Austin (IEN) was invited by his alma mater, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), to give a 2 hour lecture to the year 3 students of Faculty of Civil Engineering Technology (Energy & Environment) for the course BTV 3463 Energy Management. The lecture covered a several topics such as “Energy Efficiency in 100% Renewable Energy Transition”, “Passive & Active Design”, “Demand Side Management” and “Maximum Demand Limiting Programme Case Studies”.
He explained that Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency should work in synergy to drive global energy decarbonization, with his previous article (link) as example. He also introduced the online PV calculator (link) developed by IEN Consultants, to the students.
As Austin was the graduate from the same course, he understands the gaps, in term of technical knowledge and skills, between academia and private practice. So, his lecture was mainly to give an overview of the industry to the students to motivate them to keep studying, telling them that their skills are needed out in the "real world". Austin also included a design workshop for which the students were split in to groups to design the lighting circuits with sensors control (photo sensor & motion sensor) for an open office.
Austin also used the California’s Duck Curve as an example to explain why Energy Efficiency & Demand Side Management are important when more Renewable Energy is deployed. As more solar energy is exported to the grid, usually across the middle part of the day when the Sun is shining, the curves deepen. Then, as the Sun sets and solar energy is no longer being generated, the Duck Curve typically shows the extreme changes in demand and the grid needs to “kick in” suddenly – which can be difficult. These extreme changes can result in the energy system becoming very unstable.
Maximum Demand is the peak load imposed by the customer to TNB system at any point of time. TNB needs to cater the peak load whenever it’s required by the customer. Since electricity cannot be stored, there must be sufficient available generation, transmission and distribution capacity to meet the highest demand. Maximum demand limiting is a control strategy designed to prevent the demand kW of a building from going over a predetermined threshold by altering the operation of equipment. The easiest way to do this is by identifying the largest energy-consuming sectors and modifying their operation during peak periods. This can be done by dimming lights, altering air-conditioning cooling setpoints, reducing air-conditioning & mechanical ventilation (ACMV) system fan speeds, etc. Austin used one of his projects – a shopping mall in Malaysia as the case study.
