5GTE invest in the future of renewable energy at CEIS

5G Technologies Europe Ltd (5GTE) will be making a technical and annual financial contribution to the lab’s costs.  They will be working closely with Northumbria’s Power and Wind Energy Research (PaWER) Group to develop an ‘Energy and Power Quality Monitoring’ system.  This project combines complementary systems that are being developed by 5GTE and Northumbria University, to create an integrated system that offers a complete monitoring solution.  

5GTE’s system allows real time capture and wireless transmission of energy consumption data for industrial equipment.  An end user can view in real time, the energy consumption of all of the equipment to which this system is connected, via a secure website from anywhere.  The system’s aim is to improve end-use energy efficiency and reduce energy demand, as well as showing where energy could be saved.

Northumbria University’s system monitors Power Quality (PQ), which refers to unwanted disturbances of the electricity supply.  The system can provide information about abnormal events on the electrical supply system (transient or steady-state), originating locally in the equipment being monitored, or originating from the main power supply system.  The system triggers the monitoring process whenever any of the disturbance signal magnitudes exceeds preset threshold values.  This information may be used to establish not just the type of PQ disturbance involved, but also the timing, sources and locations of voltage and current disturbances.  Information of this kind will allow timely and economical remedial measures to be considered, before the disturbances cause more serious problems.

The next phase of the project will aim to develop an integrated system, which is also able to do condition monitoring.  This involves measuring waveforms from machinery and identifying any significant fluctuations from the norm. These results may then be stored and analysed to allow fault recognition well before machine failure, which could lead to extensive damage - condition monitoring enables preventative maintenance.

Ananth Seshan, Chairman and Managing Director of 5GTE, formally opened the laboratory with Lucy Winskell, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Region, Engagement & Partnerships) at the CEIS Show, held on 2 May.

Commenting on the partnership, Ananth said: "We are very excited about opening the Renewable Energy lab at Northumbria University.  Over the next five years we anticipate an active and synergistic collaboration with the esteemed academia of Northumbria University to build new devices, technologies and products, and thereby, create opportunities for multiple Masters and PhD opportunities in this important area."

Dr Ghanim Putrus, Reader in Electrical power Engineering, added: “This is an exciting time for the PaWER research group as the collaboration with 5GTE will enable us to develop our research ideas into commercial products.  The system under development will first be tested in monitoring energy and power quality performance in the renewable energy lab at Northumbria and this will then be expanded to include other buildings in the university.”

5GTE is a digital technology research and solutions company. The company mainly offers green energy solutions to help improve unit cost efficiencies in maintenance via its "Reliability Excellence" methodology.  It allows organisations to continuously reduce energy consumption via its solution suite “Energy Command and Control Center”.  5GTE is building a strong presence in the manufacturing, utility and commercial building segments through its partnership with a range of companies and business associates.