Company Provides Utilities and Utility Customers with Solutions for Demand Response, Distributed Generation, SmartGrid, and Power System Infrastructure, Engineering and Maintenance
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, today announced that PowerSecure International, Inc. (Nasdaq: POWR), headquartered in Wake Forest, North Carolina, has selected the company’s industry-leading PLC families to be a part of its solution to meet utilities’ stringent requirements for the protection and control of distributed generation systems.
Mission-critical facilities such as hospitals, waste water plants, data centers, process-intensive, high-value manufacturing, large commercial buildings, government installations and other CI&I Utility loads typically require full-rated or near full-rated emergency power systems for life safety or economic loss prevention. These systems often involve redundant generators, buses and feeders for loads—providing power to the facility to maintain operations in the event of a utility outage. Meeting emergency power requirements is a large expense, for which power is used only during utility outages. The majority of these power systems that have been or are being installed use transfer switches to separate loads from the utility during an outage, and connect the emergency generation. The transfer switches are not designed to facilitate parallel operation of the utility and emergency generation plant, nor are the controls and protection schemes. Parallel operation of an onsite facility owned generation and the utility grid could offer operational and economic benefit to both the facility and the utility.
PowerSecure sought to provide a solution that would meet utilities’ stringent requirements for the protection and control of such DG systems. “We selected GE Fanuc’s PLCs as they are easily able to customize the I/O and programming to meet the scalable needs of a particular installation’s electrical topology,” said Brian Kisner, President, NexGear Business Unit, a division of PowerSecure International, Inc. “It is also extremely survivable, and that was a key attribute when PowerSecure selected the GE Fanuc line.”
PowerSecure had used hundreds of GE Fanuc PLCs in its power system solutions, including those for mission critical facilities. For its integrated, advanced switchgear and control system called NexGear, it decided again to leverage the flexibility and power of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ PLC as a critical part of the NexGear system. It was imperative for the system to have the ability to perform protection, control and automation tasks to make the distributed generation system operate. The tight integration and open architecture of GE Fanuc’s PLC enables high-level control, including orchestration of other digital control equipment operations, I/O interface, operator interface and SCADA interface.
GE Fanuc’s PACSystems® RX3i, VersaMax®, and QuickPanel® View Operator Interface solutions offer a high degree of flexibility and scalability. They can also integrate with other intelligent systems and I/O, which was key to develop a system that could be dispatchable by a utility and monitored for operational readiness.
The NexGear system is considered a SmartGrid solution as it provides control of distributed resources in the distribution system as well as employs intelligent diagnostics with communications. In addition, PowerSecure can meet its customers’ demands for reliability of their onsite power systems with NexGear.
“As power is a mission-critical element, a distributed generation system has to be ready at a moment’s notice, without fail,” said Connie Chick, General Manager of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms Control Systems Business. “GE Fanuc’s reliability was a key factor for PowerSecure, knowing that when a system has to operate in emergency mode, it leaves no room for equipment failure. The GE Fanuc-based distributed generation system enables utilities to reduce costs and eliminate downtime, as power is instantly available from the emergency onsite generation if an issue arises with the utility.”
About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is an experienced high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. We offer a unique foundation of agile, advanced and ultra-reliable technology that provides customers a sustainable advantage in the industries they serve, including energy, water, consumer packaged goods, government & defense, and telecommunications. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company headquartered in Charlottesville, VA and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions. For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com.
About GE Enterprise Solutions
GE Enterprise Solutions elevates customers'' productivity and profitability with integrated solutions using sensors and non-destructive testing; security and life safety technologies; power system protection and control; and plant automation and embedded computing systems. Enterprise Solutions'' high-tech, high-growth businesses include Sensing & Inspection Technologies, Security, Digital Energy, and GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. The business has 17,000 problem-solving employees in more than 60 countries around the world.
About PowerSecure
PowerSecure International, Inc. is a leading provider of Energy and Smart Grid Solutions to electric utilities, and their commercial, institutional, and industrial customers, as well as Energy Services to the oil and natural gas industry. PowerSecure’s Energy and Smart Grid Solutions businesses provide products and services in the areas of Interactive Distributed Generation®, Utility Infrastructure, and Energy Efficiency. The Company is a pioneer in developing Interactive Distributed Generation systems with sophisticated, proactive, smart grid capabilities, including the ability to 1) forecast peak electricity demand and electronically deploy the systems to deliver more efficient, and environmentally friendly power, 2) provide utilities with dedicated electric power generation assets for their demand response needs, and 3) provide customers with the most dependable standby power in the industry. PowerSecure also provides utilities with regulatory consulting, power system and transmission engineering and construction, and provides businesses with energy efficiency products and services, including its state-of-the-art EfficientLights lighting solution for refrigerated cases. The Company provides Energy Services to the oil and natural gas industry through its Southern Flow and WaterSecure business units. Additional information is available at www.powersecure.com.
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Contacts:
PowerSecure International, Inc.
Chris Hutter, 919-453-1760
Chief
Financial Officer
