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DID YOU KNOW THAT SMART POWER OFFERS... | | |
Utility invoice account payment and reporting service?
Smart Power offers an invoice payment service where we verify the bill, manage the payment and ensure the discount date is met.
This works particularly well for clients with multiple smaller sites that have difficulty in processing and paying accounts before the discount expiry date.
We provide a tailor made consolidated statement showing the amounts due for payment meaning the client need only make one or two payments a month.
This can save a considerable amount of processing time by not having to pay separate electricity accounts each month.
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| EVER WONDERED ABOUT.... | | |
Solar Storms?
Solar storms are natural occurrences that begin when magnetic energy (stored in our Suns atmosphere) is suddenly released with an intense burst of radiation, called a Solar Flare.
A Solar Flare ejects billions of tonnes of highly charged particles and very hot gases into space, travelling at a speed that can reach earth within 1-2 days!
When a Solar Flare reaches Earth it hits our magnetic field and causes a Solar Storm, also known as a Geomagnetic Storm. The particles and hot gases in the Solar Flare are drawn towards to the (North and South) Poles, creating Polar lights, also known at Aurora Borealis and Australis.
However solar storms can disrupt technology on Earth, such as communications systems - including those used by aircraft, satellite navigation signals and electrical power grids. The most recent example was in 1994, where a Solar Storm caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites in Canada.
As such, they could wreak long-lasting havoc with communications and power infrastructure across the globe.
A 2008 report by the US National Academy of Sciences concluded that an extreme storm could cause up to $2 trillion in initial damages by crippling communications on Earth and causing chaos around the world.
The Sun goes through cycles of high and low activity that repeats approximately every 11 years. It is currently gaining in activity and is expected to peak in 2013 or 2014, which is why it has been in the news a lot recently.
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Greetings!
Welcome to the new edition of "Get Smart", Smart Power's regular bulletin. Get Smart provides a round-up of energy news and views from New Zealand, Australia and around the world.
In "Company Voice" this month, director Brett Cameron discusses (poor) Power Factor - what to look for and why you ought to fix it!
As always your feedback is most welcome. |
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NEW ZEALAND ENERGY HEADLINES
| Power investment not worth it at these prices - Contact CEO
Electricity consumers are paying less than the cost of secure supplies, making the industry unattractive to investors, says the chief executive of Contact Energy, Dennis Barnes.
Speaking to the New Zealand Downstream energy conference, Barnes said current rates of return on electricity industry assets was "at a level that commercial investors shouldn't continue to invest in."
He feared the New Zealand industry would lurch between complacency followed by policy changes driven by supply crises. Read More
Pig poo is powering clean, green plan
There's a new, unlikely energy source that can power farms while reducing greenhouse gas emissions - pig poo.
A team of scientists at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Hamilton has developed a system that stores greenhouse gases from pig manure in a deep pond, from where it can be used as an energy source. Read More
Learn how to slash power bills
Building tenants and owners could save $780 million on their annual power bills by making a few improvements.
Ewan Gebbie, executive officer of the Energy Management Association of New Zealand, cited Auckland International Airport as reaping rewards of an effective energy management system after identifying problems with heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The airport uses around 30 GWh of electricity and 12 GWh of natural gas annually.
With various improvements and upgrades it was able to save 24 per cent on its energy use, Gebbie said. Read More
Solar storm peaks before fading away
The solar storm that seemed to be more fizzle than fury got much stronger early Friday before fading again. At its peak, it was the most potent solar storm since 2004, US space weather forecasters said. No power outages or other technological disturbances were reported from the solar storm that started to peter out late Friday morning.
Solar storms, which cannot hurt people, can disturb electric grids systems and satellites. They can also spread colourful Northern Lights farther south than usual, as the latest storm did early Friday.
More storms are coming, according to the US government's Space Weather Prediction Center, which says the same area of the sun erupted again Thursday night, with a milder storm expected to reach Earth early Sunday. Read More
Dinosaur appliances devour power
Huge electricity savings can be made by replacing old fridges and freezers - but it's worth hanging on to your ancient washing machine and dishwasher.
Lurking in homes across the country are refrigerators, washing machines and driers nearly as old as the inventions themselves - and these energy-hungry dinosaurs are adding hundreds of dollars to power bills.
Figures from Fisher and Paykel and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority show the hungriest appliances are fridges and freezers - a 10-year-old fridge will generally cost a third more to run than a newer model. A 20-year-old model will cost double that.
A 16-year-old fridge recently dropped off at Fisher and Paykel's recycling centre was eating up $264 a year in electricity - more than double what a new model would cost to run. Read More
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AUSTRALIAN ENERGY HEADLINES
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Push for reform of electricity
Australia is lagging behind other developed countries in energy efficiency, despite some examples being set by individual businesses, an international conference in Sydney has been told.
The $45 billion earmarked for new ''poles and wires'' infrastructure around Australia was the main driver of an expected 90 per cent rise in household electricity prices between 2008 and 2014, rather than the carbon price, delegates heard yesterday.
The Australian Alliance to Save Energy, a non-profit group that hosted the conference along with the University of Technology's institute for sustainable futures, said the key priority should be reforming electricity industry regulation to focus on minimising peak demand. Read More
Australian power prices 'relatively low' compared with other countries
As growing numbers of people turn off lights, go to bed early and use ovens less to cope with huge increases in bills, the Energy in Australia 2012 paper notes total energy costs are actually swallowing a smaller chunk of household expenditure than three decades ago.
But it confirms electricity prices are increasing faster for households than businesses, partly because of the removal of cross subsidies.
Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said that despite rising electricity prices in recent years, Australia was below the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average.
Network investment to maintain reliable supplies was the main reason for higher costs. Read More
Sydney site of clean energy company
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell may not support the carbon tax but he has happily welcomed the Gillard government's $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation to Sydney.
This week, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that Sydney would be home to the corporation, which was first announced as part of the carbon pricing package last year. ''This is a city that can offer the benefit of financial and professional networks,'' Ms Gillard said.
Sydney was also selected because of the number of universities and investment businesses in the city. Read Me
'Volatile' electricity market concern
The cost of electricity under the carbon price could rise further than the 10 per cent forecast by the government if major greenhouse emitters are made to pay unpredictable ''top-up fees'' on international permits, the power industry has warned.
As the government nuts out detail on the carbon price, to be introduced in July, power generators fear that uncertainty about carbon costs will interfere with the cut-price long-term deals they strike with electricity retailers, who keep the price of power down by making forward contracts of three years or more with power generators. Otherwise, retailers have to buy power on the spot market, which is considerably more expensive. Read More
Latest CFI initiative a burning issue for land managers
Indigenous land managers and farmers in northern Australia will now be able to generate revenue for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions through savanna fire management, thanks to the latest Carbon Farming Initiative.
Using the savanna burning methodology, Indigenous land managers and farmers will shift the timing of savanna burning to earlier in the dry season, while also reducing the area burnt, which will assist in decreasing potent greenhouse gas emissions.
Read More
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INTERNATIONAL ENERGY HEADLINES
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Water Pressure Turned Into Power
A shower on the upper floor of a high rise building can provide magnificent water pressure -- a liquid shiatsu massage. A New York City start-up has started tapping into that intense water pressure at treatment plants, reservoirs and factories, converting the excess into electricity.
When water utilities create reservoirs at a high elevation to serve populations living in lower-lying cities, they install pipes for the water to flow down hill. The water's speed increases so much while flowing downhill that it has to be slowed down to prevent it from exploding when a customer turns on the faucet. Read More
SimCity returns - with an eco-conscience
Climate change is coming to SimCity. A new version of the city-building computer game that factors in real-world consequences of energy choices has won endorsements from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and the director of the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
"We are updating SimCity with technology of today and introducing it to a new generation of gamers," Maxis studio senior vice president Lucy Bradshaw said at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
"It gets under your skin; exposes you to the idea of cause and effect and that choices you make have repercussions," she said.
Read More
Wireless charging of gadgets becomes a reality
Think how convenient it would be if you could recharge electronic devices without ever having to plug them in - or even take them out of your briefcase.
Instead, you could leave your briefcase, bag or backpack on a counter in the living room at home, and the smartphones and tablets within could see to their own recharging. And the robotic vacuum cleaner in the corner of the room could do likewise.
The WiTricity Corporation in Watertown, Massachusetts, has developed a novel technology to handle just these sorts of wireless energy transfers. The company makes and licenses a system of magnetic coils and companion electronics that turn wireless charging into a built-in function of smartphones and other devices.
Read More
German Village Becomes Model for Renewable Energy
The tiny village of Feldheim, some 60 kilometres southwest of Berlin, was catapulted by chance to the forefront of the renewable energy movement. Now visitors from around the world are flocking to this otherwise unremarkable rural community to see if they can replicate its success.
This town of 150 inhabitants, tucked away in the Brandenburg countryside seems like an unlikely tourist hotspot. It has no bars, museums or restaurants. But since the Fukushima nuclear disaster one year ago, Feldheim has become a beacon for cities across the world that want to shift their energy mix toward 'renewables'. Read More
Aircraft of the future could capture and re-use some of their own power
Tomorrow's aircraft could contribute to their power needs by harnessing energy from the wheel rotation of their landing gear to generate electricity.
They could use this to power their taxiing to and from airport buildings, reducing the need to use their jet engines. This would save on aviation fuel, cut emissions and reduce noise pollution at airports. Read More |
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THE COMPANY VOICE
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Brett Cameron brings almost 30 years of metering and network experience to the team. He began working in the electricity industry in 1983 for the Auckland Electric Power Board, specialising in the installation, maintenance, commissioning, and fault location of high voltage sub-transmission equipment. His last role in the network side of the business was as a commercial metering technician for 'time of use' metering installations.
He also has experience in sales and business management.
Brett has been with the Smart Power group of companies since 2003 and specialises in metering, network configuration analysis including cost minimisation, temporary data logging, and half hour technical data analysis and reporting. Still a practicing electrician, Brett has Advanced Trade Cert A/B/C/D, NZCE Electrical, and a Dip Bus in Marketing.
"Power Factor, is it important?
Ask any plant operator why power factor correction is an important issue and the answer will be - money! Cold, hard, cash is undoubtedly the bottom line when it comes to setting up efficient power factor correction equipment - because power factor is a measure of the amount of useful work being extracted from the total amount of power being supplied to your plant.
Forgetting about the technical stuff, if you have a power factor below 0.95, somehow, somewhere it's costing your business money. Whether it's through demand charges (kVA), reactive charges (kVAr) or simply poor power factor penalties, it costs money.
One way to check is to look at your power bill. If the network charges contain something called power factor penalty, or reactive charges, then you've most likely got poor power factor and it's costing you money. If you don't know, or you need help finding out, just call us and we'll figure it out for you.
If you're one of the smart ones who've installed an automatic power factor correction unit, that's great; problem solved. But what if you install more motors, bigger motors or more lights? What if one of the capacitor banks fails, or a fuse blows? What if the controller stops working?
Bottom line is that things change. It's inevitable that your load will change and believe it or not, capacitors degrade and contactors wear out. They're not "set and forget", just one of those things that sits in a corner somewhere doing its job until something changes and it stops working or simply stops working as effectively as it once did.
We recommend carrying out annual checks on your power factor correction equipment, including recording capacitor reactive current so that the capacitance value can be determined. Through doing this regular maintenance (and measurement recording), you can then determine if part of your equipment is about to fail and needs preventative maintenance, or has become ineffective due to load changes. The end result that we're all looking for is a power factor of 0.95 and no penalties. When this is assured, you save money.
If you didn't want to get dirty hands, then Smart Power offers an inexpensive Invoice Verification and Technical reporting service that monitors power factor correction effectiveness (among other things) on a monthly basis. When you're not looking at it constantly, the costs associated with poor power factor could easily creep up without anyone knowing it. Next thing you know, you're paying a totally avoidable penalty of $1,000 per month!
So is power factor correction important...emphatically YES!"
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