Making every kilowatt count
The need to become more energy efficient is increasingly driving organisations to turn over every stone in the quest for potential cost and carbon savings.
Russell Wood, Control Products Manager for ABB’s UK low voltage products business, explains how advances in electrical control technology are creating significant new energy saving opportunities beyond the more obvious headline-grabbing techniques.
T
he introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme earlier this year has made energy, and more particularly how to consume less of it, a major priority for the 5,000 UK organisations directly affected. Part of the UK Government’s aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 from 1990 levels, the scheme imposes strict requirements on UK organisations to measure, report and eventually reduce their energy consumption.
As the scheme starts to bite from 2013 onwards, these organisations will need to devise ever more detailed plans for cutting their energy consumption in order to achieve the sort of savings needed to meet the scheme’s requirements. When faced with such an obligation, it is inevitable that the main sources of energy consumption will be tackled first. These include finding ways to more efficiently control lighting, heating and ventilation as well as other organisation- wide initiatives such as switching off PCs, printers and other office equipment. All of these will undoubtedly have a major impact on reducing energy consumption. The question though is whether they will be enough. Although
revenue neutral to the Exchequer, CRC will have cash flow implications for qualifying organisations. An energy saving of five per cent alone will be needed to cover just the average cost of administration within an organisation. For this reason, increasing focus should also be paid to the smaller, less obvious measures, which, when taken together, could also help to further improve an organisation’s energy efficiency. Take a motor installation for example. Motors account for approximately two- thirds of all electricity used in industry, operating everything from water pumps through to ventilation fans and heating plant.
It is widely known that installing a variable speed drive on a motor to regulate its speed can have a major impact on its performance, amounting to both reduced energy consumption and cost savings. What is not widely appreciated, however, is that further energy savings can also be achieved by upgrading the other equipment that conventionally comes with a motor installation.
One such area where further energy savings are now up for grabs is the humble contactor. An electrically
controlled device used for switching a power circuit, contactors can be found in virtually every motor application. Until now, it has been difficult to translate the advantages of some of the larger contactor types into
the lower end, lower kilowatt range devices. Recent advances in technology have now overcome these difficulties to produce a new generation of devices offering a greater range of possibilities, including energy savings.
A case in point is ABB’s new AF series of contactors. A key aspect of the design and development of the range was to find ways to minimise the amount of energy consumed by the contactor coil both at pull-in and in its energised state. This was achieved by developing a new electronic coil that when compared to ABB’s existing range has a reduced AC pull-in coil consumption of 30% (for AF) and 80% (for AF…Z) and a reduced holding consumption of over 50%, enabling users to improve the energy efficiency of their panel systems. The extent of these efficiency improvements can be highlighted by comparing the new 4KW AF09 contactor, with its reduced holding power of 2.2 VA, with a typical older generation 4KW device offering a holding power of 8 VA. If both contactors are energised for 14 hours every day over the course of one year at £0.07p / kWh, the AF09 would offer an energy cost of 71 pence compared to over £2.58 for equivalent less efficient, older generation, devices.
A saving of £1.83 might not seem that impressive when taken by itself. Consider however, that at the moment there are an estimated 10 million 4 to 18.5kW contactors currently in use in the UK alone. Multiplied together, the potential cost savings that could be achieved just through replacing existing contactors with the new alternative could run into several million pounds. This is before potential savings in carbon emissions, which is the main goal of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, are even factored in.
Summary
With the CRC scheme rewarding those organisations which constantly reduce their energy consumption, making every kilowatt count will become increasingly important. As organisations strive to balance meeting the legislation with the need to retain and boost their competitiveness, it really will pay plant operators to consider the efficiency of every part of their installation, no matter how small. Tel: 02476 368 500 Email:
lv.products@
gb.abb.com
Building & Facilities Management – October 2010 energy solutions 17
Energy Solutions
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