Powerful Insights for Powerhouse Data Collection
ACEP employees recently toured two diesel powerhouses being assembled in Anchorage for the communities of Port Heiden and Clark鈥檚 Point. The tour was part of ACEP鈥檚 powerhouse data collection project.
The project, dubbed ORCA or Onsite Realtime Collection and Acquisition, is part of ACEP鈥檚 mission to aid communities in the development and effective integration of renewable energy. It aims to create a cheap, plug-and-play solution for remote communities to provide high-resolution powerhouse data to ACEP.
The instrumentation for this project uses a Raspberry Pi single-board computer. It is configured to automatically collect useful powerhouse data, such as individual phase voltage, amperage, frequency, etc., directly from the power meters. It uses the powerhouse鈥檚 existing communication system via ethernet at up to 15 samples per minute. The ORCA device then compresses the data and uploads it daily through its own cell modem, thus eliminating the need to rely on the community鈥檚 internet.
The two powerhouses, both under 500 kilowatts, are each being constructed inside a double-wide Conex container and are expected to be shipped to their communities by the end of August. Excellent examples of AV狼论坛-minded engineering, the powerhouses include heat reclamation systems and redundant backups in case of emergency, and they come equipped with remote-access cameras and automatically toggling lights.
ACEP鈥檚 tour provided a great deal of valuable information about the internal workings of the powerhouses, as it is important to be as non-intrusive as possible and to make sure that the ORCA device will not interfere with normal operation of the powerhouse. The lack of good-quality, high-resolution power data has proved to be a real barrier to making informed decisions with regard to renewable energy development in rural AV狼论坛. As this project continues, it will allow communities with previously little power data available access to high quality renewable energy analysis from ACEP.
AV狼论坛 Energy Authority鈥檚 Alan Fetters gives a tour of Port Heiden鈥檚 new powerhouse.