Summary of 2022

As we come to the end of another great year we take a look back at some of the highlights.

Power Monitoring and Management

This year we saw an increased interest in power monitoring and ways in which to manage power usage more efficiently. Using our range of Schneider Power Monitoring Meters and integrating them with PME (our power monitoring system), our engineers can create custom software in the form of frameworks that can be used to solve technical issues and produce specialized reporting.

Some of our most popular solutions include:

Heatmaps – A heatmap is a handy way of visualizing the harmonic activity occurring at your site. With a little customization, our ION power meters can evaluate harmonic distortion on the network and convert it into an easy-to-understand heatmap. You get total transparency over your site and can pinpoint exact locations that are experiencing high harmonics.
Control of Renewables – Embedding on-site power generation into a power distribution system needs to be controllable and react to the requirements of the load. By applying control logic to a power quality meter at the wind turbine we can create a system that will ensure you have a reliable power supply and control built-in. You get total transparency over how much electricity is being generated on-site and where it is being used.
DS3 Monitoring & Reporting – One of the key areas in the DS3 Programme is System Services, where power generators are required to monitor and provide reporting with financial incentives for better plant performance. Our programmed ION power meters automatically detect any DS3 events, logging the data for compliance as set out by the DS3 requirements. A DS3 software report is automatically generated proving your compliance, which can be issued directly to EirGrid if you require. Everything is automated so you can prove you meet your requirements without increasing your workload, and benefit from the financial incentives.

See our video series for more information.

Accreditation

Once again this year we were able to retain our ISO45001 accreditation for Occupational Health & Safety Management proving our commitment to continuously improve and manage QH&S in our organisation.

We also gained certification as Critical Power EcoXpert Masters by Schneider Electric, affirming our place in a worldwide network of experts bringing the very best in energy and power monitoring solutions to our customers.

Accreditation goals for 2023 are to receive certification of compliance with ISO 27001, the certification for International Information Security Standard.

Events

2022 thankfully saw the return of in person conferences and expos and we couldn’t wait to get back out there. In September we attended the Substation Safety Conference where our Director Alan O’Kelly and one of our Electrical Engineers Esté Vorster, gave a talk on Managing Arc Flash Risk – Best Practice for Asset & Safety Management. A synopsis on their presentation can be found here.

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We attended Data Centres Ireland which took place in the RDS. Where Barry Nicholson and Terence Pillay took to the stage to showcase PME and how it can be utilised for on-site asset data management.

And we got back to career fairs, attending TUD, UCD, and DKIT, looking for up-and-coming electrical engineers.

Benefits of Modelling Your Network

We looked at the benefits of having a model of your electrical network, and how model-driven monitoring can provide you with a comprehensive understanding of your electrical network and how it functions under different conditions. This allows you to make informed decisions when integrating solutions for design, simulation, analysis, optimization, monitoring, operation, and automation. In addition, it can be used to calculate incident energy levels ensuring your compliance with arc flash and safety standards.

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Upgrade Your ION7650 Power Meter to the ION9000

Why its time to consider upgrading your ION7650 Power Meter to the ION9000 meter that boasts a modular design, multiple mounting and communication options, and can be integrated with PME to provide facility-wide, system-level events for decisive power quality information and root cause analysis.

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Standout Projects

This year has been our busiest yet with 336 documents issued to date, across 100+ projects, which breaks down to 1.4 documents being created and issued by our engineering team every single day. It’s impossible to pick just one project from the list but these two were particularly interesting as it took a tailored solution to get the results our client required.

Using Schaffner's Modular Active Filters to Increase Capabilities for Site Expansion

A previous project involving a power quality study for a client identified elevated levels of harmonic distortion. At the time our solution was the deployment of a Schaffner active harmonic filter with three 60A modules.

Recently the same client came back to us faced with elevated harmonic distortion due to an increase in non-linear loads as part of their recent site expansion.

Thankfully, Schaffner filters are modular so we were able to recommend and supply a further two 60A modules, which expanded the capabilities of the active harmonic filter to 300A.

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DS3 Monitoring and Reporting with a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)

As their trusted electrical engineering consultants, this client approached us wanting to introduce a Battery Energy Storage System ( BESS) into their network to store the energy being produced by their renewable power sources (solar or wind), so that they could then either use this power onsite themselves or export it back to the grid. Doing so posed implications with harmonics as well as a requirement to comply with DS3 System Services.

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The Team

We grew as a team with the addition of seven new engineers, a QHS Advisor and HR Manager. And we bonded as a team with trips to Carlingford, Glendalough, nights out, and seizing just about any opportunity we could to have the craic!