Staco Energy – 2011 Year In Review

Nov 292011
 
Our “A New Dawn” 75th Anniversary Celebration

Staco Energy Enters into “A New Dawn” 75th Anniversary.

Time sure flies when you are busy – and our engineering, marketing, and sales teams have been busy over the past year.  Rather than rest on our laurels, we are charging into “A New Dawn” 75th anniversary by launching major new products tailored to the unique needs of specific industries.  These products keep critical customer components operating at all times – and with less cost – giving you, our customers, a competitive advantage.  A brief recap of these many marketing and product development activities follows:

 

 

 

FirstLine P 65-125kVA Three Phase Online UPS models

This 480V Three Phase Online UPS family was introduced in January 2011 and is proving to be very popular.  It covers a wide input voltage range – 480V +/- 10% making it ideal for SMB data center applications where affordability, efficiency, reliability, availability, and flexibility are essential. The 65kVA model, added in October, is our latest addition.

 

 

 


FirstLine PL 10-100kVA Three Phase Online UPS models

To address the needs of 208V installations, we introduced this UPS family in January 2011 – which has been well accepted.  It covers a wide input voltage range – 208V +/- 10% making it ideal for many applications – including network closets, computer rooms, and small data centers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FirstLine BMS Wireless Battery Monitoring System

Launched in February, 2011, this uniquely wireless easy-to-install product is an ideal complement to the FirstLine P,  FirstLine PL, and can be deployed with all battery types and applications, both new installs and retrofits.

 

 

 

Staco’s Total SMB Data Center Solutions

All of the above have created a platform foundation for providing tailored SMB solutions for IT network closets, computer rooms, and small data centers.

 

StacoVAR mini

Launched in August, our newest addition to the StacoVAR product family, allows customers to use their supplied power more efficiently.  In addition, we re-launched our Fixed Capacitor banks.   Editors also saw the value in these programs – as they provided in-depth editorial coverage including “The Economics of Improving Power Factor” in Consulting/Specifying Engineer, and “Go Green with PFC” which ran in the August issue of Electrical Line magazine

Our Online Home – www.stacoenergy.com

Completely re-invented, check out our new online tools – including easier product and industry solutions search, more detailed information on products, applications, news, all intended to maximize the access to information in the least amount of time.

Published Articles

Our thought leadership in this “Staco Universe” market was augmented by the Broadcast Engineering article “Backup Power, Find out What Type of UPS System is Best for Your Facility”, Processor “Powering Your Data Center’s Future”, August, “Pinpoint Energy Hogs” October, and “Buying UPSs” November.  Our latest is the Distributed Energy “Is Poor Power Factor Correction Costing You Money” November/December edition article.  All are posted to News, Articles and Testimonials.

Channel Development

To help take our new products and services to the market, we’ve bolstered our rep/distributor network through a combination of recruitment and inbound requests.  We continue to provide training through webinars, field visits and application-specific industry experts who are available as needed to support our channel partners and customers.

 

Communications and Social Media

We have created a new Power Quality Connect blog, e-newsletter, and VIP registration, including social media connections to Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin,  all targeted at extending our brand reach.

Clearly it has been a busy year – and a good one.  As we enter into our “A New Dawn” 75th Anniversary, we’re better prepared than ever to provide tailored power solutions to customers in a wide array of industries.  Our broad range of products – including Voltage Control, Uninterruptible Power Supplies, and Power Factor & Harmonics – allows us to serve the diverse needs of our customers.

To stay in touch please join our Power Quality Connect VIP List, click on this link and enter your email address:

http://www.stacoenergy.com/newsletter.htm

 

Poor Power Factor Performance – Is IT Costing You Money?

Oct 312011
 
Bauxite Mining Operation

Low power factor problems are a common occurance at facilities that operate heavy loads such as induction motors.  Most often, plant managers discover the problem when the utility bill arrives with an unplesant surprise, costly power factor penalty or peak kVA demand billing catagory to compensate for the “total power” required by a customer. Other signs of power factor problems are motors running hotter than usual and transformers being overloaded.

“A low power factor means uncorrected heavy motor loads from indusction motors in heavy machinery or HVAC equipment” says Rich Zucarro, Power Factor Program Manager, Staco Energy Products Company.  “Poor power factor can cause low voltage.  When motors run at low voltage they require additional maintenance and are more likely to burn out.”  Correcting power factor problems with capacitors is the answer, and is evidenced by the experience of a mining company that relies on large diesel generators for their on-site power generation the savings on fuel and maintenance make for and astonding return on investment.

In this case, the customer mines bauxite for aluminum, and operates two 1.6 MW, plus two MW diesel generators.  Fuel expenditures can exceed $5 Million a year.  Maintenance and engineering determined that they could experience savings with the addition of power factor correction capacitors, and launched the project. They were surprised when they did the calculations and how fast the payback could be realized.

The expected saving is $650,000 peryear from the project, and the expected payback is in less than a year.  They have lots of generators that will be alternated when they need power and this will allow them to use the  generators less per day, so the operating hours and operations will benefit.   The plant;s power factor before the project was 74 percent, a relatively low power factor, according to Zucarro.  A correction to 90 to 95 percent is typical to avaid utility penalties, where they chose to correct to 95%

“The interesting thing was they had asked us to look at a number of variable frequency drives and those drives generate harmonics” says Zucarro.  “Capacitors don’t operate very well in a harmonic-rich environment due to the high frequency of the harmonics.  However, we were able to apply several de-tuned capacitor banks which reduced the harmonic level at the capacitors to operate successfully and further increase fuel savings.”

To stay in touch please join our Power Quality Connect VIP List, click on this link and enter your email address:

http://www.stacoenergy.com/newsletter.htm

 

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