Earlier this year IDC Events had the privilege of running the inaugural Solar-Diesel Hybrid & Battery Systems Conference in Perth, Australia on the 5th & 6th September 2017.
This event was developed to build and accelerate the knowledge of industry employees and business owners on best practice when it comes to the design, installation and maintenance of renewable hybrid systems. The main goal of the conference was to help businesses take advantage of cleaner energy through improving the quality of their power generation systems. The event had a technical focus, covering key design, implementation, and operational considerations for solar/diesel hybrid and battery systems including installation and maintenance. Also covered was the hurdles encountered when introducing solar to an existing diesel power system, retrofitting, and the importance of maintaining consistent electricity.
The conference had a total of ten presentations, including a full day workshop on Designing Stand-Alone Power Systems from keynote speaker, Glen Morris - Principal of SolarQuip & Vice President of the Energy Storage Council.
By Joseph Madeley, Conference Coordinator, IDC Technologies
There are millions of university graduates every year across the globe, with many of these people qualifying from studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Out of these people, only an astounding 13 percent of mechanical engineering undergraduate students are female. To put this in perspective, the United States has 49 percent of women that are college educated, but only 14 percent of these women are practising engineering.
When developing new products, a team of male engineers often lead all stages due to their current dominance in the market causing issues (and confusion) in the design phase. Voice recognition software was initially programmed for male voices and failed to recognise female voices due to poor calibration. When the airbag was first released, it was designed to protect male bodies, resulting in easily avoidable deaths of female and child passengers. So how do we get more female engineers in the industry?
Presented at the 6th Safety Control Systems Conference by Mirek Generowicz, Engineering Manager, I&E Systems Pty Ltd.
Abstract
The functional safety standard IEC 61511 provides a framework for managing instrumented safety systems in the process sector. The overall objective is to ensure that the systems reliably deliver sufficient risk reduction to reduce risk to acceptable levels.
The standard was first developed in the USA and originally released in 1996 as ISA S84. It was adopted by the IEC as an international standard and released in the form IEC 61511 in 2003. At the same time the ISA version was revised and reissued as ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004. The ISA and IEC versions are virtually identical. The Australian version AS IEC 61511 is also identical.
With almost 20 years of experience since the original ISA S84, a new edition of IEC 61511 has now been prepared. Part 1 of the new edition was released in February 2016. Parts 2 and 3 will follow shortly.
This paper outlines:
- A brief history of the standard
- An overview of how the standard works to achieve reliable risk reduction
- The changes that are likely to be adopted
- Why those changes are necessary
