Welcome to The Institution of Engineering and Technology (Malaysia Network)

Green Energy In Building Technology Conference - 12th October 2010 (http://conference.theiet.org.my)

SYNOPSIS :

Energy has become one of the major challenges and many countries are concerned not only on the sufficient energy resources to power life, but rather the impact of the many sources of energy on life itself.

Green Energy is energy that is produced with lesser negative impact to the environment than energy sources like fossil fuels, which are often produced with harmful side effects. “GREENER” types of energy that often comes to mind are solar, wind, geothermal and hydro energy. Nuclear energy is sometimes considered as green energy source because of its lower waste output relative to energy sources such as coal or oil.

One of the goals of Green Energy Technology is to take existing fossil fuel energy technology and clean it up. Many scientists are trying to find ways to extract energy from coal and other fossil fuels without all of the harmful side effects. The success of such these types of green energy depends upon the ability to extract harmful by-products from fossil fuels while not only being energy efficient, but by being cost efficient as well.

Here in this conference our main objective is to educate and discuss further the recent development of Green Energy towards our Building Technology in Asia Pacific Region. We also want to promote The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in the Asia Pacific Region.

(Register for this event here!)

HALF-DAY SEMINAR : LIGHTNING PROTECTION SECTOR - 19th June 2010

TOPIC #1 : FUNDAMENTALS OF INSULATION COORDINATION STUDIES

SYNOPSIS :
Lightning striking transmission lines is very important in terms of the annual number of network outages and the likelihood of damage to connected equipment. The use of shield wires for lightning protection on overhead lines prevent most phase conductor strikes but still allow the possibility of backflashovers. The probability of these lightning-caused flashovers depends on a multitude of factors including the tower surge response, the line type, the soil ionisation mechanism, coordination gap type and the impact of other non-linear influences such as corona. Lightning interference occurs mainly on overhead lines and has been a problem since the earliest days of the electricity supply industry. Overvoltages which occur on the lines, travel toward the terminal or substation, and can cause damage, particularly to expensive equipment such as transformers.

In view of their importance, cost and the difficulty of making internal repairs, the protection of large transformers against lightning overvoltage is usually given special consideration. In all cases the most protection coverage is obtained by connecting the protective device as closely as possible to the transformer terminals and joining the earth to the transformer tank with the minimum impedance.

According to the IEC 60071-1, insulation coordination is “the selection of the dielectric strength of equipment in relation to the voltages which can appear on the system for which the equipment is intended and taking into account the service environment and the characteristics of the available protective devices”. The basic principle of insulation coordination is to select the insulation strength and protective device for an insulation system such that the protective level of the insulation is always below the withstand level of the device to be protected with a safe margin. Furthermore, effective insulation coordination needs very details investigation on the phenomena that occur within the system. For that goal, it is proper to begin the study of insulation coordination by concentrating on the related phenomena.

TOPIC #2 : LIGHTNING PROTECTION OF STRUCTURES AND EQUIPMENT

SYNOPSIS :
Being the country with the highest lightning density in the industrialized world, Malaysia is internationally referred as the “Crown of Lightning” in the world. Hence, lightning protection is a primer need of the country.

A cloud-to-ground lightning flash is a complicated discharge process that transfers charge between cloud and ground. The energy of these discharges may link with structures and systems through resistive, inductive or capacitive coupling. In the name of “Lightning Protection” the best possible efforts are made to minimize the adverse effects of such intruded lightning energy. Lightning Protection is a state-of-art engineering which requires both knowledge & skills together with experience.

Lightning impose a very high threat to the safe operation of systems that transmit or consume electrical energy. The level of threat is highest for ELV and LV systems. The annual property damage due to lightning transients in Malaysia alone may exceed several millions of Ringgits. Out of these losses, 75% is due to the damaged electrical and electronic systems.

A majority of the lightning and switching transients do not give rise to catastrophic outcome; instead they cause degradation in the electronic circuitry. Repeated, exposure to such transients will finally cause the permanent equipment failure. Most often such failure occurs in a totally unsuspecting atmosphere, thus the cause of failure is hardly attributed to the correct source.

The loss due to both lightning and switching transients can be minimized by installing Surge Protective Devices (SPDs) in the power systems and communication / data line systems. One of the most important factors that should be considered in selecting SPDs is the “Voltage Protection Level” or simply the “Protection Level”.

This talk will explain few other properties that should also be considered such as Maximum Continuous Operating Voltage (MCOV) of the SPD, response time, energy handling capacity and etc.

(Register for this event here!)