The Power Protection Blog

November 5, 2008

Standby Power Solutions – Diesel Generators and Fuel Cells

Filed under: Announcements,Product News — Tags: , — upsmart @ 4:14 pm

Power Inspired are pleased to announce the introduction of diesel generators into the product portfolio (more details to follow). We’re unclear if they will be offered through UPSMart at this moment as usually a site survey will need to be offered to sell this type of product, but we may add it as a “Call Us” option. It got me thinking though of an article I read recently by Tom Sperrey in the IET magazine. He’s offering fuel cell technology in places where diesel generators are not feasible or just not wanted. They work in a different way to diesel generators in that the fuel cells produce DC power and not AC power. This means they are actually part of the DC buss of the UPS system which also incorporates batteries to give the fuel cell a few minutes to get started. A diesel generator produces AC, that feeds the UPS instead of the utility, through an Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS).

You get practically unlimited runtime as long as you don’t run out of hydrogen, and the only by-products of the process is heat and water, so it meets our green credentials (although some argue the production of hydrogen is far from green).

Well it sounds great doesn’t it? Well it does, but it’s expensive and you also need to store hydrogen cylinders, and the power capacity is limited to around 60KW max, so its not all good news. But if you’re a city centre office and you haven’t got room for a big heavy diesel generator, or the council won’t give you permission for one, then maybe a fuel cell is the right option for you.

If not, and you need a diesel generator, then contact us for a site survey and quotation.

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