critical power online

One week remains to enter Nesta’s Dynamic Demand Challenge to develop ideas, and receive funding for, demand side management projects.

A panel of industry experts will select ten semifinalists to attend Imperial College London’s development laboratories. Three shortlisted finalists will each receive £10 000 to develop a product to near-market ready stage. The panel-selected winner will be awarded prize money of £50 000 for the idea that demonstrates the most significant impact in shifting demand to off peak times and or towards renewable generation, combined with a reduction in carbon emissions.

The contest is run in association with The Centre for Carbon Management, National Grid, Climate KIC and Imperial College London.

To enter and for more information on the Challenge, visit http://dynamicdemand.nesta.org.uk/

Eaton has launched a touchscreen metering and management display for use in conjunction with its Power Xpert 9395 UPS in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

With a 10-inch LCD-screen, the interface shares graphical energy data to help data centre and facility managers better manage power consumption and costs. It allows users to view mission critical system conditions and operating statistics, including energy consumption in kWh and savings information, in real-time graphical form to help users identify important energy usage trends.

The display works with internal features of the 9395 to allow users to retrieve information at the local UPS level for a single UPS, or for an entire system of paralleled UPSs.

Customers of Emerson Network Power can now utilise a thermal management testing facility at its site in Columbus, Ohio, for checking performance and reliability of larger-capacity cooling systems at specific temperatures from -38^oC to 50^oC.

The psychrometric test facility (for heat and water vapor measurement), which has CSA International-certification, is being offered in response to the increase in ‘hyper-scale’ data centres and co-location facilities that require ever larger cooling equipment.

“The facility is designed to replicate the customer’s complete data center environment to ensure the most accurate and reliable performance testing at a broad range of temperatures. Developing the lab underscores our commitment to excellence in all areas of thermal management,” said John Schneider, Vice President and General Manager of thermal management at Emerson Network Power.

The psychrometric testing site has rooms for 30 kW and 100 kW cooling units, the new lab expands the capability to 200 kW direct expansion cooling units and 400 kW chilled water units. Alongside customer testing, Emerson uses the facility to develop large-scale cooling systems, such as the Liebert DSE DX platform.

Fujitsu Ltd and EnerNOC have developed demand response software that each qualify for the newly introduced OpenADR 2.0 B certification that came into place in July this year.

These products are among the first to receive the latest certification from the OpenADR Alliance (Automated Demand Response), an organisation that aims to foster the development, adoption and compliance of international demand response standards through industry wide collaboration, education, training, testing and certification. Members of the Alliance can have products tested at an independent Intertek laboratory to qualify for certification. The latest standard is designed for high-end embedded devices that can support most DR services and markets. It includes a flexible feedback mechanism for past, current and future data reports.

The demand response industry is growing in Japan, home of Fujitsu, in residential and commercial buildings. Fujitsu will use the demand response client software in building management systems and to develop demand response server software to stabalise electricity supply.

EnerNOC has achieved certification for its high-end embedded devices that support a wide range of demand response services and markets. Certification confirms EnerNOC's ability to seamlessly integrate with demand response programmes in new and existing markets that require standards compliance.

Energetix subsidiary Energetix Pnu Power has received a UK patent for an important method relating to the core technology within its compressed air uninterruptible power supply products.

The patent - titled 'Lubrication of Positive Displacement Expanders' - describes the method by which efficiency of the conversion of compressed air into electrical power can be optimised with minimal lubrication of mechanical components. Pnu Power produces back-up power solutions, using compressed air, for utility switching, telecommunications, data centres and other mission critical industrial operations.

Energetix says the grant of this patent provides additional protection to the company's core product platform and builds on the company's intellectual property portfolio relating to its Pnu Power technology.

The company has a core patent granted in 20 countries which protects its compressed air driven UPS system as well as two further patents providing additional protection.