2011 articles that you may have missed..

Here are the less popular articles published in 2010 that we believe you might have really missed : Nb of visits / article is less or around 1000 but their interest is more than you think ...

• 2 articles related to Smart Grid, one related to the possible security issues with Smart Grid, and another one about Europe's Supergrid that should be necessary to develop as new energy production might come for a big part from the north (Wind) or from the south (solar).
  

• A theoretical article article about control systems for industrial control and automatism: Servo-control of the current at the start of an electrical machine. Not so close to our usual topics, but a good lightweight subject to relax.
  

• One consequence of the current trend towards intelligent buildings is the long awaited convergence movement: the many low-current networks, which were previously independent of one another, are merging into an Ethernet standard, where communication, security and technical management functions within the building or infrastructure are concerned. This convergence movement is not new, and one consequence is that electrical switchboard connectivity becomes a must
  

• An article describing how the Elithis Tower (in Dijon, Côte d’Or, France), a ten-storey and 5000m² office building, operational for 2 years, has reached the goal of reducing as far as possible the overall energy consumption of the building (heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting). In fact, when you take into account its photovoltaic power production (560m² of panels on the roof) the building has, today, an overall consumption of 0kWh/m²/year for the previously mentioned usage!
  

• This article is focused on the electricity consumption of devices in control panels and automation panels, and how it has begun to interest manufacturers and some contractors. Until now, the few Watts lost in thermal heating by a circuit breaker or an PLC had been going almost unnoticed in a world without energy balance. But the growing requirements towards "zero energy" buildings pushes manufacturers attitude to change, and their R&D teams are working on this subject. And the low-energy impact intrinsic to the electrical devices sometimes also becomes a sales argument...
  

• Most of the electrical panels and switchboards don’t need any thermal management for their internal atmosphere. However, some electrical switchboards should deal with extremely cold temperatures (technical rooms in the mountain) or with very warm or humid atmospheres (installations in Africa, in the Far East,…). Without going that far, some electrical switchboards contain a high density of power electronics devices, which are more and more compact and generate a high level of heat dissipation, such as transformers and variable speed drives. This article describes the known or more recent solutions to ensure a proper atmosphere inside electrical switchboards.