Pilot embarks on first solar-powered inter-continental trip

This is very interesting and it goes to show that where there is a will there is a way. The aircraft can fly without a single drop of fuel. It is powered by the sun. Each of the motors on the carbon-fiber craft charges 400-kilogramme (880-pound) lithium polymer batteries during the day, allowing the aircraft to carry on flying after dark.

The Swiss solar-powered aircraft takes off on 24 May 012 in Payerne and travel through Madrid , destined for Rabat in Morocco. AFP photo.

The Solar Impulse plane, a giant as big as an Airbus A340 but as light as an average family car, is piloted by Bertrand Piccard, 54-year-old psychiatrist and balloonist, on the daring voyage from Europe to Africa.


The solar-powered Impulse plane specs:

Wingspan: 63.40 m
Length: 21.85 m
Height: 6.40 m
Weight: 1,600 kgk
Average speed: 70 km/h
Altitude max: 8,500 m
Propulsion: 4 electric motors (10 HP each)
Solar cell: 12,000 cells on wing & 880 cells on horizontal stabiliser

As Piccard guided the experimental plane almost silently aloft from Madrid-Barajas airport at 5:22 am (0322 GMT), a red light could be seen disappearing into the moon-lit sky.

An onboard camera relayed pictures of the Spanish capital's quiet streets stretched out below the aircraft, which has 12,000 solar cells in the wings turning four electrical motors.

Helped by a tailwind, Piccard gradually piloted the plane towards 3,600 metres (11,800 feet) as he headed to Seville in southern Spain. He was then to cross the Gibraltar Strait at 8,500 metres (28,000 feet), enter Moroccan airspace over Tangiers and land in Rabat-Sale some time after 11 pm (2200 GMT).

Piccard, who made the world's first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight in 1999 together with Briton Brian Jones, took over the controls from project co-founder Andre Borschberg, a 59-year-old Swiss executive and pilot. Borschberg flew a first leg from Payerne in Switzerland, landing in Madrid on May 25.

Organisers said the trip, 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) overall, is timed to coincide with the launch of construction on the largest ever solar thermal plant in Morocco's southern Ouarzazate region.

The voyage also is intended as a rehearsal for the plane's round-the-world flight planned for 2014. The aircraft made history in July 2010 as the first manned plane to fly around the clock on the sun's energy.

It holds the record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered aeroplane after staying aloft for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, also setting a record for altitude by flying at 9,235 metres (30,298 feet).

The Green Mechanics: Very interesting prospect if you are an investor. Inspiring, if you are an inventor. Motivating, if you like learning new things.

Source: MSN News

New Samsung Galaxy S3 price - Malaysia

When it was first made available in Malaysia on 31 May 2012, some telcos offered the new Galaxy S III for as low as RM999, with data subscription package.

Which telco to go for?

For the world's biggest economy, TECH SOURCE reported that American consumers can start pre-ordering the Galaxy S3 starting June 6, for as low as US$199.99 ( approx. RM632) for a 2-year contract 16GB, at AT&T. Meanwhile, Sprint will sell the Galaxy S3 16 GB for $199.99 (two year contract), and the 32 GB version for $249.99 (approx. RM789).


Galaxy S III Malaysia prices

Click here for detailed specifications of the Galaxy S3.

The recommended retail price for the new S3 is RM2,199 but there is already talk on the street that the price would soon touch RM2,100 (set only). Samsung smart phones are notoriously known for drastic drop in prices after being in the market for a month or two, so, watch out for that and get your timing right.

Maxis
Monthly commitment: RM68 (for data only)
Upfront payment: RM200 to RM500 depending on length of contract
Data quota: 3 GB
Device prices: RM1,399 (24-month contract), RM1,599 (18-month) and RM1,699 (12-month)

DiGi
Monthly commitment: RM63 (applicable to Auto-billing only) + voice call included
Upfront payment: NA
Data quota: 3 GB
Device prices: RM1,449 (24-month contract) and RM1,699 (12-month)

Celcom
Monthly commitment: RM108 + voice call included
Upfront payment: RM300
Data quota : 3 GB
Device prices: RM1,678 (18-month contract) and RM1,748 (12-month).

There are other data plans, such as 1GB and 5GB but I choosed 3GB for illustration as this is the likely amount of data one will be needing. With the capability of the high-end mobile smartphone, the amount of data downloaded as well as uploaded will increase. For smartphone, 1.5GB data plan used to be regarded as the default choice for many. Not anymore.

SESB offers explaination on the 30 April 2012 total blackout

I would like to share what SESB explained in detail in one of the local dailies which is not made available in its website www.sesb.com.my. Some slight changes made on the text to simplify the article, but leaving the clarity and meaning intact.

Formally expressing its sincere apology, the company through its MD highlighted four significant aspects of the incident, namely:

1. What triggered the incident?
2. Why the 66kV Capacitive Voltage Transformer (CVT) failed?
3. Why it took a long time to restore supply in some areas?
4. The SAIDI figure integrity.

Typical 132kV main intake station (Pencawang Masuk Utama, PMU)

What triggered the incident?

The disruption to the supply system was initiated by a failure of a 66kV CVT at the Main Intake Station (PMU) Penampang at 3.23am. This had in turn caused cascading trippings to 2 of the anchor power stations in the West Coast totalling 290MW out of the 550MW load at the time of the incident. These had caused the relatively small capacity generating sets running in the East Coast at that time to experience overloading and their protection systems tripped them off also.

With the tripping of the 2 anchor power stations in the West Coast which represent >50% of the demand at the time of incident and the subsequent protective trippings of the small power stations in the East Coast had caused the Grid frequency to plunge to a critical level that eventually brought down the whole Grid, i.e. blackout. This is a standard fail-safe mechanism designed for any Grid operation to prevent more widespread damage to the other components under similar circumstances.


Why the 66kV CVT failed?

Having studied and analysed the event log available at the SESB State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) in Penampang by the engineers from TNB and SESB, it was found out that the particular CVT had experienced an intermittent and transient over-voltage. Unfortunately the intermittent and transient over-voltage which occurred in milliseconds was not readily detectable as it is not a standard power utility practice to install a real time monitoring facility for this type of equipment even for some bigger power utility entities. This had therefore been diagnosed to be as the reason for the CVT failure.

For the record, the failure of this particular CVT was the one and only incident in the 24 years of its installation. The CVT had been religiously maintained in accordance to the standard and mandatory requirement for such installation among which are:

i)   Last preventive maintenance, PPM: 2009 (5-yearly interval)
ii)  Last routine maintenance: 4 April 2012 (monthly)
iii) Last condition-based maintenance (thermo-scan and ultrasound): 9 March 2012 (6-monthly interval)

All the results from the latest maintenance activity as above had shown no anomalies. SESB also highlighted that the size of this CVT is of no significant relevance in the way it affects the Grid System operation because the manner in which an equipment failure affects the Grid System operation also depends on many other factors such as generation capacity, power transfer from one point to another within the Grid, generation balance within the Grid, the fault level it triggered and the generator assigned as the system frequency control at the time of incident besides not forgetting the exercise of a prudent economic despatch regime.

SESB said that it is definitely not an apple to apple comparison to say that the CVT to the Grid System operation is the same as a compass to a ship. It is more like a choked fuel filter on an engine of the ship which will cause the engine to stall and leaving the ship immobilised and stranded in the open seas until the engine is operational again.


Why it took a long time to restore supply in some areas?

As part of SESB's standard operating procedure, SOP, under such a situation, an established Emergency Response Plan (ERP) was immediately activated with the Managing Director or the Senior General manager (asset Management) being the Commander and the General Manager (System Operation) will act as the overall coordinator for the Grid System restoration.

Under such conditions the Grid Operation will be split into 6 independent islanding operations to facilitate safe, orderly and speedy restorations. The 6 'islands' are Patau, Pangi, Salut, Melawa, Sandakan and Tawau. This was what had been activated during the incident on the 30th April 2012. The extent in which supply restoration can be achieved in these separate independent islands depends primarily on the generation capacity compared to the load demands within the island.

If the generation capacity far exceeds the load demands then a safe, full and speedy restoration could be achieved. Conversely, the island in which the generation capacity is lower than the load demands, at best only partial restoration could be achieved in a safe manner. Full supply restoration could only be achieved once all the independent islands are safely connected to the Grid again with all identified generator achieved full and stable operations.

During the incident on 30th April, the first partial area restored was in Tawau at 4.20am, while the last 11kV feeder restored was in Balung, Tawau at 7.47pm. The main reason for the long delay to achieve full Grid operation was due to some of the generators had unfortunately not been able to achieve full, safe and stable operation faster. For this, a further analysis had been commissioned by both TNB and SESB engineers to ascertain the root cause which will also cover all aspect of generator start-up requirement such as, among others, auxiliary relay settings, gas supply conditions and gas to distillate change-over facilities on the relevant power stations, both which belongs to SESB and the IPPs.


The SAIDI figure integrity

Find out how to calculate SAIDI in my previous article.

SESB is required by Energy Commission Malaysia (EC), through regulatory compliance of one of the License Conditions, to submit reports on supply status on a daily basis. The actual official figure for SAIDI announced by SESB from time to time is that which had been endorsed by Energy Commission. Only EC can certify certain SAIDI figure to be officially taken as true number.

It should be noted that SAIDI is just one of the internationally accepted measure for electricity supply performance. Electricity supply performance is also the result of the existence of adequate basic infrastructure such as logistically balanced anchor generation sources and capacity, strong complete-loop transmission network as well as distribution infrastructure. Hence, highlighting the persistent efforts by SESB to implement projects in the East Coast to help create generating balance in the Grid System.


Prevention of recurrence of similar fault

To prevent future happenings of similar incident, SESB with the technical collaborations from experts in TNB had embarked to re-assess the network defence system to effectively and efficiently match the ever increasing demand in Sabah

Date published: 24th May 2012
Newspaper: Daily Express, Sabah