THE POWER BEHIND THE VENETIAN RESORT - HOTEL - CASINO
13 December 2001 - GE Industrial Systems

In this environment, a power outage is much more than an inconvenience -- it poses an immense threat to the safety of guests as well as to the security and continuity of the business. This could be a casino's worst nightmare. Luckily, The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas planned ahead to avoid such a potentially dangerous and costly event from happening at their facility. Behind the scenes of this luxurious resort is a highly sophisticated, efficient and cost-saving power system developed by GE. By combining the latest in power management control systems (PMCS) from GE Industrial Systems, The Venetian has created a world-class electrical power distribution and management system to help protect people, property and the continuity of

The Venetian's business.
The seamless integration of GE's electrical distribution equipment and custom-designed PMCS system with The Venetian's existing graphical user interface (GUI) software, allows the hotel to operate as a power consumer but also as a power distribution company. With 20 electrical power substations of its own, The Venetian takes the electricity that arrives at 138,000 volts and steps it down to 25,000 volts for internal distribution through the use of transformers.

In the early planning stages, GE and its integration team explained the tremendous reduction in cost that The Venetian would realize because Nevada Power could bill the hotel at a transmission rate instead of the much higher distribution rate. This unique method of power management also allows the hotel to be self-reliant when it comes to power sourcing. In the event of a complete loss of power, the hotel can still function by its own generators. And when electrical repairs need to be made, hotel and casino services continue to run without interruption because of the parallel substations--another feature of design efficiency.

GE's PMCS system provides the hotel engineering staff with precise control over all power equipment. Operating from a central site, engineers can respond immediately to ever-changing conditions. The software gives instant visual access to the entire electrical distribution system by simply clicking on a graphical screen.
Users of the advanced energy management system benefit in several ways:

Cost allocation which determines actual energy usage
Demand prediction monitoring peak demand usage to avoid additional power surcharges
Load shedding management
System metering
Power quality monitoring
Protection and management of generators
Trending which provides a historical look at electrical operating characteristics allowing better system maintenance

The entire system operates automatically and can be monitored 24 hours a day. Remote monitoring allows quick diagnosis and response should a crisis occur or if an alarm is triggered. The PMCS system drastically reduces downtime in emergency situations-which is key in this environment where minimizing downtime is critical to personal safety and revenue generation.

This year, The Venetian launched a large-scale expansion of its suite rooms and convention/meeting space. With this expansion, The Venetian will become the largest hotel in the world in square footage. GE Industrial Systems has been chosen as its partner once again to provide an expanded energy management solution comprised of additional electrical distribution equipment and enhancements to The Venetian's existing PMCS system.

GE Industrial Systems helps power The Venetian to be a highly efficient resort that keeps its guests happy and comfortable throughout their visit-without those guests even realizing the safeguards that have been put in place to make their visits so enjoyable. That helps to contribute to The Venetian's success as a destination resort and a world-class casino.

http://www.geindustrial.com

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