune to set up my business here, it was as if I was destined to be able to listen to him more often, mostly through the “Sawai Gandarva Music Festival”, which he organized every year in Pune for the last 58 years in the memory of his guru “Sawai Gandharva”. It is very difficult for a person like me, so completely ignorant about the intricacies of the Indian Classical music to understand what it is out of it that makes this music so divine.

Having listened to the various forms of music over so many years, I have come to rely on the yogic magic of the experience of listening to Panditji to bring me out of any lows that I may be experiencing, each & every time I have heard him.

 

I came across an incident from Panditji’s life in one of books written by his close friend, Pu La Deshpande. He narrates how the trio of Panditji, Pu La & Kumar Gandharva decided to drive down to Calcutta from Indore. He describes the spontaneous bursting into singing of the two stalwarts of music throughout the journey.

In style so typical of Pu La, he ends the narrative by mentioning that the atmosphere in the car had become so musical, that the driver too was trying his hand at khayal gayaki at the end of the journey.

For a person like me, so passionate about both driving and classical music, to visualize the heavenly treat of spending time with the three stalwarts, makes me envy the driver to this date.

It’s amazing how the sheer professional excellence of legends can influence us without even knowing them anywhere near personally. We can only take solace in thinking of ourselves as the lucky few, who had an opportunity to be a witness to this divine gift to the man kind. We should also thank the technology that allows us to treasure the sounds in our minds & hearts, to be remembered forever.

Prashant Deshpande

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2011: Trends To Watch in Electrical Systems

Posted on January 13, 2011 by

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.

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Understanding Power Quality

Posted on December 31, 2010 by

Byrne’s Law: In any electrical circuit, appliances and wiring will burn out to protect fuses.

Our electrical equipments seem to stop short of following Byrne’s Law – every time we try to investigate the cause behind that mysterious flickering of lights, sudden tripping of VFD’s, false alarms from PLCs, soaring transformer temperatures, unannounced chiller shut down or unreasonable tripping of circuit breakers.

In this newsletter we discuss the core issues concerning ‘power quality’ which, in most cases, is the cause behind mysterious behavior of our electrical systems. We will discuss the parameters affecting power quality and measures for correction.

Power Quality: Definition

There are many standards defining power quality, however in this newsletter, we will focus only on the practical definition.

Power quality, at its core, is all about observing the relationship between voltage and current in electrical systems. When the ideal voltage current sine-wave is disturbed beyond a certain magnitude, power quality is said to be affected.

Disturbances affecting Power Quality

Disturbances in the ideal sine-wave could be many, both momentary and long lasting. For example, non-linear loads may not draw same current for the entire wave cycle and affect power quality. Switching on and off of electrical systems can also disturb the ideal wave pattern and affect power quality. Other causes could be harmonics, phase-out, noise or problems related to poor earthing.

Harmonics

In one of our previous newsletters, we had discussed in-depth about harmonics and how it can affect your electrical systems. The currents reflect back to the electrical system in harmonics to distort the sine-wave. Typically created by non-linear loads, harmonics can be controlled by adding harmonic filters.

Unbalanced Voltage

Unbalanced Voltage is said to exist when voltage values across the three-phases of power are different. It leads to heating of equipments like motors and transformers along with the wiring associated with these equipments.

Unbalanced voltage may also be caused due to improper earthing of the neutral of the incoming supply. This leads to a floating neutral point and depending on the imbalance of loading on the three phases, will result in voltage imbalance between phases. These imbalances can lead to dangerously high voltage in any single phase circuit.

The solution calls for redistribution of loads across three phases. For unbalanced single phase voltages, it may be necessary to check the effectiveness of system neutral grounding.

Noise

Noise is presence of undesirable electro-magnetic signals in the system. Rapid Switching of large loads or chopping of waveforms by thyristor controlled devices can lead to noise in electrical systems. Proper grounding and bonding of equipments can eliminate the noise related problems in electrical systems.

To conclude, power quality related concerns for an electrical system should be considered right from design or engineering stage. However, a clear understanding of practical aspects of power quality, its causes and basic remedial measures can go a long way in keeping 24X7 operations of the system.

Assessment and solution of Power Quality related problems thus calls for a combination of keen observation, technical know-how and practical insights into the electrical system.

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Fault Level – Things You Must Know

Posted on December 17, 2010 by

In one of our previous newsletters we had discussed about Arc Flash Hazards. Fault level or Fault Current is one of the major causes for Arc Flash. In this newsletter we talk about basic things you must know about Fault level.

Fault current, also known as a short-circuit current, is a term used to describe a situation in which the flow of current that is traveling through an electric circuit is not within a normal range. Fault current is several times larger in magnitude than the current that normally flows through a circuit.

Such abnormal or unusual flow of current can occur due to various factors, like short-circuit of electrical equipment or a defect that adversely affects the current path which in turn results in high current output.

The fault level at a node somewhere on the system is the amount of current which will flow if you short together the conductors at that node.

The most critical part is when the flow of current falls outside a normal range, the equipment that is designed to prevent short circuits will not be able to respond correctly, making it necessary to rectify the situation immediately in order to avoid damage to equipment and life.

Fault Current – Cause and Magnitude

There are five types in which a fault or short circuit can occur – phase to ground, double-phase to ground, three-phase to ground, phase-to-phase, and three-phase.

Fault current is also dependant on whether the fault is line-neutral, line-line, whether just one, two or all three phases are involved, and whether the fault also involves the earth.

The magnitude of the fault current is a function of system voltage and the impedances in the components of the system such as cables, overhead lines, transformers, reactors etc.

Factors Limiting Fault Current

There are four factors that determine the Fault Level or the fault current that can flow through the electrical system

  • Supply Source Capacity: Energy released by a short circuit fault current will depend on the capacity of supply source. More the capacity more is the current available at installations under short circuit conditions. Electric welding operation with 100A current are capable of melting metals. Damage caused by thousands of Amperes from the source of current can be unprecedented.
  • Transformer impedance: Transformer impedance is percentage of primary voltage needed to circulate full load current in a short circuited secondary. For a 5%, impedance, at normal voltage, the current flowing in short circuited secondary could be as high as 20 times the full load current.
  • Wiring Impedance: Current levels increase exponentially with a relatively smaller fall in impedance. For a constant voltage of 240 V and resistance of 0.01 Ohms the current that can flow through the system will be 24,000A.
  • Fault Current Limiters/ Protective Devices : Fault current limiters should be selected to limit instantaneous fault currents to a value within the capacity of the equipment being protected.

Fault Level Withstand Capacity

Fault Levels are measured in mega-volt amperes (MVA). The level will depend on the local supply or generation capacity. A 500 KVA rating transformer and 5% impedance would produce a fault level of 10 MVA.

Switch board and electrical distribution should be designed to withstand the calculated Fault Level of the electrical system, typically involving numerical methods and assumptions.

Fault Level Protection

The Fault Level protection at every sub circuit may vary depending on its location in the overall electrical system, type of equipments down the line etc. It is important to select equipments with withstand capacity for calculated Fault levels and ensure it’s appropriate configuration at sub circuit. This enables discrimination between fault levels at individual sub circuits.

Fault level calculations at design level and selection and configuration of equipments accordingly are very critical in terms of avoiding unsolicited tripping of circuit or equipment damage, but more importantly, safety of those who work with the electrical system.

Please write to us with your questions, contributions and experiences to e-power@accusonic.net.

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Electricity In A BOX!

Posted on December 2, 2010 by

The shop floor of the past was about manually operated tools. Today, the tools and machines on shop floor are loaded with electrical Motors. The factories

of the future will run on microprocessors.

Dependence on electricity will only increase in future as our factories and machines go digital.

While the factory is changing (as we add microprocessors to motors) the way we generate electricity hasn’t changed much.

Future of Electricity

Solar, wind and other evolving sciences like tidal energy often find their place in the discussion regarding future of electricity generation.

Most of the current technology for electricity generation, is relatively inefficient and often polluting. For example, in a steam turbine, the chemical energy of the fuel is first converted to thermal energy which is then converted to mechanical energy of turbine and ultimately to electricity.

Electricity generation technology for the future must convert energy from a source fuel to electrical energy, directly and without polluting the environment.

In this newsletter we discuss a promising new technology that could be the future of electricity generation.

Energy Servers…

Bloom Energy, a US based company is producing tiny fuel cell boxes that generate electricity. Each box is of the size of a brick and can power about four homes in India.

The energy servers shown here are like batteries. But instead of converting stored chemical energy to electricity, these Bloom Boxes generate power from fuel like coal or natural gas but without combustion. The technology unlocks the chemical energy and directly converts it to electricity.

Leading companies like ebay and Google are already using these boxes to run computer data centers.

How the bloom boxes work?

Fuel-Cells convert natural gas or any other form of energy into electricity through electro chemical process.

Bloom Energy’s fuel cell is a thin sheet of ceramic made from sand. With the size comparable to that of a floppy disk, the cells are stacked over each other to make a larger unit of the size of a brick.

While the price of a bloom energy server is still very high, its expected to drop drastically during commercialization.

Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridhar with thin ceramic sheets that serve as fuel cells

Energy servers, if successful commercially, can alter the way we currently generate and distribute electricity. Furthermore, if Energy servers fulfill the promise of converting energy in a clean fashion it could be the most efficient and convenient technology for distributed energy generation on a mass scale.

Bloom energy showcased its technology at a function in US recently.

Look for bloom energy on google or youtube to find a loads of information, praise and also some critique.

Also, write to us about any other revolutionary technology in energy generation or management that you know and we will be happy to share it through e-power.

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Training for Your Electrical Department Staff

Posted on November 17, 2010 by

Why getting help from customer care executives is so irritating?

Customer Care Executives cannot help because the ones that interface with us have no authority and the ones who have the authority (managers and above) won’t speak with us.

Decision makers & end users …

In an interesting discussion, Mr. Kiran Telgaonkar of Ador Powertron pointed us to a similar situation in case of B2B companies.

Typically, in case of B2B products, people who buy the product (decision makers) have the know-how and clarity on its potential benefits. But in practice these benefits are not fully realized.

People who actually use the product on day to day basis (end users) may not be involved in purchase discussions. To understand the potential benefits identified by the decision makers during purchase, end users would need greater awareness and sensitization. The benefits will be realized in practice as end users gain greater clarity on problems in current practices and realize opportunities for improvement.

In case of control panels, people involved in buying, sometimes, don’t even see the end product. Thus it becomes critical to orient and train the electrical staff who use control panels and electrical systems on day to day basis. Training in the form of one to one discussions, tools like check lists etc. help to create awareness for intelligent use of electrical systems and drive optimum performance and safety.

e-power + Electrical Savings and Safety Champion (ESSC)

We are pleased to introduce “Electrical Savings and Safety Champion (ESSC)” program as a part of a part of e-power initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download e-power + Energy Savings & Safety Champion Program Brochure

e-power + ESSC program is designed to create awareness amongst end users and achieve:

    Better Energy Management 

    Safer Environment at Work

    The program, designed with help from industry experts and members of e-power Advisory Panel, is rolled out in a unique format through in-depth group discussion of 3-5 end users.

Why Register for e-power+ESSC?

e-power+ESSC program at your company will:

  • Empower the last man on the field to drive significant change
  • Provide skill and knowledge upgrade for electrical staff and operators
  • Empower staff to own the cause of energy management and safety

Improvement in usage practices will ensure better equipment performance and reliability.

e-power+ESSC is an opportunity for operators to talk to experts about their day-to-day problems and create a sustainable change.

Schedule e-power+ESSC Program @ Your Company!

To schedule a session at your company just send a reply to this email with your contact details.

Samruddhi or Anuja from Accusonic will provide assistance to schedule a session.

We welcome you to be a part of this unique initiative by e-power…….


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Pursuing Lakshmi – the goddess of wealth

Posted on November 2, 2010 by

In Diwali, we worship- Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.

Rest of the year, we pursue Lakshmi and hope to receive her generous blessings.

Since childhood, one is always told to chase something. In schools we chase the first rank, in college its about finding a good job, when in the job we look for the next promotion and so on…

and after doing all the chasing we wonder why Lakshmi is so elusive?

The problem is while you are looking for Lakshmi, the goddess is always following someone else – the GOD Vishnu.

The ever elusive goddess Lakshmi, is always to be found at the feet’s of Shri Vishnu.

The key is to stop looking for Lakshmi and be like the one who will be found by Lakshmi. For bringing Laksmi (wealth) in to our lives we need to be like Vishnu.

Lakshmi will follow!

Decoding Vishnu

What is that quality in Vishnu for which Lakshmi serves him?

Vishnu is the ‘Manager’ of the world.

Vishnu rides either the ‘garuda’ (eagle) or is reclining on the ‘sarpa’ (snake).

And these two help Vishnu to be in perfect control of the world.

Riding on the ‘garuda’ gives him a long sight of what is ahead – a long term view.

 

 

While on the ‘Sarpa’ he is close to the ground and can see every minute detail, in other words, has the best possible short term view.

In life or at work, one often looses the balance between the ‘garuda’ drishti or long term view and the ‘sarpa’ drishti – short term view.

And this is enough for Lakshmi to believe that you are not in control of things and quietly slip away to someone else.

Let us try and perfect the art balancing both short and long term perspective.

Happy Diwali!

On that note Friends…. we wish you a very happy Diwali & highly prosperous New Year from Team Accusonic.

May this Diwali bring home all the wealth & happiness in your personal and professional life.

The views and opinions in the above article are inspired by works of Devadutt Patnaik & C. Rajagopalchari.

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Reliable Definition To Measure Reliability

Posted on October 15, 2010 by

If you have heard the famous story of two shoe salesman from competing companies landing in Africa to find that people there did not wear shoes, you start thinking very differently about opportunity and success..

The Story…

Two executives landed in Africa to find no one was wearing shoes. One executive called up his boss in US and said there is no market for shoes over here as no one seems to wear and know about shoes. The other executive also called up but only to ask for as many shoes as possible to be shipped immediately as he saw great opportunity in no one wearing a shoe in Africa.

The first executive defined shoe market as selling (more) shoes to people who are (already) buying shoes. For the second executive shoe market included all the people who need shoes, irrespective of whether they knew about it or not. The way we assess a situation and define our opportunity.. can make a huge difference! Picking on the same note, in this newsletter, we take a look at the way equipment Reliability is usually defined. Further, we try to see the situation differently and attempt to arrive at a more reliable definition for equipment reliability.

Usual Definition 1: Reliability is less number of breakdowns

Since a breakdown directly affects everyone, one tends to see it as the only important aspect in assessing reliability.

We often tend to accept the time spent, costs incurred and production losses occuring in planned maintenance of control panles as a given and rarely consider it as an aspect in assessing reliability. However, if we have a panel which requires lesser planned maintenance (say once a year instead of twice), it implies greater reliability.

In technical jargon – equipment reliability is about increasing both Mean Time Between Failure/Breakdown as well as Mean Time Between (planned) Maintenance.

While assessing Reliability, both less number of breakdowns as well as lower frequency of planned maintenance as important factors need to be considered.

Usual Definition 2 : Reliability is good equipment performance

Good performance is a must. But what about activities required to keep the equipment in state of good performance?

If it takes hours together to fix a fuse (bad design) or change a feeder (non-modular panel) for better performance, will you still rate the control panel high on reliability?

Product reliability assessment should, ideally, take into account all the activities that are required to keep the equipment in a state of good performance. For machine tools, these could be parameters like set-up time. In case of control panels its activities like replacing a critical component while the system stays ‘live’ or time required to clean the panels for regular maintenance that are often not considered in assessing reliability.

Reliability assessment should consider a wider range of aspects like designs that are easy to understand and safer to work upon for relatively less skilled electricians or time required to build flexibility in scaling up capacity etc., that are decisive in achieving good performance.

For your thoughts on the parameters that we typically ignore but are important in assessing panel reliability…write to us at e-power@accusonic.net

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The Way To Be Safe Is Never To Feel Secure!

Posted on September 30, 2010 by

In the pressures of ‘production’, ‘expansion’ and ‘targets’ …safety is often left to luck!

Too much dependence on last minute jugaads and little consideration for safety of operations has exposed a very ugly side of Indian style of management (or rather lack of it).

In case of industry, the soaring demand from domestic and export market has been the cause of mishaps. Today, all new projects (greenfield or expansion) have extremely aggressive targets for their completion, often resulting in heavy compromise on safety and quality of work.

In all this aggression, the people who suffer the most are the ones who are actually at risk – the contractors, workers and teams on ground.

The best solutions are simple!

Prashant Deshpande, Managing Director of Accusonic Controls Pvt. Ltd. shares an interesting solution in this context observed during his visit to a UK based client:

“The site was typical, it had all the pressures and challenges faced by almost every new project nearing completion, work was being simultaneously carried out by multiple electrical contractors on the same electrical Feeder.

In such a situation it is difficult to keep track of people doing electrical work and co-ordinate electrical supply accordingly. However, a simple system here ensured safety for everyone.“
The system ensured that electrical supply will NOT be ‘live’ suddenly as the team works on last minute problems.

This simple system was extremely helpful in ensuring safety of all personnel working on the line while reducing the time wasted in tracking and coordinating with individual contractors.

Indians and processes

Have you thought – what do we need to do to make things work in India? Grafting systems, processes directly from US, UK, Germany or Japan is not always the best option.

On a tour to any developed country, one experiences the benefits of following rules and the instant penalties for breaking them. Having done that, we are quick to blame the police or government system in India that makes many rules but ultimately fails to implement them. So, what is the use of having rules that are not followed?

Your discipline & habits affect safety of people and equipment at your work place. Make sure you discourage every violation of rule around you with a strong message and action. One needs to take a stand and stick to the rules for systems and processes to work in India.

Safety and GOD!

Observing another interesting behavioral trait in our approach to standard systems or rules, a senior safety audit professional from steel industry quoted an interesting example:
• In a Japanese factory when a worker was injured on the extrusion line, as a conveyor carrying the hot HCR rolls fractured, co-workers voluntarily adopted some add-ons for their PPE (Personal Protection Equipments).

• In case of a similar accident in India, co-workers blamed the accident on bad fate of their injured friend. They believed it was his bad time as he was wearing all the PPE but even then he had the injury…. “What can one do before god’s wish?” ….Was the final argument!

Rather than using systems closer to their hands the Indian workers were more inclined to keep their faith in god. Clearly, culture, beliefs, religion etc. plays an important role in how we react to situations.

How do we use our culture, beliefs to get people to value, respect and adopt safer practices and behavior?

Is designing safety practices that are based on religion/culture a solution in India?

Reply to this email with YOUR thoughts on these questions so we can publish and share it with others.

Also, we will be happy to share YOUR experience on innovative ideas to improve safety, through this platform. Please write to us on e-power@accusonic.net

Posted in Innovation@e-power, Saftey | 1 Comment

Designing Machines to Change Humans

Posted on September 15, 2010 by

Technology to change people, well, it is not about remotes that can shut-up the nagging kids or their loud parents or irritating neighbors …although it might be very high on ones wish list.

The focus here is on designing techniques in – machines, systems etc. to influence human behavior in a positive way. The term used is persuasive technology – a topic advocated by Stanford Persuasive Technology Labs. The idea is – just like human persuasive power, technology or systems too can be empowered to change an individual’s behavior positively.

In this newsletter, we discuss low-cost techniques in power distribution systems that can be employed to change behavior of people. The two key areas we will focus are top on every decision makers mind – bringing down energy costs and improving safety.

But before that we take a look at the big picture.

Who else is using “persuasive technology”?

Ford motor company is experimenting with persuasive technology in order to make their cars more green. The ford car dashboard will now use graphics to encourage drivers in becoming more economical. The dashboard, designed with the help of web specialists, has a plant that represents the fuel efficiency…the greater the fuel efficiency the more leaves and buds grow on the plant. The moment driver starts being rash the leaves start dying out.

Click here for some more examples.

Technology to create energy efficient behavior!

Changing behavior in an Industrial set-up is relatively complex. The difficulty stems from collective responsibility in jobs and dynamics of decision making in different situations. However, with innovative approach these same difficulties could be turned to ones advantage.

The power consumption screen on shop floor

A large flat screen TV panel that shows the energy consumption data for a particular meter directly to its users helps induce and perpetuate energy efficient behavior. The key here is sharing feedback on power consumption with those who are responsible for it, in real time.

This approach has been useful in appreciating the ability of small changes that can create big impact. This works way better than sticking around checklists or signing sheets for tiny energy saving acts like turning off the lights.

The behavioral change is triggered by the fact that you can celebrate your “small win” immediately as you see energy consumption on the panel going down.

The countdowns for machine maintenance

Countdown timers that indicate number of days or operations still to go for a scheduled maintenance activity ensures timely maintenance and best machine performance. In case of delay the display starts going negative and continuously communicates to the operator that he is stretching the machine’s capability.

Shop floor managers have found the technique to connect well with operators. Most operators started with a better planning for maintenance and showed greater involvement in getting the best performance from their machines.

‘Costing’ benchmarks for power consumption

Real time comparison of your production cost could be extremely useful to compare and eventually control energy costs per unit.

Imagine a scenario where, with the help of an energy monitoring software, a production manager is able to compare the cost of power required per unit for the current and last batch of production. Such data available in run-time over a period of time can unearth many behavioral flaws in production over two shifts or at different hours of the day.

Furthermore, armed with insights, derived from observation of this data, production manager will have a precise understanding of behvioral problems in order to align people and achieve the benchmarks in costing.

We will continue to share more of such ideas with you in subsequent newsletters. Meanwhile, we hope persuasive technology serves you, as a tool to influence behavioral issues at work positively and derive benifits such as better energy management.

In the next issue of e-power we talk about simple systems to bring about behavioral changes with respect to safety.

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