Scott Siddens, Managing Editor
Articles
ESCOs Are Paying Off
Energy service companies (ESCOs). Energy service providers (ESPs). One hears about such entities these days, but what exactly is an ESCO or ESP? What can they do for a facility? And do their services have anything to do with power quality and reliability? To answer all these questions: They assist customers with their energy-related needs: energy purchases, efficiency, operations and maintenanc...
Fuel Cells Revisited
The Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown, Conn., for a while this year, boasted the world's large single-site fuel-cell power plant, with six 200-kW fuel cells powering a central plant for 227,000 sq. ft. of space on the campus. Completed in 2001 at a total cost of $49 million, the school hosts approximately 240 boys, sentenced to the facility as a result of convictions in juvenil...
Well-Grounded Facilities
It isn't easy designing an effective grounding system. After all, grounding problems are often the result of very unpredictable events, and so, many power quality issues are rooted in inferior grounding practices. On October 9, a one-day symposium, hosted by Post Glover, Inc., Erlanger, Ky., offered a number of expert opinions on grounding systems both for industrial and commercial facilities.
BAS Flies Standby
Most discussions of building automation systems (BAS) and power are usually about energy efficiency—how to use BAS to monitor and control overall power consumption in a facility, making more efficient use of power, and thereby cutting costs. But often overlooked is the role that BAS plays in centralized control of backup-power systems, which is more of a security issue than energy-efficie...