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ENERGY + ENVIRONMENTAL R&D
As consultants to government, utilities, industry, and research organizations, Augustyn & Company (ACI) has provided services in the fields environmental and energy system monitoring, software development, and in climate and energy system data analysis. Some sample projects :
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Solar Millennium LLC: Consulting and support services in development of large scale solar thermal parabolic trough power plants.
Solargenix/Accionia: Design, assembly and installation support for a 4-station solar radiation monitoring network intended to assess the suitable of sites in Spain being evaluated for location of large scale solar thermal parabolic trough power plants.
California Fairgrounds PV System Monitoring Network: For the California Construction Authority, design, development, installation, and ongoing operation of an automated system performance monitoring system, measuring the essential performance characterics of 80 photovoltaic systems at 6 fairground sites in California, totalling 3.6 megawatts of installed, grid connected capacity. This network involved application and integration of low cost watt-hour meters, on-site radio and internet data communications.
City of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Hetch Hetchy Department of Water and Power: Design, development and installation of an eleven station solar radiation monitoring network intended to determine the microclimatic variation in available solar energy across the City.
ESKOM Enterprises Pty. Technical Services Division: For the deregulated branch of national electric utility of the Republic of South Africa, design, fabrication, installation and training for a three-site network of solar measurement stations. This work was part of ESKOM's renewable energy research and development effort, part of which is in cooperation with the Development Bank of South Africa.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL): Development of methods to improve the accuracy of a relatively low cost device used to measure direct beam solar irradiance. The device in question, the rotating shadow band pyranometer, manufactured by Schott Applied Power Corporation, has historically exhibited serious characteristic errors in its direct beam measurements. This project combined hardware and device software modifications and application of exisiting sensor-specific corrections as well as development of new corrections for errors previously ignored. The results of the project are a physically improved model of the instrument, and an algorithm which can be used to correct data collected with the old version of the instrument.
U.S.D.O.E. Battelle/PNNL/NREL/ARM DQMS Revision Project This project will result in an extensively revised version of DQMS to meet certain crritical needs of D.O.E.'s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program - ARM
at a site in southern Spain began automated operation in March, 2000. A unique
feature of these systems is automated data transmission directly from the monitoring
site via email transmission. Data collected at these sites will serve
a critical need for on site data used for plant economic feasibility calculations
and for design purposes. Pilkington Solar International is the world's
largest manufacturer of highly efficient parabolic trough reflectors used in
solar electric generating stations such as the KJC SEGS plant
(see below)
Solar Millennium GmbH Solar and Meteorological Monitoring Stations - Design, fabrication, and installation training for three environmental monitoring stations similar to those delivered to Pilkington Solar International above.
Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft-und Raumfahrt / Plataforma Solar de Almeria / Morocco Solar and Meteorological Monitoring Station - Design, fabrication, and installation training for a customized solar and environmental monitoring station commissioned for the Moroccan Government. This station is to provide baseline site data for a planned 30 MW sparabolic trough solar thermal power plant partly funded by the World Bank.
PowerLight Corporation PV Installation Monitoring System Design, development,
installation, and support for a custom application of DQMS and additional
software to provide PowerLight
and its customers with performance data measured at each of their commercial
photovoltaic system installations. This provides PowerLight with rapid
feedback on system performance and detailed data for R&D purposes.
This system incorporates automated comparison of measured to simulated system
performance, as well as automated generation of Web graphics and reports for
controlled distribution via the Internet. It also provides an automated
web and LAN based summary of performance data updated daily, for all PowerLight
systems for internal company purposes.
PowerLight Corporation Mauna Lani Hotel Photovoltaics Monitoring System Design and fabrication of a custom Data Acquisition System for a 75 kilowatt photovoltaic system providing power to a famous Hawaiian resort. Design and fabrication of a second, similar Data Acquisition System for a second, 110 kilowatt photovoltaic system installed at the same site.
U.S. Borax Boron Operations Environmental Monitoring System Custom application of DQMS and telecommunications hardware to allow automated, real time display and capture of environmental parameters measured at the world's largest borate mining facility.
KJC Operating Company Plant Model Revision Project.
Revision and rewriting of the computer performance model for a 150 MW solar
thermal electric generating plant located in southern California. This
model is used to plan month to month plant operating strategy to maximize
annual investor profit.
Sandia National Laboratory Environmental Monitoring Department. - Provided a customized monitoring network data collection, processing, and real time display system for an 8 station environmental monitoring network. Incorporating both DQMS and DataView, this system provides a continuous display of measured parameters with simultaneous data quality checking and reporting.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL): Enhancement of a proprietary
data base management system developed by ACI for managing and controlling
the quality of data in monitoring networks and projects. Called the Data Quality
Management System, or DQMS
, this system provides a great deal of control and flexibility in managing
the data flow in monitoring projects and programs. For NREL, DQMS has been
applied to several projects including: a cooperative D.O.E. project to establish
a comprehensive national solar and energy monitoring program for the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia, a photovoltaic and solar thermal system materials evaluation
monitoring program, NREL's baseline Solar Radiation Laboratory (SRL), and
the soon to be announces U.S. Cooperative Solar Radiation Monitoring Network.
Kramer Junction Operating Company Weather Station Upgrade Project. - Application of DQMS and development of DataView, a highly flexible graphics program tied to DQMS, allowing continuous, real time display of data logger readings and simultaneous retrieval and processing of cataloger output records. This system incorporates code for direct cataloger communications over an FM radio modem link.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL): Prime contracting responsibilities on a project to locate, obtain, and asses the quality of solar radiation data obtained from roughly 200 sites throughout the United States. The primary elements of this work are to develop and implement a plan to contact and perform a preliminary evaluation of data sets at an anticipated 500 sources, and to develop and implement a detailed quality assessment approach to evaluating the actual data sets..
Pacific Gas & Electric Company Solar Insolation Monitoring Program: Design, installation, and operation of a 15 station automated monitoring network collecting solar radiation and related weather data throughout PG&E's service territory. Started in 1984, this project has served as the basis for much of PG&E's R&D efforts in photovoltaic and solar thermal research, and has involved hardware and software design and equipment installation on buildings and stand alone installations. It has also included instrument calibrations, and detailed analysis and reporting of the collected data. This network utilizes automatic daily telephone line transmission of data collected, and automated data quality assessment using ACI's Data Quality Management System, a comprehensive monitoring network data management system
Pacific Gas & Electric Company Kerman Substation Monitoring Project:
In support of PG&E's efforts in the field of distributed generation, this
project involves monitoring transformer loading and related characteristics
such as operating temperatures, voltages and transformer load tap changer
position at an operating substation. These data, combined with solar and meteorological
data taken at the site have been used to size and initially value the effect
of installing a photovoltaic (PV) generating plant to mitigate local transformer
and transmission line overloading. Initial results of this work have led to
the installation of a 500 kW PV plant under the auspices of Photovoltaics
for Utility Scale Applications (PVUSA).
Pacific Gas & Electric Company - Kerman PVUSA Baseline Solar Monitoring System - Installation of a solar and weather monitoring system at the Kerman PVUSA PV Grid Support Plant intended to provide sufficient data to confirm the extent to which design operating efficiencies have been met, and to quantify the actual, measurable benefits which were predicted to result from installation of the plant.
Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) - Solar Resource Measurement: Program Implementation and Costs. - A report concerned with ground station measurement of solar radiation, intended to provide enough information about cost and the prominent technological issues of all the elements of solar resource measurement for a utility to make reasoned judgments on how to proceed with its own measurement program. It provides an overview of solar resource assessment and measurement, and defines the essential elements of a utility oriented solar resource measurement program. It defines basic accuracy criteria for solar data used for planning and design. It also describes and compares several of the currently available field equipment configurations for solar monitoring. Lastly, it provides representative cost estimates for all program elements for each of the most applicable field equipment configurations. These cost estimates were based on information gathered from the experience of utilities and other organizations involved in solar resource measurement.
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) - Preparation of WYEC2 User's Manual and Toolkit: For the , this project involves design and writing of a number of computer programs and user's instructions dealing with ASHRAE's new Weather Year for Energy Calculations - Version 2 (or "WYEC2"). These programs and documentation are designed to aid in the use and proliferation of hourly weather data used in building energy calculations throughout the United States.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory - Solar Process Heat Pre feasibility Studies: This work involves technical support for a U.S. DOE program in which promising commercial and industrial applications for solar thermal process heating are assessed. ACI's part was to develop the best available weather and solar data sets for each project which form the basis of performance estimates.
State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism Energy Division: This project, as a subcontractor to R. Lynette & Associates involves solar resource assessment and measurement services as part of a state-wide assessment of the potential of renewable energy. The work includes evaluating existing solar data sources, and specifying, installing and operating a network of solar measurement stations.
San Diego Gas & Electric Company Solar Radiation Monitoring Program: Similar to the PG&E monitoring network, this program involved the gathering of more detailed data sets at fewer sites. It also included a successful turnover of operating responsibility to SDG&E personnel. A unique element of this project was the design and construction of customized instrument stands for installation within utility substation yards, and resolution of problems associated with the effect of strong electromagnetic fields caused by close proximity to high voltage transmission lines.
City of Pasadena Department of Water and Power Solar Radiation Monitoring Program: Similar to the PG&E and SDG&E networks described above, this program involved the gathering of detailed solar data sets at a single site, and operation of the project under a lease/purchase arrangement.
SDG&E Transmission Line Monitoring Project: This project involved design, installation, data collection, and analysis of data collected at six high voltage transmission towers within SDG&E's main transmission corridor. The work was to support efforts to increase the maximum power transmission rates during peak power periods, as part of SDG&E's R&D effort in dynamic rating of transmission lines..
EPRI Assessment of Solar Radiation Data Sources: This project involved locating, assessing, and cataloging the nature, availability, and quality of solar radiation data sources within the five southwestern U.S. states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
Naval Environmental Prediction Research Facility LASBEX Project: This project involved equipment selection and procurement, mounting system design and construction, as well as data processing and analysis for a one month scientific experiment involving the coordinated measurements of meteorological conditions by several advanced instrument systems.
Sheraton Palace Garden Court Monitoring Project: Design, installation, and operation of a 5 station, 65 channel monitoring network as part of a one year study of the effects of a proposed high rise project on the daytime lighting conditions within a massively sky lit, ornate interior ballroom designated as the California's only indoor historical monument. The work involved placing monitoring equipment within the room, which operates as a restaurant, without affecting the patrons or service personnel. Another part of the project was to monitor a scale model of the room and proposed adjacent building to calibrate associated computer models designed to predict the effect of different design options. PG&E Stand Alone and Customer Owned Photovoltaic Array Monitoring Project: Over a two year period, data collection, analysis, and reporting responsibilities for a network of data acquisition systems monitoring the performance of five residential sites with varying photovoltaic system configurations.
California Energy Commission Climate Zone Weather Data Revision Project: This project involved a detailed analysis of and changes to the climate zones and hourly weather files forming the basis of California's Building Efficiency Standards. All valid weather and solar data recorded in the state was analyzed to determine changes necessary to satisfy study parameters. These included: correcting zone boundary errors, modifying the hourly weather files to reflect recent data, tailoring changes toward areas where most construction was likely to occur in the near future, consideration of jurisdictional and enforcement issues, and assessing how the standards would be affected by weather file changes.