Maintain power
With the cost of unscheduled downtime for some engineering and manufacturing companies running into hundreds of thousands of pounds a day, plant engineers are under pressure to ensure continuous production. Yet with more pressure being put on machines, due to smaller equipment running at faster speeds, correct maintenance is critical.
Efficient energy
Combined heat and power plants are anything but new. However, evolving technologies are revolutionising their scope and HM government likes the sound of it. Brian Tinham reports
Atomic kitten
Ever wondered about nuclear submarines and the issues for plant engineers in operational and supporting roles, either onboard or dockside? Andrew Law, specialist in the operational plant support department at Rolls-Royce Nuclear Propulsion Systems, is your man.
Transform efficiency
The good news is that transformers - both the plant used throughout the network operating companies' infrastructure and those at large energy users, such as factories and hospitals - are relatively efficient. In fact, modern power transformers typically offer efficiencies in excess of 97%. The even better news is that transformers built using amorphous cores can do even better and save an amount equivalent to 1% of all electricity consumed. The bad news is that almost nobody in Europe or the US is using them.
Turning the tide
While wind farms, for most of us, are the iconic, if not entirely friendly, face of renewable energy, there's a quiet revolution readying itself for launch on an unsuspecting public. The new talking point will be marine turbines. Not only could they challenge wind, but also nuclear plants - and soon. As we go to press, a full-scale commercial marine turbine, designed to harness tidal energy, has been installed and commissioned on the Irish coast, and is undergoing final tests before running up initially to 1.2MW electricity generation.