Emerson Network Power has posted an online video demonstrating proper management of a Critical Power Management System with the ASCO PowerQuest® Power Monitoring and Control System. Watch it online at www.Ascoapu.com.
The video explains that monitoring and controlling today's complex power distribution systems with precision and accuracy can mean the difference between a potentially catastrophic power outage, or business as usual. Operators and managers need to know not only what's happening, but also understand why it's happening, and act decisively at a moment's notice to solve the issue.
"There are no second chances when business critical continuity matters," said Bhavesh Patel, director of marketing at Emerson Network Power's ASCO business.
Viewers learn that integrated communications, sensing and measurement, advanced control, improved interfaces and decision support technologies, and sophisticated power analytics produce a more efficient way to manage power distribution systems. Power quality analytics, especially, are essential for optimizing a critical power management system. They help ensure reliability by monitoring power issues and helping operators correctly diagnose the real problem so it can be resolved quickly. They increase efficiency of energy consumption and infrastructure resources, and optimize capacity through dynamic load management.
Besides optimizing operation and power reliability, ASCO PowerQuest's report-producing capabilities helps facilities managers satisfy regulatory requirements of NFPA1 70, 99 and 110 for hospitals, and Joint Commission reporting requirements to maintain accreditation.
The video demonstrates set-up and operation of the nine modules and three tabs that comprise the ASCO PowerQuest system. The nine modules are Overview, Transfer Switch, Alarm Summary, Generator, Circuit Breaker, Power Manager, Reports, System Trend and Historic Alarms. The Overview module, for example, enables operators to monitor selected devices by configuring the dashboard screen, display device status, alarm status indication and other important parameters, and perform transfer and re-transfer operation on single or multiple devices.
Two of the three tabs — User Management and Configuration Utility — enable operators to tailor ASCO PowerQuest to a facility's specific requirements. The third tab is a Messaging feature for communicating with other operators and management.
Viewers at their discretion can watch the video start to finish, or in short, individual segments that address each module and tab separately. Each segment describes a module's functionalities and benefits. A 'drag and drop' feature shows how operators can easily customize graphical user interface screens to display the information they want. Viewers see that information can be displayed either as icons or in tabular format and that navigation is intuitive and quick.
The video also demonstrates such benefits as interoperability, flexibility, scalability and centralization. Interoperability allows all components to reliably work together. Flexibility facilitates configuring a power monitoring and control system for virtually any on-site power system. Scalability ensures system capacity can grow with future expansion and upgrades. Centralization provides the ability to manage and control access, resources and data security.
