Speaker: Mark Siira, Director, Business Development, ComRent® International and Industry luminary in smart grid
About the talk: Overview of Load Bank Testing, methods, and best practices for facilities that include Data Centers and Utility Substations, addressing:
- Benefits and economics of Load Testing
- Industry Trends
- Innovations in Load Testing
- Lessons Learned
Benefits and economics of Load Testing
Discussion of the cost of power failures, power quality issues, the importance of availability and reliability and, finally review an economic model of user benefits
Industry Trends
Review significant trends that will affect many facilities and industries, including:
- IEEE Standards for Interconnection (IEEE 1547 Interconnection Series, IEEE Smart Grid interoperability Series, and UL 1741 and 6171 series on Wind Interconnection.)
- Recent FERC Small Generator Interconnection notice of proposed rulemaking.
Innovations in Load Testing
We will discuss current and upcoming innovation in facility load testing, including:
- Data Center Commissioning using multiple load bank types to test many aspects of power system and power quality. Comprehensive testing also balances the thermal performance with electrical.
- Medium Voltage Load Banks are used to provide a simpler safer approach to load testing at large facilities or a Utility substation
- Application Specific Load Banks used to speed up setup and provide a safer layout of power system elements along with the testing equipment.
- Interactive Load Banks are a new innovation that allows reactive control or communication based system to control load based on set conditions in the application (Mobile Generator or wind farm example)
- Liquid Cooled Load Banks are emerging to provide very high power density loads and tie in to liquid cooling systems that are increasingly being used in High Performance Computing application.
Lessons Learned/Summary and Conclusion
Finally, we will summarize how organizations can take advantage of this important practice and improve availability, reliability and reduce incidence of business interruptions. Mark is looking forward to meeting with and discussing the topic with this important audience.
About the Speaker: Mark Siira is a senior member of IEEE and currently active in IEEE Interconnection and Smart Grid standards development. He is an officer of the Standards Coordinating Committee 21 which establishes standards for Grid interconnection and smart grid interoperability, and a member of the UL Standards Technical Panel 1741 (Inverters) and 6171 (Wind farms).
Prior to joining ComRent, Mark spent sixteen years at Kohler Company developing products and solutions for electric power, including an inverter and energy storage appliance, combined heat and power systems, critical power systems paralleling switchgear, microturbines and Distributed Generation strategies. Before joining Kohler, Mark worked for Rockwell International’s Automotive business and General Motors Truck and Bus Group.
Mark has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Degree from GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University), and an MBA from Harvard University. He is a senior member of IEEE.
