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Long term power outages and DC Power Plants
The blackout uncovered many shortcomings in DC power system designs
The power outage experienced in the Northeast and Canada was a wake-up call for many telecommunication’s power engineering and maintenance professionals. The Wall Street Journal reports the cost of the blackout could reach $6 billion, and that is on top of the estimated $56 billion the EPRI estimates is lost each year due to power quality and power reliability problems.
The blackout uncovered many shortcomings in DC power system designs. Improperly sized plants, inadequate batteries, lack of generators or generator deployment plans, as well as, improperly maintained systems can become major headaches when power outages strike.
Common problems experienced by inadequately maintained DC power plants
- A DC power plant with a large battery and inadequate recharge capability can experience prolonged down time if the battery has had a deep discharge. In this situation, the battery demands all the current the rectifiers are producing, sacrificing the equipment load. The system will not come back on line until the batteries no longer demand maximum current from the rectifiers.
- Batteries that have not been maintained, or periodically tested, may have weak cells. Weak cells can shorten reserve time, fail completely, or experience further damage during a deep discharge. Not only do you need to worry about today’s outage, but you must be concerned with the state of your batteries for a future outage.
These are just a few issues you could face if your DC Power plant is not maintained or designed properly.
If your site has experienced extended periods of time on batteries it is extremely important to have it inspected for lingering problems such as, battery thermal runaway. It is also a good time to perform battery load tests to determine the overall condition of your batteries.
EEC’s DC power group specializes in DC power plant system design, installation, and maintenance. If you are concerned with the design of your system, or you recently experienced an outage and you would like a system evaluation, contact EEC’s resident DC Power expert, Steve Johnson, and schedule an inspection. Steve can be reached at (860)721-9869 or sjohnson@eecnet.com.
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