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Dale Bonsor

The UK Energy Crisis Explained

Posted on by Dale Bonsor

In the past few weeks, Britain’s energy sector has come under immense strain caused by a multitude of mitigating factors, impacting everything from home energy supplies to large scale industry.

In this blog, we’ll be exploring the factors that have caused the energy strain and how it may take shape over the coming months.

Factor #1: Post-Covid Recovery in China

China’s need for energy has always been a big influence on the global energy market. This year the post-Covid recovery has collided with an increased demand throughout the rest of Asia and in Europe too.

Although, economies are beginning to recover from the aftermath of the pandemic, this increase in energy requirement has come as countries throughout the northern hemisphere are managing a gas supply depletion after experiencing an especially cold winter last year.

Add this to the fact that gas prices in Britain have quadrupled over the past twelve months up to 180 pence per therm from 40p/th at the same time in 2020.

In fact, we’ve seen a 70% of this increase in September 2021 alone.

Factor #2: Fuel Storage Capacity

The global shortage of available gas is a particular issue for Britain, given that around half of the electricity used in the UK is made by burning fossil fuel in gas-fired power plants.

While the UK is heavily reliant on gas for home heating and cooking, as well as heavy industry operations, the UK props up the list of countries in Europe that have the capability to store gas, which leaves the market completely exposed in the event of supply issues.

It’s thought that less than 1% of the stored gas in Europe is held within the UK.

This has led to a temporary reliance on coal power stations, forcing the government to pump millions into trying to top up power supplies.

Factor #3: Resistance from Eastern Europe

As gas supplies continue to supply China with energy, pipeline gas from Russia to greater Europe has proved to be unable to cover the shortfall.

In mid-September gas prices in Europe increased by a further 10% as Russia’s Gazprom – the state-backed gas company – declined requests to increase gas exports into the European bloc – despite prices reaching record highs.

Although Gazprom has technically sent enough gas to meet the terms of their contract, it has faced backlash for seemingly backing away from the enormous deficit currently facing the rest of Europe.

There are now calls for the European Commission to examine whether Gazprom’s behaviour is intended to keep market prices at record highs, as well as keeping the pressure on regulatory bodies to approve the contentious plans to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Factor #4: Low Barrier to the Energy Market

The UK has already seen many independent energy suppliers go under in the past few weeks, with more unfortunately expected to follow.

This means that millions of households will now be assigned to a new, and undoubtably more expensive energy supplier.

The UK’s energy price cap specifies a maximum of two energy price rises within twelve months based on the varying costs of energy supplies. There is a 12% hike coming at the beginning of October and this is likely to rise again in April 2022. These increases though, have come far too late for many smaller firms, which simply don’t have the capital available to absorb the costs until the next cap increase.

Many of these smaller suppliers entered the market back in 2014, after the regulator eased barriers to entry to create more competition for the traditional big six firms, and meant that the market increased to about seventy suppliers at the beginning of 2020.

There is expected to be less than half a dozen left standing by Spring.

Factor #5: Wider Impacts

The fallout from the energy deficit will not remain solely in the realm of rising energy bills and suppliers struggling to stay afloat. Steelmakers, chemical refineries, and manufacturing companies will all be exposed to the impact of these issues. In fact, many are already feeling financial ramifications of price rises.

UK Steel, the association for the steel industry, has already cautioned that steelmakers will be downing tools during times of peak power demand to avoid the increasing costs. The same applies to several large fertiliser producers, two of which located in Teesside and Cheshire have taken the decision to close for winter, and another in Hull has reduced production output by 40% due to the increasing gas prices.

Of course, this will then bleed across into agriculture, meat production and the foods and drinks market, since one of the by-products created by fertiliser factories is carbon dioxide which is utilised in the production of fizzy drinks and the dry ice used to preserve food in transit.

Takeaways

The government is now facing calls to appropriately manage the energy crisis that has the real potential to destabilise the UK’s post-pandemic economic recovery.

It’s unlikely the UK will run out of energy completely, but running out of affordable energy could present dire consequences.

If you’d like to learn more about what we’ve covered in this piece, you’re interested in alternative energy solutions, or any of our other products or solutions, then why not contact us today for more information.

How to Physically Protect Your Data Centre

Posted on by Dale Bonsor

Over the past few decades, data has become a crucial component in the way we live in an increasingly digital age. Inevitably this has increased our reliance on data centres to protect and store our data.

The UK is home to the largest data centre market of anywhere else in Europe, and it’s thought there are between 250 and 300 data centres around Britain.

Whether that’s a hyper-scale data centre, or a smaller independently owned operation, security – from a physical perspective – has never been more important when it comes to securing sensitive data.

Why Is a Data Breach so Costly?

According to CS Online, a single data breach costs UK enterprises up to £2.8 million on average. Alongside financial implications, there are also regulator fines, damage to infrastructure and reputation and increased customer churn as a result too.

In fact, when it comes to damage to reputation and customer churn, Business Wire reports that up to 44% of consumers in the UK claim that they would stop spending money with a business after a breach, and 41% will turn their back on that business altogether.

This could have disastrous implications for smaller businesses – which shows just why it’s so important to have protection against physical attacks.

What Are the Most Important Parts of Physical Data Centre Security?

To layout and implement a successful data centre security plan, it’s important to think holistically and pinpoint the various weak points in your infrastructure that may need to be addressed.

#1: Protect the Property Boundary

Preventing unauthorised visitors should be the very first step when you’re looking to thwart any physical security breach. The idea is to identify, authenticate and discourage unwanted attention if necessary.

Your security approach for this first layer of defence, should include:

Monitored CCTV

By installing cameras around the premises, you can ensure that a trained team of security officers has eyes on your property at all times. Should a potential threat approach your property, the priority is to visually identify whether the approach is genuine using the identify, authenticate, and discourage method.

Controlled Access

Controlled access into the boundary of the property should include some protection to manage in and outgoings. Gates and barriers can be installed and remotely operated in conjunction with your CCTV systems and any audio communication devices.

Fencing

Specialised Hostile Vehicle Mitigation products, such as gates and bollards, to prevent any vehicle breaches, and mesh fencing with anti-climbing properties should all be considered.

Security Lighting

Contrary to popular belief, it’s important to increase the light sources on your property at night. By using security lighting to keep the building illuminated, not only are you deterring potential assailants, but also giving CCTV operators a clear view of the property in the dark. Static inverters should also be implemented to ensure that emergency lighting is working correctly inside the property.

#2: Protecting the Outer Property

The second crucial step in your plan is to protect the property and the area around it, since all movement within the initial boundary should be closely monitored, these measures should include:

Infrared

Infrared and thermal detectors can be used to detect movement within the closed site itself, should anyone manage to infiltrate the first security level.

Audio Deterrents

Once a potential intruder is tracked, audio warnings through specialised speaker systems (controlled by the CCTV operator) can be delivered to offer an effective deterrent to prevent an incident escalating any further.

Radar & Drones

In some cases, airspace above your data centre needs to be monitored just as closely as any other area of the premises. As drones are becoming more common place, data centres can utilise air radar surveillance to pinpoint potential threats from the air.

#3: Protecting Against Property Access

The next layer of data centre security is safeguarding the building’s exterior structure and preventing unauthorised access into the building.

Utilising surveillance and secure access, will give you a complete view to ensure only authorised personnel and approved visitors are entering the building, these include:

Fire & Intruder Alarm Infrastructure

Both of these things are crucial, since you’re not only safeguarding from potential break ins, damage, and theft, but also from potential arson attacks and accidental blazes too.

Central battery systems and emergency lighting, should also be installed to ensure that everyone in the event of a fire, accidental or not, can exit the property safely.

Interior CCTV

A full strategic CCTV camera placement plan should be undertaken from the outset to ensure that the entire interior of the building and all key access points should be monitored for potential threats.

#4: Within the Data Centre

The next layer of protection should be within the data centre itself to ensure that the server room is protected. Inside the server room is where the data is stored and it’s crucial that it is monitored closely.

Multi-Direction Cameras

Installing multi-directional cameras within the server room, ensuring that each blind spot is picked up is crucial to ensure that only authorised personnel are within the space.

Uninterruptible Power Systems

A UPS acts as a backup power system for memory-based hardware. Since your servers will be storing highly sensitive data, a UPS can prevent data loss should power loss or a physical attack prevent power reaching the servers.

Establish Key Personnel Access

Your server room must only be accessible through control doors. This means the door requires one or more locks, which should be monitored to prevent unauthorised entry.

You must also decide who is able to access the room and have a complete view on who is trying to enter it too.

If you’d like to learn more about what we’ve covered in this piece, or you’re interested in UPS power supply systems, or any of our other products or solutions, then why not contact us today for more information.

Are We Meeting Our Electric Vehicle Targets?

Posted on by Dale Bonsor

A “major transformation” is required if the UK is to achieve the ambitious targets set out for the uptake of electric vehicles, according to the latest findings from the UK’s spending watchdog.

Unsurprisingly, the UK’s most pollutant sector is transport, and petrol and diesel vehicles account for  around 30% of the pollution produced by this sector.

By creating a roadmap towards an electric-powered future, the government had hoped to slash pollution levels and create cleaner air.

Background

As per the Ten-Point Climate Plan launched by the Conservatives back in November 2020, the Prime Minister announced that a blanket ban on the sale of petrol vehicles would come into effect from 2030 – and by 2035 all new cars and vans must produce no emissions to run.

That said, while the sales of electric cars have increased over the past few years, substantial progress is required if the government are to achieve their lofty goals, says a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO).

Head of the NAO, Gareth Davies, had this to say, “The number of ultra-low emission cars on UK roads has increased, but meeting the government’s ambitious targets to phase out new petrol and diesel cars in less than a decade still requires a major transition for consumers, car makers and those responsible for charging infrastructure.

“Government now has the opportunity to reflect on what has gone well and better target its interventions and spending to secure this fundamental change and deliver the carbon reduction required.”

The report outlines that, as of September last year, only 0.5% of the vehicles on UK roads were electric, and ultra-low emissions vehicles (cars which produce less than 75g of CO2 for each kilometre of travel) made up just 11% of the overall vehicle market.

It also adds that the fall of CO2 emissions from road vehicles has fallen by just 1% since 2011 – far more slowly than the government intended.

The Statistics

Although vehicle emissions were falling between the years of 2011 and 2016, they saw an incremental increase again until 2019. The NAO suspects this is due to the rising popularity of larger vehicles such as Range Rover’s and other sports utility vehicles, increasing road traffic and stricter emissions testing.

By March of 2020, the government had invested more than £1bn on electric car schemes and advertisements – this doesn’t include the further £1bn they spent of grants to decrease the upfront costs of purchasing a new electric vehicle.

The report also states that while there has been an uptick in those opting for ultra-low emission vehicles and the requisite charging equipment, emissions have not lowered as quickly as the government had outlined.

“The lack of an integrated plan with specific milestones for carbon reductions from cars has resulted in a lack of clarity over what value the public money should be delivering. As a result, the [government has] not been able to demonstrate value for money from the amounts expended.”

Although by March 2020, government grants and funding had contributed to the installation of more than 140,000 new charge points across the UK, it is thought that more than half of these have been on private land.

Takeaways

Although the government is going further and further to decarbonise the transport sector by pushing the electric vehicle agenda, however further infrastructure and investment is clearly needed to achieve the goals set out by the government.

Ultra-low emission vehicles represent about 11% of the vehicles sold on the market. However, it’s thought that the government are expected to go back to the drawing board, to outline new dates and post-Brexit obligations to encourage further EV growth.

If you’d like to learn more about what we’ve covered in this piece, or you’re interested in any of our other products or solutions, such as the PowerGuard GridBoost, then why not contact us today for more information?

The Future of Sustainable Air Travel

Posted on by Dale Bonsor

Sustainable air travel is a hot topic within the green community at the moment, and while some claim that a completely sustainable air travel model is a possibility, others claim that while the current infrastructures are in place it’s not realistic.

Aviation is thought to be responsible for 2% of all of the global carbon emissions, and according to stats from the Air Travel Action Group, approximately 4.5 billion passengers boarded a commercial flight in 2019, with that number expected to double by 2037.

Background

Back in 2019, Greta Thunberg refused to board aircraft due to the harmful environmental impact, and in that same year, Prince Harry was criticised for frequent private jet flights across the world, after doubling-down on his warnings about the state of the environment.

These incidents made people really consider their transportation methods, prompting a more thoughtful approach to air travel at large.

Of course, it’s important that people can get back to meeting with family and friends and enjoying holidays and business travel, but it’s important that we really consider how we can shift these luxuries to become more sustainable.

Innovative Aircraft & Biofuel

New strategic advancements designed to mitigate the use of fossil fuels are being implemented, and as per the International Energy Agency, sustainable aviation fuel is a key factor in reducing emissions.

At the moment, there are only five global airports that have regular biofuel distribution:

  • Bergen & Oslo, Norway
  • Brisbane, Australia
  • Los Angeles, USA
  • Stockholm, Sweden

Industry experts believe that aviation biofuel is capable of cutting airline carbon footprints by up to 80%, but it costs almost four times as much as standard jet fuel. This, according to an article by Reuters, has discouraged use and tanked demand.

Recently, Scandinavian Airlines pledged to fuel all of its domestic flights (17% of its total fuel consumption) with biofuel by 2030.

In the coming year, the company has also promised to completely upgrade the entire fleet to more fuel-efficient models, including the newly introduced Airbus A350, which they hope will significantly reduce emissions.

How Airlines Are Evolving

As the aviation industry continues to keep pace with the electric vehicle industry, it’s important that consumer demand is there to push change.

When booking a holiday or embarking on an international business trip, think carefully about airlines that are either blending biofuels with fossil fuels or those that are incorporating fuel-efficient aircraft into their fleets.

US airline, JetBlue, for instance, pledged to the first American airline to become completely carbon neutral in 2020.

Waste Reduction

The sheer amount of waste created by consumer air travel – such as uneaten food, plastic containers and utensils, plastic packaging for headphones, blankets and other items – plays a huge role in the overall impact that aviation has on the environment.

Australian airline Qantas reported that it generates more than 33,000 tonnes of waste every year on its flights. Although the company has since pledged to reduce this waste by 75% this year, which includes eliminating up to 100 million plastic items used on board.

Air New Zealand also committed to implementing a similar campaign to remove almost 55 million single-use plastic items on their flights.

A spokesman for the airline commented, “Items such as plastic cups, water bottles, eye-mask wrappers, and toothbrushes are being swapped for more sustainable options.” “

“In December 2019], we trailed edible coffee cups. We serve more than 8 million cups of coffee each year and felt that edible cups were an innovative way to reduce waste.”

How You Can Help

  • Bring your own snacks and permitted food in reusable or recyclable packaging.
  • Fill a BPA-free reusable bottle with water before boarding – check specific rules on how much liquid you can carry with your airline first.
  • Reuse the cups the airline staff hand out.
  • Purchase reusable utensils – bamboo is a particular favourite – that way you don’t need to accept new utensils for every meal.

Offsetting Emissions

Offsetting CO2 is the process of reducing air travel emissions by performing individual actions pre- and post-flight.

Some airlines do funnel large portions of their profits into offset scheme investments, which include reforestation and renewable energy projects.

For example, Scandinavian Airlines buys CO2 compensation from renewable energy projects which work towards creating energy from wind power.

Many airlines in countries all over the world, now offer their customers the opportunity to offset their carbon emissions while booking their ticket.

Since creating a similar offsetting functionality into their booking systems in 2016, Air New Zealand now has more than 15,000 carbon offset bookings every month.

In 2019, their passengers had elected to partially or fully offset more than 183,600 journeys, an increase of 41% from 2018.

Airlines are also choosing to engage with their passengers about the importance of taking action in their day-to-day lives too. For example, Alaska Airlines, recently teamed up with Carbon Fund to give passengers advice on how to live and travel sustainably.

How You Can Help

  • Offset your flight – if your airline has adopted this approach, you can often choose to offset your journey during the booking phase. When you purchase ‘carbon credits’ with Air New Zealand, for instance, all the extra cash that each passenger pays is contributed to the FlyNeutral programme, which assigns funds to forestry projects and international renewable energy projects.
  • Seek to help the environment – if you’re an adventurous traveller, then spend some time looking out for tourist activities that contribute to the environment once you’ve landed. This applies at home too, where you could support a local business that focuses on sustainability, for example.
  • Fly direct where possible – this reduces the impact of a plane taking off and landing, which is responsible for 25% of the total emissions from the flight.
  • Pack light – pack only what you need, excess weight from baggage causes drag on the plane as it travels, thereby increasing fuel.

Is Sustainable Air Travel Possible?

With the current infrastructures and the associated costs of biofuels, it’s not possible at the moment. However, with an increased interest in travelling sustainable and the many initiatives now available to airlines and passengers, it’s certainly possible to lighten the burden that air travel places on the environment.

If you’d like to like any more advice about what we’ve covered in this blog, or you’d like to learn about any of our other products or solutions, then why not contact us today for more information?

How to Run a Diesel Generator Efficiently

Posted on by Dale Bonsor

No one wants to sink money into equipment more often than they really have to, particularly when living off-grid.

This is precisely why it’s so important to ensure that your diesel generators are working as efficiently and effectively as possible. This way, not only does it help to prolong the life of your equipment, but it also means that it works well every time it’s called upon.

Do I Need a Diesel Backup System?

A generator system can provide energy when there isn’t enough natural light or wind to provide the requisite power requirements for an off-grid property.

Of course, not every off-grid system will require a generator, for example, warmer countries can rely solely on natural sunlight to provide the requisite power their property needs.

However, in the UK it’s not possible to rely solely on natural resource on every day of the year, which is why a viable backup generator system is required to keep batteries charged.

Generator Basics

Incorrectly running your generator isn’t like running a vehicle that requires an oil change. In this case, it’s possible to drive for miles more than the recommended distance before getting the oil changed.

However, if you’re running a generator without ongoing maintenance or while light loading the equipment, not only are you looking at a considerably shortened lifespan, but there’s a very real chance of being plunged into darkness with no electricity for your home or business.

When not maintained correctly and loaded in the right way, malfunctioning generators can be expensive and cause unplanned downtime, which could be especially disastrous if you’re running a business premises off the grid.

Scheduling time to frequently manage the lifecycle of a generator will decrease downtime, fuel costs, wear and tear and excessive emissions.

How to Achieve Generator Efficiency

All generators, no matter whether they’re diesel, gas or petrol and regardless of how they are applied, are designed to provide a power output in the most efficient way possible.

As such, each generator will have an optimal load to consumption ratio. This is because different generators will consume fuel at different rates, and those utilising higher workloads will always burn fuel most efficiently.

Generally speaking, diesel generators will achieve this efficiency when they are running at the higher end of the load setting that the generator was manufactured to maintain.

For instance, a 15kW generator might have lower fuel consumption when operating at 10kW, rather than 6.

One of the biggest issues, when a diesel generator is running below its intended capacity for extended periods, is something known as “wet stacking”. This happens when unburnt fuel is exhausted because of the relative low operating temperatures. When this unburned fuel is pushed from the combustion chamber, it begins to build in the exhaust side of the generator.

This results in contaminated injectors and a build-up of carbon across the exhaust, turbocharger and valves of the exhaust.

To avoid wet stacking and other associated problems, it’s imperative that you’re running your generator at the optimal range that it was designed for.

Our generator and control solutions can help by upholding these ranges automatically when the generator is required, thereby reducing fuel costs, upholding the quality of the generator and maintaining the infrastructure of your off-grid system.

Optimal Generator Load Settings

As we’ve mentioned, running your generator on a light load for too long will certainly begin to impact the efficiency of your equipment.

An increase in unscheduled downtime, soaring maintenance and fuel costs are the very last things you need. Remaining within the optimal load-bearing capacities is the key to diesel generator efficiency, we’ve outlined these below:

  • Standby & Prime Power diesel generators – these generators are designed to run optimally between 50 and 80% of their total load rating.
  • Continuous diesel generators – normally 70 to 100% of the total load rating.
  • Natural gas generators – no matter the application, a natural gas generator is almost always set to run between 70 and 100% of the total load rating.

 

If you’d like to like any more advice about generators or off-grid power, or you’d like to learn about any of our other products or solutions, then why not contact us today for more information?

We’ve Unveiled a Brand-New Website

Posted on by Dale Bonsor

We’re proud to unveil our brand-new website. After several months of designing and creating brand new content, we’re proud of the work that has been done to modernise our web presence.

The website has been designed to better reflect our expertise in off-grid power, electric vehicle chargers, generators and much more.

At Powerguard we are well renowned throughout Europe for our in-depth knowledge and understanding of the energy and power industry, which is something we were really keen to showcase in the design and the content that we’ve added to the site.

Our company director Graham Chapman, who founded the business in 1999, had this to say, “Our old website served us well over many years, but we realise the importance of keeping things fresh and modern.”

Graham continued, “We’ve been in this industry for many years, and we wanted our website and branding to truly reflect our standing in the industry. We worked closely with the designers to make sure that we were able to create a balance between what we need as a business and what users are expecting to see online these days.”

The Design

You’ll notice that we’ve focused heavily on the branding aspect of the website, by ensuring a consistent typeface, stunning images and videos and a constant theme throughout, which perhaps wasn’t always the case with the old site.

We’ll continue to focus heavily on expanding our case studies and blog sections, and we’ve also spent a great deal of time creating brand new product content for our downloadable PDFs to ensure that everything is entirely up to date for our customers.

The Powerguard Approach

Our approach to renewable power supplies and systems is based on our ongoing commitment to deliver highly practical, cost-effective solutions that ensure many years of minimal maintenance and smooth operation.

We strive to ensure that we’re supplying the best and most economical solution to reflect the individual power needs of each of our customers.

 

If you’re interested in anything we’ve covered in this blog, or you’d like to hear more about any of our solutions, get in touch today.

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