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DID YOU KNOW THAT SMART POWER OFFERS...
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Bill Payment Services
Smart Power offers a utility invoice account 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.... | | |
Cooling Towers?
Cooling towers are heat exchangers that are used to dissipate large heat loads to the atmosphere. They are required when using a circulating cooling water systems and are used as an important component in many industrial and commercial processes needing to dissipate heat and, more commonly, in HVAC systems for commercial buildings.
Cooling towers use one of three methods to dissipate the heat:
- Dry cooling tower: Transferred to the ambient air
- Wet cooling tower: Transferred by evaporation
- Closed circuit cooling tower: Hybrid of the two above
Some of the key design considerations for wet cooling towers are:
All water has a level of total-dissolved-solids (TDS) in the water. In a cooling tower this will increase unless actively managed. A high TDS in the water in circulation can cause scale on the heat exchange surface and increases the likelihood of biological growth. This can cause risks for both the plant and as a result of drift, the local environment.
Drift is the term for water droplets that are carried out of a wet cooling tower with the exhaust air. Because the drift droplets generally contain the same chemical impurities as the water circulating through the tower, these impurities can be converted to airborne emissions through the evaporation process.
As well as managing the TDS level of the water, you also need to continuously treat it with biocides and algaecides to prevent the risk of (large) growths restricting the flow of the water. This will also prevent legionella to grow.
Legionellosis is a form of the bacteria legionella and is a potentially fatal bacterial disease which can take two forms: Legionnaire's disease and Pontiac fever.
Legionnaire's Disease is the more serious and produces high fever and pneumonia, whereas the Pontiac Fever symptoms resemble that of acute influenza. It is usually transmitted by inhaling air that is contaminated with the bacteria - which is one of the reasons why it is so important to treat the water in a cooling tower and minimise the opportunity for drift!
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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 Australia, New Zealand and around the world.
In "Company Voice" this month, Melbourne based Director Rod Boyte summarises the new Clean Technology Investment Program recently announced by the Australian Government.
As always your feedback is most welcome.
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AUSTRALIAN ENERGY HEADLINES
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Qantas trials cooking oil in biofuels flight
Qantas has recently used recycled American cooking oil to help power a biofuel trial flight.
The aircraft used a mix of biofuel and conventional jet fuel for the Sydney-Adelaide return service. Produced by Dutch firm SkyNRG, the fuel has been used by several other airlines.
Qantas says its "life cycle" carbon footprint is around 60 per cent smaller than that of conventional jet fuel. It is part of a long-term plan to reduce a fuel bill that totalled A$3.6 billion last year. Read More
Pay dirt: farmers aim to restore carbon balance and harvest rewards
The soil of the state's central west has long offered opportunities to farmers like Sam Stranger, who has planted wheat and canola in it and raised sheep on its grass.
But now the dirt itself is offering new possibilities due to a state government-backed pilot carbon sequestration program in which farmers will be paid to store carbon in their land. Read More
Cutting green tape tops business agenda
Big businesses recently sat down with state and federal politicians in Canberra today to discuss axing complex regulatory rules and cumbersome red tape.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard hosted the inaugural COAG Business Advisory Forum in Parliament House, with 26 business chiefs and state and territory leaders set to discuss ways to ease regulatory pressure on Australian businesses.
Read More
Gas could be just as dirty as coal, study reveals
Coal seam gas, widely touted as a greener fuel than coal, could have just as deep a carbon footprint unless world-class standards are used when extracting the gas from the ground, an expert report has found.
A study into the life-cycle greenhouse emissions of Australia's energy sources by consultancy WorleyParsons found conventional gas from large offshore wells typically produced 38 per cent less greenhouse emissions than black coal, largely because it burnt more cleanly. Read More
South Australia dream to lead with renewable energy South Australia's Labor government wants to be a leader in renewable energy and wants more wind farms to do it. SA has more than half of Australia's wind farms and they provided 26 per cent of the state's electricity last year, up from 18 per cent in 2010, and less than one per cent just five years ago. Read More |
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NEW ZEALAND ENERGY HEADLINES
| Farmers to get emissions reprieve
The Government has confirmed it plans to delay the extension of the emissions trading scheme to agriculture.
In a consultation paper released recently it outlines its response to last year's review of the ETS chaired by David Caygill. The review recommended bringing agriculture into the scheme in 2015 as the current legislation requires. Read More
Wind-farmers expect six-fold growth
An industry group is forecasting a six-fold boom in the capacity of wind farms during the next 20 years.
Wind now generates about 5 per cent of the country's electricity but this is predicted to grow to 20 per cent by 2030.
The Wind Energy Association says turbines are getting more reliable and operations and maintenance costs are falling.
Read More
2012 EECA Awards - finalists revealed
New Zealand's most innovative energy-saving and renewable energy projects have been revealed, with the 2012 EECA Awards finalists announced recently.
The EECA Awards celebrate organisations and individuals who have demonstrated excellence and innovation in energy efficiency or renewable energy. This year, nearly 90 entries were received. Collectively the entries will deliver energy savings, or generate energy, worth more than $60 million over the life of the projects. Read More
Clearing the path for cleantech
Rising demand, available investment funding and strong Government support are just some of the opportunities for cleantech New Zealand companies looking to do business in China. News the world's second largest economy will pour £1.1 trillion (10 trillion yuan) into developing its cleantech industries could inject millions into the Kiwi economy.
Read More
Christchurch officially declared a fracking-free zone
Christchurch City Council has voted unanimously to declare Christchurch a fracking-free zone.
Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is a mining system that involves injecting chemicals into rocks so they break, releasing oil and natural gas.
The stance is because of concerns about the impact of fracking on the local environment, including contamination of the city's underground water supply and fracking's link to earthquakes. Read More
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INTERNATIONAL ENERGY HEADLINES
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Subtly Selling 'Green' to the Flat-Screen Crowd
On the second floor of one of the oldest Sears stores in the country, "Ellen" is blaring from one of the newest arrivals in the electronics section, a 60-inch LCD flat-screen television with LED backlighting and built-in Wi-Fi.
If you stare longingly at the set, a sales associate may begin quizzing you about your brand preference, price point and the size of your TV room. Is energy efficiency important to you? Read More
A Speed Record on the Power Grid
It's not Guinness Book of World Records material, but electric company technicians and researchers may have set a speed record in replacing a transformer as part of a drill to determine how the power grid could recover from an attack or a natural disaster. Read More
World's biggest wind farm planned for off south coast of England
The development comprises 200 turbines, each the height of a skyscraper and spread over an area the size of Glasgow.
The planned wind farm, which is three to four times bigger than any previously built, is expected to earn its Dutch owners Eneco more than a quarter of a billion pounds a year in subsidies alone. Read More
Companies Prepare for a Fossil-Free Future
Drivers may hate rising gas prices, but some companies are delighted as they watch the oil price soar. Firms like BMW and Airbus which are leaders in fuel efficiency actually benefit from expensive oil. They are just two of a growing number of companies that are already developing technologies for a post-fossil-fuel world. Read More
Interview With the Empire State Building's Anthony Malkin
It's not surprising that the Empire State Building has become an inspiration and model for energy efficiency retrofits around the world. With the iconic skyscraper achieving an energy reduction of 40 percent, which amounts to savings of $4.4 million a year, it's easy to understand why.
Anthony Malkin, President of Malkin Holdings (owner of the Empire State Building), and a speaker at the 2012 Sustainable Operations Summit, was recently interviewed to learn a bit more about this groundbreaking project, and to get his take on the future scale of energy efficiency retrofits in the United States. Read More
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THE COMPANY VOICE
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Smart Power's Melbourne based director, Rod Boyte, summarises some of the areas of the recently announced Federal Government $1 billion Clean Technology Investment Program.
Eligibility
To be eligible to receive funding your company must:
- be incorporated in Australia; and
- undertake manufacturing activities in Australia (manufacturing does not need to be your primary business activity); and
- Use more than 300 MWh (approx $50,000) pa of electricity; or 5 Terajoules of natural gas (approx $50,000) pa; or have emissions greater than 0.27 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (or be directly liable under the carbon pricings mechanisms).
Eligible activities are capital investment and associated activities that generate carbon and energy savings. Single project applications can be for multiple sites and multiple activities which do not need to be linked. Projects need to be completed within 2 years and the primary assessment criterion is the impact on the carbon emissions intensity of your business or operations.
The minimum grant is $25,000, so projects need to be in excess of $75,000 if your turnover is greater than $100 million or $50,000 if it is not. Project costs can include pre-planning expenditure as long as it is incurred within the 12 months leading up to the commencement date of the project, and costs for completing required reporting at the end of the project.
Grant Funding
Approved projects will be given a grant funding ratio and maximum funding amount, and actual funding will be the lesser of the two figures. The table below shows what the ratio might be based on grant request and applicants size:
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Grant Request
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Annual turnover of applicant
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Applicant to grant funding ratio
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$25,000 - $500,000
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< $100 million
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Up to 1:1
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$25,000 - $500,000
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≥ $100 million
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Up to 2:1
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$500,000 - $10 million
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N/A
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Up to 2:1
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≥ $10 million
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N/A
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3:1
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Please be aware that there are other federal and state level grants which might be better suited to your proposed project that we can assist with. For further information, or to discuss funding options available, please contact:
Rod Boyte
rod@smtpwr.com
DDI: 03 8669 1657
MOB: 0420 266 866
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This newsletter was provided by:
Smart Power Utilities
PO Box 608, Eltham, Melbourne
VIC 3095, AUSTRALIA
ABN 72 121 464 864
www.smartpowerenergy.com.au
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