2014 Event Archives
January 15: Unlocking the Value of Real-Time Facility & Energy Information in the Data Center Speaker: Don Smith of OSIsoft
February 19: SmartGrid Interoperability and Security Speaker: Sara Biyabani of Intel
March 19: Critical Power Solutions Utilizing Flywheel Energy Storage and Rotary UPS; Rick Slavens, WattsOn Power
May 14: Flywheel Energy Storage: Balancing the Grid & Winning Le Mans; Don Bender, CTO, Helix Power
September 17: Advanced Data Center Design, Surprise Speaker to be announced.
Past Event Descriptions and Speaker Backgrounds:
January 15th, 2014
Unlocking the Value of Real-Time Facility & Energy Information in the Data Center
Don Smith of OSIsoft
About the talk:
A deluge of connected devices, from simple sensors to IP enabled devices, have dramatically expanded the volume and usefulness of real-time data. As such, real-time data is critical to our lives. Whether from a manufacturing line, data center, pharmaceutical process, gas, electric or water utility this data significantly affects us. OSIsoft’s Pi data base helps enterprises collect, manage, store and visualize real-time data. This presentation will look at solutions to these challenges.
OSIsoft will discuss the variety and volume of real-time data as well as the differences in data types, data bases, and historians. A sample IT architecture will show how this data gets from a diverse variety of sources to client applications and enterprise networks. Discussed will be ways it can be analyzed, displayed and made valuable to the enterprise.
As example, OSIsoft’s Pi is the engine is behind eBay’s new “Digital Service Efficiency” dashboard which links revenue transactions directly to IT and energy costs. This allows infrastructure and business KPI’s to be dramatically coupled to drive a more efficient enterprise. OSIsoft’s Pi integrates real-time and historical facility, IT, financial and BAS data allowing eBay to move beyond PUE as a metric and drive business productivity for the entire enterprise.
About the Speaker:
Don Smith is Chief Customer Strategist and Executive Sponsor for Microsoft at OSIsoft. His role includes global coordination of customer focus across all aspects. He also works to align OSIsoft’s products and services with Microsoft developments and products to bring business value.
Don joined OSIsoft as the second employee in 1981 and has participated in many aspects of the development of OSIsoft products and services throughout the company’s 30 year history. He has a B.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas. Prior to OSIsoft Don held positions in plant construction, operations, and software design for Alcoa Refining and Chemicals Division.
His hobbies include jogging, diving, and sailing. He is known by many for using PI to manage and analyze his marine aquarium since 1996 and more recently monitoring his home power solar systems and electric car.
February 19th, 2014 SmartGrid Interoperability and Security
Speaker: Sara Biyabani of Intel
About the talk:
The SmartGrid is a confluence of Power, Communications and Information technologies involved in electrical power generation, transmission, distribution and markets. It also encompasses numerous high-end instances of Internet-of-Things. In this talk we will give an overview of the IEEE 2030 SmartGrid Interoperability Series of Standards and address the important issue of Securing the SmartGrid in an effective manner.
IEEE Standard Guide 2030-2011 provides guidelines in understanding and defining smart grid interoperability of the electric power system with end-use applications and loads. Integration of energy technology and information and communications technology is necessary to achieve seamless operation for electric generation, delivery, and end-use benefits to permit two way power flow with communication and control. Interconnection and intra-facing frameworks and strategies with design definitions are addressed in this standard, providing guidance in expanding the current knowledge base. This expanded knowledge base is needed as a key element in grid architectural designs and operation to promote a more reliable and flexible electric power system.
With the growth of renewable energy sources such as Solar and Wind, which tend to be intermittent, Electrical Storage becomes critical. We will focus on the development of IEEE P2030.2 Standard Guide for the Interoperability of Energy Storage Systems Integrated with the Electric Power Infrastructure. The P2030.2 provides guidance in understanding and defining technical characteristics of energy storage systems, and how discrete or hybrid systems may be integrated with and used compatibly as part of the electric power infrastructure. Further, the standard fills the need for guidance relevant to a knowledge base addressing terminology, functional performance, evaluation criteria, operations, testing, and the application of engineering principles for energy storage systems integrated with the electric power infrastructure. P2030.2 builds upon IEEE Std 2030.
Finally, with the continued interest in securing the SmartGrid, we will examine the challenges involved and will present an example using Intel Security’s (McAfee) solutions in securing a Synchrophasor Network. We will also highlight Intel Labs’ contributions in Context-Aware Electric Vehicle Charging, and Energy management strategies for a Microgrid with Electrical Storage.
About the Speaker:
Sara Biyabani is an IEEE Senior Member who has chaired the Information and Communications Technology Subgroups of both the IEEE 2030-2011 and IEEE P2030.2 SmartGrid Interoperability Standards. Sara is a systems Performance Architect, who works on the architectural definition and optimization of high performance computer systems. She has brought numerous industry-leading products to market, such as the HP Integrity Servers, Apple’s PowerMac & iMac, SGI’s Indigo2 and Octane workstations and currently Intel’s Smartphones and tablets. She is the sole inventor of a patent (granted to Apple) on an optimized main memory design for integrated 3D Graphics.
Sara has a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (MSECE) degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Computer Science from Smith College, Northampton, MA.
March 19th, 2014
Critical Power Solutions Utilizing Flywheel Energy Storage and Rotary UPS
Rick Slavens of wattsON Power
Critical Power Applications mandate the need for uninterrupted conditioned power 24x7, 365 days of the year. While traditional double conversion UPS rely on inverters, a DC bus and banks of batteries, more and more operators are turning to flywheel kinetic energy storage and the benefits of a rotary UPS. In this talk we will discuss some of the critical power technologies available as well as the advantages and disadvantages for applications including industrial, healthcare, broadcast and data centers.
About the Speaker:
Rick Slavens is the Vice President of Sales and Business Development for wattsON Power and is actively involved in mission critical power infrastructure applications around the world. He is a frequent speaker at mission critical power conferences advocating for and discussing the merits of flywheel UPS technology. Rick came to wattsON from Active Power where he served in positions of OEM Channel Support Manager and Director of Sales. Prior to his seven years with Active Power, Rick spent over 15 years in telecommunications and served as Strategic Technologies Manager for Tellabs, Inc. Rick earned his BSEET in 1986 from Texas A&M University.
wattsON Power is the exclusive distributor of the Wattronic Continuous Power System providing dynamically generated energy with unlimited continuity whilst providing true sinusoidal power that is completely isolated from problems from the commercial power grid. The system is a rugged, heavy-duty, Utility-grade electric machine that is completely free of batteries and is proven to offer lifelong continuous service for the most critical power dependent applications.
May 14, 2014
Flywheel Energy Storage: Balancing the Grid & Winning Le Mans
Speaker: Don Bender, CTO, Helix Power
About the talk: What technology is used to balance the grid in real-time, move cargo with some of the world’s largest container cranes and win Le Mans with Audi LMP1s? Yes, advanced flywheel energy storage solutions. They have been under development for over 20 years, using composite or metal rotors running at extremely high speed in a vacuum to store energy. They have unique engineering challenges such as thermal management of high power motors running in a vacuum. Advanced flywheels are finding increasing use for backup power and frequency regulation. The high power and high cycling ability of these machines make them a superior energy storage solution for difficult applications ranging from grid storage to mining to material handling to high end motor sport. Don will review the applications for advanced flywheels, the challenges in engineering a flywheel system, and the developers active in the field today. Some examples Don will discuss include Grid Storage and Regulation, the Beacon Power frequency regulation plants, container cranes using Vycon flywheels, and the Le Mans winning Audi LMP1s that use Williams Hybrid Power flywheels.
About the Speaker: Mr. Bender is the CTO at Helix Power Corporation where he is the architect for the company's new 1MW flywheel system. Previously Mr. Bender served as CTO of AFS Trinity Power where for 17 years he directed flywheel development for numerous industry and government clients in applications ranging from grid-connected energy arbitrage to energy recovery for Formula 1 racing. As one of the leading global technologists in the field, Mr. Bender’s flywheel designs hold records in areas including tip speed and power density. He is the author of the definition of “Flywheel” for the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Energy. Earlier, Mr. Bender was an Engineering Group Leader in the Laser Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Mr. Bender holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.