|
 Larger Font |  Smaller Font |  Printer Friendly
Legend Power: Real World Energy Saving Solutions
By Jonathan T. Orr
MidasLetter.com
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
To invert the commonly used and often misunderstood phrase: sometimes we cannot see the trees for the forest. It is often people’s first instinct when faced with a problem of seemingly impossible complexity to either turn away altogether or to attack the problem with even more complex and convoluted solutions.
As the concept of Occam’s razor makes clear, usually the simplest solution is the right one. In the case of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, radically changing our energy consumption patterns and improving efficiencies, the answer is obvious.
Use less power.
The question, in particular for companies involved in manufacturing and other power intensive industries, is how to accomplish this without sacrificing efficiency, increasing costs, or investing in whole new infrastructures that may take years to show clear results and significant savings. Increasingly, whether due to tougher emissions regulations, company vision or simple bottom line, companies will need to greatly reduce their carbon footprints.
There are many ways to do this.
However most of these mechanisms are abstract in methodology, bewildering in explanation, and intangible in their effects.
For public companies that must explain their environmental actions to everyday customers who are deeply concerned about green issues but who may not be climate experts, these solutions are, on their own, not convincing or compelling. Purchasing carbon credits can certainly be a useful tool but ultimately this needs to be combined in a portfolio of actions whose centerpiece must simply be using less energy. Today.
While climate conferences are held and debate rages, Legend Power Systems Inc. (TSX.V: LPS) has a solution that will make practical sense to anyone: with their own-patented technology they can reduce a company’s energy costs by simply optimizing voltage use. Refreshingly understandable even to a non-expert the process is beautiful in its elegance.
The Electrical Harmonizer-AVR uses a transformer with a set of taps to set the degree of voltage optimization for the incoming power supply. The AVR component enables the taps to automatically change, under load, in response to fluctuations of the power grid. By optimizing the voltage level the Electrical Harmonizer-AVR allows customers to reduce energy consumption, peak demand, greenhouse gas emissions and maintenance costs while improving overall power quality issues.
The fundamental concept underlying Legend Power’s technology is based on “Conservation Voltage Regulation” (CVR) or Voltage Optimization. Simply put, the patented Electrical Harmonizer-AVR allows you to make best use of your electricity by giving you voltage when you need it and by limiting it when you don’t. Unbeknownst to many companies, they are frequently paying for electricity that they are not using as well as operating machinery and lights at its highest capacity and prematurely wearing them out.
Many companies promising these kinds of energy savings and emissions reductions simply state that this is the case and ask you to rely on their expertise without being able to prove it. Legend Power’s Electrical Harmonizer-AVR results have been proven to reduce electricity consumption by 7% to 10% and have been independently verified by no other authority than BC Hydro. But you don’t have to take BC Hydro’s word because LPS will provide your company with a free energy use audit. This process includes a review of your energy billing, a walkthrough of your facility, a simulation of the Electrical Harmonizer-AVR technology and an in-depth presentation of the results.
Gerry Gill Chairman and CEO of Legend Power Systems told Green Technology Report that the average energy savings across the board demonstrated by an audit is 5% to 7 %. Mr. Gill pointed out that as electricity rates climb steadily in a decade’s time even a reduction of 2% will represent huge savings and economic advantage.
Legend Power’s measurement & verification process is truly unique in the energy conservation industry. Unlike many other energy efficiency measures such as lighting retrofits and installing variable frequency drives, the Electrical Harmonizer-AVR has a comprehensive measurement & verification process. After completing an installation, the Electrical Harmonizer-AVR is loaded with a chip, which over the course of a week, will take energy measurements with the harmonizer in bypass mode and in a 6% tap mode. This process allows Legend Power and their Customers to see how much energy has actually been saved as a result of voltage optimization.
Legend Power began formally promoting its technology in October 2009 and to date has completed 12 audits with offers now pending with major Canadian retailers. With an already impressive client list including BC Hydro, Honda Canada and IKEA, and a backlog of 25 audits, Legend Power has a clear plan for growth. Government buildings are also on Legend’s radar.
As building developers and engineers continue to increase the efficiency of both new and existing buildings, Legend Power’s voltage optimization technology is an obvious next step in the green building movement.
Speaking of strategies for growing LPS Mr. Gill told GTR that LPS is now contacting marketing managers of potential clients directly, explaining to them that not only can Legend save them money but they can also provide them with the strong green credentials that companies need to be able to demonstrate to the public. In this sense, Legend is providing a truly synergistic solution: save money and save the planet.
It’s a compelling package. As you see the numbers for client savings and emissions reductions rising steadily on the ticker on Legend Power’s website, you can see the technology working by the very second.
It is abundantly clear that as energy costs for companies continue to soar and the public demands action on climate change, there will be an ever-increasing list of commercial and industrial clients seeking to reduce both emissions and operating costs.
If a company like Legend Power can not only offer you a reduction of up to 10 % in your energy costs but also prove it, how can you say no? Intelligent investors know that clean energy technology is one of the fastest growing investment areas in today’s market but few clean tech companies can provide solutions that clients can not only understand and communicate to their own customers and investors, but implement immediately.
LPS has those very solutions and is ready to implement them now. As Mr. Gill so succinctly put it to us, facilities can use this failsafe technology and “... start saving the next day.” If you are a company that specializes in commercial power conservation and you can count provincial power supplier BC Hydro among your clients, you must be doing something very right indeed. Perhaps some might consider naming your young company “Legend” a little presumptuous, but based on their performance to date they will be living up to such a bold name soon and for a long time to come. Bold investors will want to be able to say they were part of the legend from the beginning.
Follow the company’s progress at: http://www.legendpower.com.
SOURCE: http://www.midasletter.com/news/10022301_Legend-power-real-world-energy-savings-solutions.php
**************************************************************
|
Green Tech
Sign up for the Midas Letter Free Edition and get a free sample of the "Midas Letter Premium Edition".
