Did you know that 20-40% of the energy produced by utilities is wasted? A Sacramento based company called Vortex Green Energy has a solution to this problem by using TriPac Systems’ phase angle synchronization (PAS) technology using machine learning to combat energy waste.
The reason that 20-40% of energy produced is wasted is because of phase shift creating “reactive power”. This phenomenon is caused by inductive loads (think motors, HVAC, refrigeration) the unused portion of reactive power is still in the magnetic field, out-of-phase and attempting to return to the generator.
This known issue dates back to the 1920s and capacitor banks are the current fix to this problem. The industry pioneers’ Capacitor banks are rather crude in our computerized society, requiring extensive site engineering and regular maintenance. They always apply too much or too little capacitance, never saving energy but changing where the losses occur.
However, Vortex Green Energy’s goal is to cut those costs (on the utilities side) by introducing the PAS system in industrial and commercial sites
With up to 0.992 efficiency Vortex Green Energy believes they can reduce the utilities reactive power output by over half. Not only that, it also requires no cooling and requires little maintenance. This is achieved through proprietary machine learning that is able to make power corrections in fractions of a cycle.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christian is in his senior year at California State University, Sacramento where he is studying electrical and mechanical engineering. His love for technology, the great outdoors, personal growth and giving back have driven him to become involved in clean tech where he hopes to learn about and contribute to the local clean technology sector.