Phase Change
For a small company, following on from our work at the carrot farm, to upgrade and retro fit there chillers, we were recommended to work with PCP Australia, in an ambitious project to provide an additional 1700Kw of stored cooling energy.
Due to the increases in electricity costs, and the need for more output, the Farm faced a decision to increase capacity, the four chillers, although now running far more efficient still did not meet the requirements of duty.
Therefore either an additional chiller needed to be purchased or an additional method was required to store cooling energy.
PCP Australia a leader in Phase Change products, were engaged to provide a mass cooling storage solution, utilising the latest in Phase Change Material; Advanced Building Controls was engaged to design, install and commission a control system solutions, that allowed full charging of the storage tanks during off peak hours, and controlled utilisation of that stored energy when really needed.
You can checkout the full article here...........
Front page news August 2012 Ecolibrium
A complete control system was engineered, this was integrated into the existing systems again using web server technology. The system charged the phase tanks during off peak energy usage hours, running the chillers at -15℃, by measuring temperature change within the tanks, once full charge was achieved, the unit would shut down.
An automated reversal of the system would only allow a certain amount of energy to be utilised via a plate heat exchanger and the measuring the delta t across its output and modulating a variable speed to drive to limit that draw, this allowed additional cooling energy to be released during periods of high demand/load conditions
 PCM Tanks |  Pump & PHX |  Installed Tanks |
|---|---|---|
 400KW PHX |  Glycol Chillers |  Insulated Tanks |
 PCM StatusLCD Screenshot |  Glycol Tank StatusLCD Screenshot |  Pump VSDs |
 Tank View |  PCM Control Panel |  Operation |
 PCM MSSB |  PCM MSSB |  Temp Sensors |
 Pump DPS |  PHX |  Temps Sensors |
 Secondary Pump |  Glycol Tank ValvesCharge and Discharge modes |  Glycol Tank |
 PCM Web Access |  PCM Web AccessSetting the schedules |  PhaseChangeData Log |
 TempGraph |  PCM Running |  Setpoint |
 PCM Layout |