With 80-90% of the world's energy consumption coming from fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, wood) it is imperative that we try to make our energy consumption more efficient as well as find new sources of energy. Because of the dependence on fossil fuels, our government has set aside billions of dollars in through a series of stimulus packages. Increasing energy efficiency with an EAM system combined with the development of alternative energy can only help to reduce our carbon footprint. One of the alternative sources being developed is the harnessing of Wind energy. With that in mind, we have a special guest author today who will share some of her knowledge on Wind energy and applications.
The following article is a guest post from Mary Jones
Wind is a result of the uneven heating of the Earth by the sun and the fact that temperatures will always be attempting to reach an equilibrium (heat is obviously moving to a cooler area). With the rising expense of energy and the damage to the environment from non-renewable fuels, it is starting to be equitable to harvest this renewable resource.
The benefits of wind energy are that it is virtually free (once you buy the equipment) and there is no pollution. The disadvantages include the fact that it's not a constant source (the velocity varies and many times it is insufficient to make electricity) and it typically requires about one acre of land.
How Wind Energy Works
The amount of power that can be found varies by wind speed. The total amount available is termed it's power density which is measured in watts per square meter. For that reason, the U.S. Department of Energy has separated wind energy into classes from 1 to 7. The average wind speed for class 1 is 9.8 mph or less while the average for a class 7 is 21.1 or more. For effective power production, class 2 winds (11.5 mph average speed) are often required.
In general, wind speeds increase as you get higher above the Earth. That is why, the typical turbine is a part of a tower at least 30 feet above obstructions. There are two basic kinds of towers used for residential wind power systems (free standing and guyed). Free standing towers are self supporting and are usually heavier meaning they take special equipment (cranes) to erect them. Guyed towers are supported on a concrete base and anchored by wires for support. They typically are not as heavy and most manufacturer's produce tilt down models which can be easily raised and lowered for maintenance.
The kinetic (moving energy) from the winds is harnessed by a device called a turbine. This turbine includes airfoils (blades) that capture the power of the wind and use it to turn the shaft of an alternator (like you have on a car only bigger).
There are two basic kinds of blades (drag style and lifting style). We all have seen pictures of old windmills with the large flat blades which are a good example of the drag style of airfoil. Lifting style blades are twisted rather than flat and resemble the propeller of a small airplane.
A turbine is classified as to whether it is designed to be installed with the rotor in a horizontal or vertical position and whether the wind strikes the blades or the tower first. A vertical turbine typically requires less land for it's installation and is an improved option for the more urban areas around the globe. An upwind turbine is designed for the wind to impact the airfoils before it does the tower.
These units ordinarily have a tail on the turbine which must keep the unit pointed into the wind. A downwind turbine doesn't need a tail as the wind acting on the blades tends to maintain it oriented properly. These turbine systems would be damaged if they were to be allowed to turn at excessive speeds. Therefore, units must have automatic over-speed governing systems. Some systems use electrical braking systems while some use mechanical type brakes.
The output electricity from the alternator is sent to a controller which conditions it for use in the home. Using residential wind power systems requires the home to either remain tied to the utility grid or store electricity in a battery for use when the wind will not blow sufficiently.
When the home is linked with the grid, the excess electricity that is created by the residential wind power system can be sold to the utility company in order to reduce and sometimes even eliminate your utility bill. During times with not enough wind, the home is supplied power from the utility company.
The Expense of Wind Energy
Small residential wind power turbines can be an attractive alternative, or addition, to those people needing over 100-200 watts of power for their home, business, or remote facility. Unlike PV's, which stop at basically the same cost per watt independent of array size, wind generators get less expensive with increasing system size. At the 50 watt size level, for example, a small residential power wind generator would cost about $8.00/watt in comparison to approximately $6.00/watt for a PV module.
This is why, all things being equal, Photovoltaic is more affordable for very small loads. As the system size gets larger, however, this "rule-of-thumb" reverses itself.
At 300 watts the windmill costs are down to $2.50/watt, while the PV costs are still at $6.00/watt. For a 1,500 watt wind system the cost is down to $2.00/watt and at 10,000 watts the price of a wind generator (excluding electronics) is down to $1.50/watt.
Mary Jones writes for the residential wind generators web log, her personal hobby blog related to suggestions to reduce Carbon dioxide and lower power costs using alternative power sources.
Energy Efficiency and an EAM
You might be wondering what Wind Energy has to do with asset management and why we have included this article on our blog. We regularly write about energy efficiency and how proper EAM work managementcan improve the performance of energy consuming equipment such as utility turbines, HVAC units, chiller etc. Any asset that relies on energy conversion needs to be maintained. This is especially true for alternative energy sources where every incremental loss of energy efficiency can increase the costs per watt.
Tell us how your organization is improving energy consumption. If you liked this article you may also enjoy reading:
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Earth Day awareness pushed the volcanic eruption in Iceland to the sidelines for a few days. I am just wondering if the volcano was just Mother Nature's way of saying don't forget about Earth Day. I am sure concerns about the ash cloud will return as there are several videos popping up demonstrating the impact of volcanic ash on engine components. We hope everyone had the opportunity to read our blogs and check out our website, but just in case you did not have the time to see our blogs and voter links as they were published, we have summarized them for you here. Please enjoy them and be sure to check back for new articles during the week. You can find a complete listing on the Mintek Blog.
The top article for the week was titled Tips for Negotiating an EAM/CMMS contract which discussed some of the intricacies involved when making an EAM purchase. A key point is that maintenance and facility managers must be truly involved in the decision making and price negotiations as it their knowledge that provides the information required to make a good business decision.
1. Tips For Negotiating an EAM/CMMS Contract
Author: Stuart Smith
The article discusses the value of negotiation an EAM/CMMScontract including, why, points of consideration, tips and things that can break a deal. The post stresses that price should not be the driving force behind narrowing the vendor selection. The points for consideration section addresses SaaS versus on-premise considerations as well as the need for project management, training and hardware needs.
Key Point: An EAM is not an off the shelf software package that can be installed cheaply or quickly. Setting up an EAM requires facility management to approach the implementation with careful planning.
2. Earth Day, Sustainability, Going Green and an EAM
Author: Stuart Smith
Much has been written about the green building trend, sustainability issues and other trends intended on improving energy awareness that sometimes the meaning of the terms is lost. This article describes the major terms associated with Earth friendly initiatives subsequently relating them to how an EAM can make an impact.
Key Point: The Earth's ability to provide resources is limited. There is no question that greater care must be taken to minimize the depletion of the world s resources. Green buildings, sustainability programs and implementing an EAM are all valuable tools for achieving a greater good.
Read Relevant Articles That We Found Last Week
But wait there is more. We have found several more articles that you might find to be interesting and even put them on our website for you to vote on. The 5 best this week are:
1. Non-traditional ROIs to improve you maintenance ROI: Part II and III
Author: Ralph W. “Pete” Peters
Mr. Peters has put together a fine article reviewing methods for getting the most out of your CMMS. Not surprisingly, many of his key points are related to the approach taken by maintenance management professionals including the recognition that a CMMS is just a tool that works best when everyone believes in the system working toward a common goal for maintenance excellence. Achieving this goal requires leadership, training as well as commitment.
Key Point: It is important to treat maintenance as a business unit or profit center and give them the proper tools to perform their function positively affecting the bottom line of any organization.
2. Earth Day, 4/22: 40 Ways to Go Green in the Workplace
Author: Heidi
Heidi's Earth Day post provided 40 ways building owners property/facility managers, administrators as well as employees can recognize or contribute to Earth Day awareness. Ideas ranged from facility sustainability tasks energy metering to recycling to changing over to more energy efficient lighting. She even includes some energy saving tips for office administrators such as powering down computers, copiers and other office equipment.
Key Point: There is something each of us can do to recognize Earth Day regardless of our position of influence.
3. Is the PM dying? Should we try to save it?
Author: Jeff Shiver
A short article posing the question of how preventive maintenance is losing favor. The reality is the terminology is being blended into other preventive maintenance methodologies such as predictive maintenance.
Key Point: Maintenance and facilities managers do not need to distinguish because predictive maintenance is a subset of preventive maintenance.
4. Communications: The CMMS Setup In A Maintenance Partnership
Authors: Ken Bannister
Another article describing the importance of communication when considering or implementing a CMMS. A CMMS is more than just a maintenance tool for scheduling and recording work. However, in order for a CMMS to be better utilized, all affected parties must work together to ensure that the data collection is valid and can be used to provide meaningful output. This includes being able to input accurate work order details, asset details, outcomes and so on.
Key Point: "The true power of the CMMS is derived from its ability to provide management reports"
5. Energy management and the CMMS
Authors: David Berger
David discusses the importance of installing energy management tools that will enable plants and other facilities to monitor energy usage. Once the data is collected an analysis can be performed to identify issues and solutions. This is not only green oriented but good business. This article was referenced in the Mintek Earth Day blog post mentioned above.
Key Point: The trend for green buildings is not going to go away anytime soon. Organizations need to get on the wagon now.
What We Learned This Week
Earth Day is not just a political event. It is a day to remember that we must all take better care of the resources our planet has given us. There are many ways individuals or companies can make a difference. For asset intensive organizations one of the ways facility and plant managers can makes a difference is to incorporate an EAM as one of their tools. When implemented properly an EAM will organize the care for energy consuming assets by scheduling maintenance related work such as inspections, preventive maintenance or work orders. Better maintenance translates into more energy efficient equipment.
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced to day they have reversed their long standing recommendation to make use of a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) for energy management. The DOE now suggest using manual paper based maintenance management.
This decision was based on high unemployment rates in both the Forestry and Paper Mill industries. Officials further explained that this decision would benefit unemployment throughout the nation because manual paper-based maintenance management is terribly inefficient and therefore will require additional staff to complete tasks.
Industry Reaction
The announcement was met with swift applause throughout the paper mill industry. However, spokesmen for energy plants and manufacturing facilities did express some concern that younger employees did not have the necessary skills to read and write using pencil and paper. In an effort to appease these groups, the DOE has agreed to roll back the caps on CO2 emissions another 10 years.
The Reaction From CMMS Providers
CMMS providers by and large are shaking their heads in disbelief but not despair. As one industry leader commented "There are only so many trees to go around".
Tell us what you think. Is this an issue of putting people to work or a conspiracy to revert to simpler times?
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My sons approached me today and said "Dad can we turn off our lights for one hour this Saturday at 8:30 PM to support Earth Hour?" My first thought was sure, if we all turn off our lights for an hour I might even save a few coins on the electric bill this month. Earth hour has been around for 3 years now. The number of participants has grown from a city wide event in Sydney, AU to a global event expected to have about a billion participants this year. A moment or two later the dark side of me emerged as I asked myself what happens at 9:30 PM when millions of people on power grid turn on the lights at the same time? At our home turning on the toaster and microwave at the same time causes a fuse to blow. Soon, I was questioning everything I knew about energy plants and hence this blog piece.
Energy Plant Utopia
You don't need to be an engineer to understand the limitations of a power plant with regard to basic business economics. Power plants have two constraining factors, with regard to meeting consumer demand and energy costs. The first is capacity, which is balanced to allow for a spike in demand at any point in time. The second factor is maintaining optimal efficiency levels of turbines and other plant assets to mitigate the increased costs of energy production during periods of peak demand.
In a perfect world, utility plants would see constant demand throughout the day and night. Maintenance would become routine as the assorted preventive and predictive technologies are able to accurately predict when equipment will need repair or replacement. Energy cost per Kwh would no longer change as a result of demand and smart meters would become obsolete overnight. Wouldn't that be nice?
The Reality
The unfortunate reality is that this will never happen. Climatic changes, seasonality of industries, the use of technology as well as numerous other factors all effect consumption. In addition, as the load varies to meet demand, turbines wind up and down. The continual changes in turbine use only adds to wear and tear.
"The efficiency of a process that uses heat to boil water, to produce steam, that drives a turbine, that produces electricity, is independent of the fuel used. Coal, nuclear and gas power plants all have the same theoretical efficiency, observed differences are due mainly to different patterns of use, particularly powering up and shutting down. If a system is on constantly (base load) it will be more efficient that one that is used intermittently(peak load)."
Source: Wikipedia
The continual change in load also decreases the accuracy of some predictive technologies as harmonic frequencies, noise and vibrations all cause varying amounts of damage. Maintenance activities become more frequent, labor costs increase, capital budgeting increases and downtime is almost inevitable.
The Plug
Preventive maintenance and inspections are crucial to maintaining optimal efficiencies for energy producers. When used in combination with an EAM/CMMS, plant maintenance management is better able to manage assets from purchase through replacement. EAM systems not only track work orders, record the historical data and increase asset lifecycle, but when implemented correctly, can be an exceptional tool for capital budget analysis. Recording historical work orders and solutions is also critical to maintaining the knowledge base of the aging plant maintenance worker.
An energy plant without a sophisticated EAM can not achieve the intended goals. This is much like Earth Hour after my son suggested we go buy candles and use them for power instead of electricity. I just didn't have the heart to tell him how inefficient candles were or how much pollution they generate. His awareness of energy concerns was all that counted.
Tell us what your power plant is doing to reign in efficiency issues.
If you liked this article you may also like
Register for your chance to win a Free EAM & CMMS Worth $23,000
If you want a EAM & CMMS system, but can't afford to implement one this budget year; then this contest is perfect for you. We are offering a chance to win a FREE EAM & CMMS software suite. Contest includes a 1-year site license, 10 web/mobile licenses and support, as well as, training and implementation.