Mumtaz Farooqi

"Energy, where it comes from and how we use it is evolving – and Bender is evolving alongside it.  Bender has long been at the forefront of energy use, primarily as a guardian and now as an expert guide, continuing to innovate in both roles.

As the equipment using power across a range of markets becomes more sophisticated – from variable speed drives to hi-tech medical scanners, so demand increases for power that is resilient and high quality.

Bender is employing the latest technology including AI and machine learning to push the boundaries of holistic intelligent power management, combining the generated data with human expertise and experience of customer business sectors to deliver the solutions they need now and in the future.  That is how we are helping to design that future.

Within the NHS in the UK digitised healthcare systems require power systems without interference factors that compromise the performance of sophisticated and sensitive equipment. 

NHS customers purchasing Bender devices through third parties may use only one or two of the functions offered by that device, because they don’t have the in-depth knowledge to exploit it.  We can combine all functionalities, extract those benefits for our customers and present actionable information.

For example, a Power Quality Monitor (PQM) analyses various elements from currents and voltages through energy consumption and performance to individual harmonic components of current and voltage. Each individual parameter can have a different impact on the power infrastructure.

A manager tasked with reducing consumption may be satisfied with the data generated on those factors. But high levels of harmonics on a power system can indicate an underlying problem, and cause issues for CT and MRI medical scanners and other sensitive equipment.  Responsibility for that part of the business may rest with an estates or capital projects manager; two different information streams potentially have two very different audiences.

At Bender we take a holistic view of what that device can actually do, and provide that expertise to our customers, so that monitoring devices are used to their full potential and produce actionable information.

Bender is using the power of computing and AI to generate in depth quality reporting for our customers. When a fault is identified we can report the history, development, external influences and parameters, plus a trajectory of how it may develop, giving them the power to make decisions on how to deal with it.

For the UK’s Network Rail that Bender is delivering that data to inform priorities for repairs and maintenance. Notifying managers of problems at an early stage helps to prioritise where improvements and investment should be allocated across hundreds or thousands of sites.

Building this sort of capability results from a longer term partnership.  Our understanding of electrical infrastructure encompasses involvement in those business sectors and an ability to engineer solutions tailored for customers.  It is an evolutionary process, but we are already on that journey to design the future of energy."