Proponents of Smart Grid technology believe that it has the potential to change the way Britain generates, distributes and consumes electricity, with the ability to maximise energy efficiency and reduce electricity costs for both businesses and homes. In addition to this, according to the Ernst & Young report, it could be massively positive for the UK economy. Bill Easton, utilities director at the professional services and accounting firm told the news service Reuters, “In addition to the direct economic benefits, we can also expect to see wider economic benefits to the UK, providing a welcome boost to growth, jobs and exports…These could include close to 10,000 new jobs and exports in excess of £5 billion (pounds)…Overall the report paints a compelling case in favour of smart grids”.

The report did highlight some challenges facing the Smart Grid, however, including a question over whether government-backed schemes would deliver results, as well as the fact that little investment into the Smart Grid before 2023 will mean slow adoption of the technology. It is not just investment that could hamper adoption of the technology, however, with reports suggesting consumers are at best ill-informed about the Smart Grid in general, and at worst are aware of it, yet remain unconvinced of its ability to save them money in the future.

A new survey from PwC in the United States has revealed that a lack of Smart Grid awareness in the US is indeed hampering adoptions: “Utility companies have invested billions of dollars in new Smart Grid program rollouts, but so far, customer adoption has been slow….58 percent of customers have not even heard of Smart Grid technology and those who have feel that they have very limited knowledge of the opportunities that the Smart Grid offers”.

The UK Smart Grid clearly has benefits as well as challenges, just as it has its proponents and its critics, however what seems undeniable is that consumer education is a must – on both sides of the Atlantic – if the full benefits of this energy saving technology are to be realised.

Find out how voltage optimisation technology is providing real and tangible benefits both in cost and carbon reduction at the EcoAdapt website at http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.

Providers of energy saving technology, EcoAdapt is interested to note the UK government’s latest move in its strategy to reduce carbon emissions and increase reliance on sustainable energy sources. In May, UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry will visit Iceland to discuss proposals, which could see the UK benefit from Iceland’s impressive geothermal energy sources. Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Mr Hendry, who has already had meetings with the head of the Icelandic national grid, said “We are in active discussions with the Icelandic government and they are very keen”.

The plan would see a network of interconnectors (the longest power cables in the world, running between 1,000 and 1,500 kilometres long) laid on the sea-floor connecting the UK to Iceland and indeed a Europe-wide supergrid, combining volcanic, wind, wave and solar power projects which provide clean energy to meet carbon reduction and climate change targets. Connecting with Iceland’s volcanic geothermal energy via these interconnectors would be the latest in a series which has already seen the UK link with France and the Netherlands, with this year seeing the opening of a link between the UK and Ireland and Wales.

Minister Hendry is clear that the UK’s days of energy independence are numbered, and is equally certain of the importance of this method of linking to new, alternative energy sources: “We will be dependent on imported energy…[the cables] are an absolutely critical part of energy security and for low carbon energy”. If all of the planned interconnectors were built, they could supply as much of a third of the nation’s average electricity demand. Hendry also believes that the overall plan of using these ambitious interconnectors will help to reduce electricity costs for the average British household, given their ability to link the UK up with the cheapest energy source at any given time.

If your business is looking for ways to meet its carbon reduction targets, as well as reduce electric costs, find out more about voltage regulators from EcoAdapt at http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.

With increasing environmental awareness leading to legislation such as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), as well as the rising cost of power around the world, comes new challenges for the head of Energy Management within an organisation – challenges which have given rise to the increasing value of voltage optimisation as energy saving technology.

The role of Energy Management has arguably gone through more change than any other in the last decade. No longer a technical position in the background of an organisation, this is a role which has reached the domain of the boardroom, not least because it now has a tangible and dramatic impact on a firm’s bottom line. With the British economy showing little sign of real recovery, businesses are looking at efficiency as a way of increasing profit through cost savings. Given the rising price of oil and therefore energy costs, the need for energy efficiency has never been greater, hence the increasing importance of the Energy Manager or Director.

Surprisingly, however, a recent report* into the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) league table found that as much as 40% of the reporting companies are yet to implement a strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Whether this is down to confusion about the implementation of the CRC or a lack of direction from certain Energy Managers is unclear, but the fact is that the role of Energy Management, while continuing to evolve, will always include the need to reduce electricity costs while cutting carbon emissions.

Find out how our patented voltage optimisation technology helps Energy Managers and Directors meet the targets of an ever-changing role at http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.

*source: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2123445/crc-policy-blamed-800-firms-fail-energy-efficiency-action

Every company is looking to reduce carbon emissions and reduce electric costs, while (presumably) every employee wants to do their bit both for the company and, more importantly, for the environment. Most companies, therefore, encourage employee behavioural change in a bid to meet energy efficiency targets, whether that is through ‘Turn off the lights’ signs or in formal energy efficiency policies which employees must adhere to in their daily workplace behaviour.

Seeking behavioural change to conserve energy in the workplace is to be praised and encouraged as we should all be contributing to the push for energy conservation at work as well as at home. Behavioural change in the workplace does have an impact, but unfortunately not over the long-term. Studies have shown that encouraging changes in behaviour that will help to reduce carbon emissions and save energy costs only work for a limited period of time, before individuals naturally revert to old behaviour patterns. It remains unclear if this is because old patterns of behaviour are too ingrained or because environmental issues are not at the forefront of the mind of most employees, who are more concerned about business targets than energy efficiency targets.

What is clear, however, is the installation of voltage optimisation units provides a permanent carbon reduction solution, which will save hundreds of thousands of pounds on a company’s electricity bills over the medium to long-term. EcoAdapt’s clients benefit from proven electricity and carbon savings of anywhere between 8 and 20%, with typical pay back being between just 18 and 30 months.

These are the long-term benefits of proven savings from a permanent solution. That is not to say that behavioural change is not important and a company can make additional savings by encouraging employees in this way, but for a significant and permanent solution to saving energy and electricity costs, voltage optimisation is the clear winner.

Find out about the patented technology behind EcoAdapt’s voltage optimisation solution at the EcoAdapt website at http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.

The CRC is a mandatory carbon emissions reporting and pricing scheme which applies to all organisations using more than 6,000MWh per year of electricity. Speaking in the House of Commons today, Osborne said that he wanted to ease the administrative cost on the 20,000 UK businesses attempting to comply with the current carbon reduction system and pledged to create a more straightforward green tax if the current system cannot be simplified within the next six months. “Carbon Reduction Commitment was established by the previous Government,” he said. “It is cumbersome, bureaucratic and imposes unnecessary cost on business. So we will seek major savings in the administrative cost of the Commitment for business. If those cannot be found, I will bring forward proposals this autumn to replace the revenues with an alternative environmental tax.”

The current CRC scheme requires companies with energy bills over £500,000 a year to measure and report their carbon emissions and pay a charge for every tonne emitted. A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) told BusinessGreen, the environmentally focused business website, that simplifying the CRC “should be able to save businesses costs”.

As one would expect from a provider of energy saving technology, here at EcoAdapt we firmly believe in the importance of making a carbon reduction commitment, but we also believe in helping companies to reduce carbon emissions while saving money. This is where voltage optimisation technology comes in, helping businesses to regulate over voltage, conserve energy and reduce electricity costs. Find out how our patented Sensing Technology™ is making this a reality for businesses all over the UK at http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.

Over the years, it has become increasingly important for companies across all sectors to not only implement more environmentally-friendly practices, but also to be seen to be doing so. Highly visible social responsibility has helped many firms to improve their image amongst clients and potential customers alike, with moves to improve energy efficiency (and consequently reduce electricity costs) being championed by governments and enforced by legislation. Taking a ‘green’ approach has also been shown to have a positive effect on a company’s revenue.

Despite such positive trends, however, green initiatives within the corporate world actually remain quite new, which helps to explain the still-protracted approval periods for spend on such projects as the installation of voltage reduction equipment. However, EcoAdapt is here to remind companies that given the ability of voltage optimisation units to save firms money, such project approval time lags are actually harming a company’s bottom line.

When the time comes for a company to finally introduce voltage optimisation equipment, there is no better firm to contact than EcoAdapt. We design, manufacture, install and maintain power reduction equipment to the highest standards, but more than that, we actively distinguish ourselves from the competition with the use of our patented Sensing Technology in the EAST and EAST Mini ranges of units. EcoAdapt provides voltage reduction solutions for firms ranging from public house chains to service stations, companies from all sorts of industries which harness EcoAdapt technology to reduce their electricity costs and carbon emissions, in addition to protecting their equipment.

A company that chooses to invest in voltage reduction technology now can look forward to a rapid payback of between 12 and 30 months, with past and present EcoAdapt customers across the sectors having recorded carbon and electricity savings of as much as 20%. Larger-scale energy users are amongst the biggest beneficiaries of our services, with CRC and EU ETS scheme participants making up a good proportion of our client base.

To find out more about the voltage optimisation technologies of EcoAdapt, visit our website at http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.

As one of the world’s leading producers of wind power – having a particularly prominent role in offshore wind power generation – the UK has long been at the forefront of the latest wind energy developments. Indeed, it was in 2007 that the government agreed, as part of the European Union, to aim to generate 20% of the EU’s energy supply from renewable sources by the year 2020. This was followed by the announcement of plans for an expansion in the country’s wind energy.

There is little doubt as to the considerable benefit of wind power in a rapidly changing landscape of energy generation, but the increasing use of wind turbines also increases the importance of suitable voltage regulators. The reason for that is wind generation’s notorious variability, with the amount of electricity that is produced at any one time being affected by such factors as air density, turbine characteristics and wind speeds.

Insufficient wind speeds – those that drop below 2.5 m/s (metres per second) – naturally mean that a wind turbine is unable to generate sufficient power, while those speeds that are more than about 25 m/s can cause damage to the turbines unless they are shut down. Even when the amount of power that is generated is more manageable, however, the variable nature of wind energy means that the equipment that is being powered by it could receive voltage as high as 253v, or as low as 207v, which is a significant voltage variance.

Grid load engineers face a difficult balancing act with changing power delivery levels from wind turbines. They have to attempt to balance the increased power load which particularly windy weather creates when in fact, given that wind forecasting is not 100% accurate, they have no control over how to match this additional wind generated power with demand.

Given that the optimal voltage for most UK electrical equipment is actually 220v, there is a clear need to better optimise voltage levels received from a wind turbine or similar device. This ensures that energy needs are met, at the same time as making sure that the excess is not wasted in the form of heat and sound energy. A voltage regulator therefore helps to reduce costs while extending the lifespan of all associated equipment.

Part of the process of answering this question involves clarifying exactly what the smart grid here in the UK is set to be. A ‘Smart Grid’ is based around the installation of ‘smart meters’, which use machine-to-machine communication to enable real-time transmission of gas and electricity meter readings to the utility. Despite the establishment of SmartGrid Great Britain, which aims to “act as a national champion to promote the development and delivery of smart grid in Great Britain,” there isn’t actually any one, single Smart Grid that is currently under development.

In fact, rather than the creation of one monolithic Smart Grid project, we are instead likely to see the development of several disparate Smart Grids, at least at first. This is in fact, no bad thing, as smaller, independent smart grids will be able to deliver greater efficiency and affordability in voltage reduction than a project on a far larger scale. Building a wider Smart Grid for the UK on a smaller, more individual basis also allows it to be built more quickly, with new independent pilots in various areas across the country each learning from those that have gone before them.

The widespread expectation, then, is that any wider Smart Grid for the UK will develop gradually and organically over time, as a result of the increasing number of independent Smart Grids integrating with each other. It won’t be possible, therefore, for a wider UK Smart Grid to be realised unless utilities and communication partners come together to create economical voltage optimisation networks. Indeed, there are many different stakeholders across the public, private and third sectors that will need to successfully collaborate, and this is a process that looks set to be expensive, complicated and highly challenging.

The aforementioned SmartGrid GB has been established in order to provide an open and objective national forum, within which participants from business, academia, government, consumer associations and NGOs can advise policy makers, in the process making it easier for them to identify how best to implement such a huge programme. Nor will there be a shortage of things to talk about on the way to realising a true national Smart Grid, with security being a key consideration.

So, the Smart Grid…myth or reality? The answer is that it looks increasingly set to become reality, but faces no shortage of obstacles en route to doing so, not to mention costs. There are massive upgrades required within the national grid (to substations, etc.) for smart meters to allow any real control of voltage, for instance, and these upgrades will cost hundreds of billions. Fitting smart meters alone simply will not provide the solutions that Smart Grid technology potentially offers. If the upgrades take place and the UK can foot the bill, then the Smart Grid could become a reality and better cater for the country’s power reduction needs.

Keep checking in to the ‘News’ section of the EcoAdapt (http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk) website for updates on the development of the UK Smart Grid and other industry related information.

First, let’s look at the traditional fixed ratio reduction voltage optimisation units which have been so prevalent in the industry. These fixed ratio step-down transformers have by far made up the majority of voltage regulators sold up until now, in part because their simplicity makes them cheap to manufacture. Unfortunately, this simplicity hampers their efficiency when it comes to saving energy. The step-down ratio needs to be pre-set to allow for variation in the supply voltage so as not to reduce the voltage on the site below a minimum acceptable level. This means that voltage reduction cannot take place at an optimal level at all times. Fixed ratio transformers also cannot correct imbalanced phase voltages, unlike our Sensing Technology™ units.

So just what is our Sensing Technology™ and how does it work? The technology of our EAST (EcoAdapt Sensing Technology™) and Mini EAST voltage optimisation equipment is based around a phase specific kevlar-impregnated roller contact head with a tested mean time to failure of 450,000 movements representing 15 years of correcting voltage variance. The operating range of 195-265v means that both voltage sags and over voltage are corrected by our products. The technology senses incoming grid voltage and then provides a constant output voltage regardless of fluctuations from the UK national grid.

Essentially, this technology offers between 30% and 50% cost savings when compared to fixed ratio reduction VO units.

Sensing Technology™ versus Fixed Ratio unit

The key differences between our patented Sensing Technology™ and fixed ratio reduction detailed here all amount to one thing for our customers: savings. Cost savings, energy savings and equipment replacement savings. The past of the voltage optimisation industry may have had a fixed ratio focus, but the future is clear: it’s all about our Sensing Technology™ and the savings it provides. Find out all of the benefits of our Sensing Technology™ at  http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.

Voltage optimisation technology from EcoAdapt significantly reduces electricity costs as well as carbon emissions. This is made possible by ensuring that only the amount of electricity which is actually required is taken from the UK National Grid, effectively optimising power levels. There is an important additional benefit from EcoAdapt’s voltage optimisation technology, however, and that is a longer useful life of your organisation’s equipment and reduced failure rates. This saves your business money on equipment repair, replacement and installation, costs which are significant for most large-scale energy users.

Optimising the power levels into your site is crucial when it comes to protecting your organisation’s essential equipment. That’s because all additional voltage creates heat and sound energy which take its toll on the equipment being powered. Think of a standard laptop being used when travelling abroad. When used in a foreign country where average voltage levels are lower, you will notice that the laptop power supply runs cooler than it does in the UK. When your equipment adapts to over voltage from the UK National Grid it does so at a cost – the life of a standard laptop power supply is reduced by as much as 50% when running at average UK voltage of 242V versus the 220V the device expects to receive.

For instance, a manufacturing customer had a control board on a piece of equipment blowing on average once a month, with a replacement cost of £3,000. Since installing one of our units 10 months ago, they haven’t lost any. Find out how EcoAdapt’s voltage optimisation solutions, created with Sensing Technology™, can help to protect your company’s essential equipment at http://www.ecoadapt.co.uk.