Prototypownia - Climate Entrepreneur 2016 (video)

The Prototypownia company had the pleasure to participate in the Climate Entrepreneur conference. I invite you to watch a short, amateur video of our speech and get acquainted with the ecological aspects of power systems:)

 

Organizer's materials:
http://www.przedsiebiorcazklimatem.pl/konferencje/

 

Material for the speech:

Next generation power systems

Hi, I was supposed to be here with Błażej Flaszyński, but unfortunately, or fortunately, we received more orders than we assumed and all the technical forces had to stay in production.

My name is Magdalena Fiedorowicz-Flaszyńska, together with Błażej Flaszyński we founded the Prototypownia two years ago. I will talk about what exactly we are dealing with later, now I invite you to listen to a few words about the Next Generation Power Systems.

What can I say about the power systems? A few sockets and some cables, a small switchboard. The only question is whether this answer meets the needs of your company.

Each company consumes a certain amount of electricity, this amount – that is, the number of kW that the company consumes can be read from the invoice for electricity or estimated on the basis of the actual and stepped receivers – that is, devices and machines that you use for everyday work.

Only you – or your employees - are able to determine how critical continuity is, and let's call it – adequate power efficiency.

Where do we get electricity? Naturally from a grid, but just as in the joke about a guy finding out that toilet paper doesn't grow in the bathroom a week after his wife leaves, every entrepreneur sooner or later learns that electricity from the utility grid isn't always available.

Within the basic network, we distinguish 2 main elements: the connection and the electrical switchboard. Their task is to collect electricity from the mains, pre-protect against possible anomalies and distribute power to individual parts of the building.

What makes a regular power system turn into a guaranteed power system?

• First of all, UPS, which probably some of you have. Maintaining the most optimal ratio of cost-effectiveness to incurred expenditures – also during operation, UPS is worth using for maintaining computers until the programs are safely closed and data is saved
• Generator set – the generator set always works where there is simply a lack of power. Storm, failure, connection of another object… - we start the generator and have the right amount of current to power all or the most crucial for the functioning of the company receivers
• ATS system – that is Automatic Transfer Switching Equipment – in the basic version ATS is a small fragment of power automation, which should start the generator after a few – several seconds from the power outage
• Redundant solutions – I could say a lot about these solutions, but we still have a few slides ahead of us. In general, redundancy is anything that occurs excessively. Let's assume that due to possible power outages we have a second, independent connection to the network – usually unnecessary. Or we have one unit with the ATS system, but this unit is, say, 20 years old, and we care very much about maintaining production throughout the entire operation of the plant. Or we have a minimum of 2 completely independent feed lines like most Data Centers. All these are redundant solutions, which are an additional, independent and somewhat redundant protection against power loss.
  
  

Now a few words about power defects and their impact on our work

I will not go into details and I am also not the right person to comment on this topic more accurately, but I have highlighted 10 main problems related to the quality of electricity:

1. Voltage interruptions – the main causes: insulation damage, lightning strike, power outage from the mains – the effects of which I think everyone knows.

2. Voltage drops/outages – causes: interference in each of the possible places. Effects: system shutdown, data loss, damage to more sensitive equipment.

3. Voltage fluctuations – causes: transmitters such as radio, damaged equipment, ineffective grounding, etc. Effects: light flickering, possible data loss and system stoppage.

4. Too low voltage – causes: increase in energy consumption by a part of the system, voltage reduction to reduce consumption, effects: system stoppage, data loss, damage to sensitive devices.

5. Voltage surge – here we have many causes: from atmospheric to transient, caused by such things as damage to the installation between the phase and the ground or changes in the inductive current. Effects: as above + light flickering.

6. Overvoltages – lightning strike, emergency switches, etc., effects: destruction of electronic parts, data processing errors or their loss.

7. Harmonic distortion – causes: almost all receivers. Effects: neutral overloads, overheating of cables and devices, loss of machine efficiency, measurement errors if medium quality meters are used.

8. Interference – causes: transmitters, damaged equipment. Effects: disruptions to sensitive equipment that usually do not result in data loss.

9. Frequency fluctuation – causes: unstable operation of the generator, effects: system shutdown, data loss.

10. Indentation – causes: rapid changes (diodes, welding machines, motors, lasers, effects: system shutdown, data loss.

I will not talk about the fact that there may be no electricity in the network, that power lines may be broken, that fuses may simply fail in your switchboard.

Nor will I say that in even the best UPS, the battery may not last long enough, and even the most expensive generator set may simply not start. That when lightning strikes in the area, having the usual ATS system, you will not start the generator. I won't lie, there is a chance that every element of your power system will fail.

I will say: imagine that you have 200 thousand chickens, or that every minute of production break costs (with small assumptions) several thousand zlotys, or you just have a barber shop and you can’t serve several important clients. Or a store with frozen goods. Or you run a server room and lose all your customers' data.

200,000 of your chickens died, you lost tens of thousands of zlotys during the break in production, 5 of your regular customers left, and all the goods that were in the cold store can be thrown away. You've lost the data, trust, credibility you've worked for, all the prestige and a lot of customers… unless you have a PR specialist and a really high insurance.

And I know of such a company whose mistake the world has forgotten.

Why would that happen?

• because some company made the installation at the cost of
• because Mr. Zdzisiu said that it would be good
• because someone used elements other than those from the project
• because one of the elements used (e.g. the generator was no longer functional enough)
• because your company has grown and no one predicted it before.
  
  

Continuing the topic of poorly selected installation – what are the effects everyone sees. We won't feel it today, maybe not tomorrow. But in the perspective of years of running a business, it is absolutely necessary to eliminate unproductive costs such as those generated with losses of electricity or heat. We met at the conference “Climate Entrepreneur”. I think that this obliges us to consider issues related not only to economic efficiency, but also to ecological efficiency.

We can conduct an energy audit with particular emphasis on the power supply system, we can make recommended changes and, for example, buy a small generator set. We can also take into account our future needs today and leave room for what we will need in a moment.

What do we offer in Prototypownia?

We are the only manufacturer in Poland of electrical load banks – devices that allow to fully check the power system while simulating the load, details can be found in our promotional materials.

We use high-quality measuring equipment for our research, I wanted to take a thermal imaging camera and our power quality analyzer even today, but they were rented by one of the larger design and construction companies to check the construction of one of the largest Data Centers in Poland.

On a daily basis, we construct ATS systems characterized by triple start-up protections, connecting, for example, 2 independent connections to the network and 4 power generators. We offer solutions that allow you to connect an additional, rented unit within 2 minutes and without the usually required permissions.

Cogeneration?

We build generators for special tasks: the last project – a generator set with an inverter supplying and controlling a water pumping station for watering agricultural crops.

Please watch this video to see what we do on a daily basis.