Reference Articles 1 - 87 of 87
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Active State Power Management (.pdf)
With the increasing cost of energy and awareness of environmental considerations, power saving is becoming more and more critical. Power saving has always been critical for mobile devices, but now...(read more)
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A Multifaceted View of Distributed Generation Systems and Their Impacts
The term Distributed Generation (DG) encompasses a wide range of electric power generation sources - from a residential rooftop photovoltaic resource to a large wind farm. Hence, the impact of DG...(read more)
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Power Profile: The Mustique Company, Grenadine Islands
Providing power to a mainland community presents challenges for any company, but ensuring power to an island community takes the commitment of a strong company and the most reliable equipment...(read more)
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Reciprocating Generator Sets: A Viable Choice in Sustainable Energy (.pdf)
Advances in combined heat and power technology and renewable fuel sources have joined to make reciprocating generator sets a practical choice in power generation and energy security....(read more)
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Fuel Cell Technology Primer (.pdf)
This application note will describe the various fuel cell technologies and highlight the role that Thermo analyzers can play in their development....(read more)
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Airline Support Service Counts on Liebert UPS for Power Protection
Liebert GXT provides redundancy and scalability for new network facility....(read more)
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Case Study: Crawford County Information Technology Services
Living on the edge is risky business and it's just what Crawford County didn't want to do anymore. When this small IT department needed a quick, reliable solution to store its data backup, it turned...(read more)
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Case Study: Sequent
An increase in the demand for outsourced human resources support placed Sequent at the doorstep of opportunity for achieving significant business growth....(read more)
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Are You Still Running That Generator? (.pdf)
The talk lately about high fuel prices is focused on cars and planes, which makes sense since transportation is so important to our daily lives. However, in our world of remote-site industrial power...(read more)
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Better Backup Power for Outdoor Applications: Power a DC Load with AC Primary Power (.pdf)
Available power supply is paramount for system networks such as microwave and cell repeaters, Wi-Fi and WiMax networks, and RTU/SCADA. Critical loads must remain operational during power outages and...(read more)
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Difficult Site Challenges (.pdf)
Deployment of a remote site photovoltaic (PV) system is a challenging prospect. Deployment involves site preparation, transportation of materials and labor, and the installation and commissioning of...(read more)
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How Tough are PV Modules? (.pdf)
The photovoltaic (PV) industry often brags about the durability of PV modules which are outdoor devices built to operate in rugged, remote environments. They are subjected to every imaginable weather...(read more)
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Remote System Monitoring for PV Systems (.pdf)
A SunWize customer recently purchased six large, standalone photovoltaic (PV) systems for deployment in an extremely remote area of the American Southwest to power critical sensors as part of a data...(read more)
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Residential versus Industrial PV Systems (.pdf)
Often our industrial customers ask if there are differences between the systems they purchase to power their remote-site equipment and a system they might purchase for their home. There are some...(read more)
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Security Monitoring uses Solar Power (.pdf)
Steve Didier of Didier/Denver AV Systems Specialists in Lakewood, Colorado was facing a challenging job to put power in a very remote area. Steve stated, "The nearest utility connection would have...(read more)
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Seven Key Benefits of a PV/Hybrid Power System (.pdf)
Photovoltaics (PV) is a highly cost-effective power supply for small-to-modest loads (1 to 300 watts) in remote locations far removed from a source of commercial grid power. However, as the load...(read more)
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System Design to Protect Your Solar Investment (.pdf)
Since PV systems are typically installed at outdoor, remote locations, engineers must consider many design issues involving the protection of your investment. Some issues are naturally occurring while...(read more)
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When Does A Solar Energy System Make Sense for Remote Site Power? (.pdf)
At a recent SunWize industrial training, a participant asked the fundamental question, "How do you know when solar is the right power solution?" This is a key question when considering solar...(read more)
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Why Isn't a 12-Volt PV Module Really 12 Volts? (.pdf)
A nominal 12-volt photovoltaic (PV) module actually operates at a peak voltage (rated output voltage) between 16.0 and 17.5 volts. A nominal voltage is assigned to modules to define their voltage...(read more)
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VNA Dynamic Range and Linearity Accuracy (.pdf)
System dynamic range of a VNA is defined as the difference between the measurement power available at the test port and the noise floor of the receiver. In situations where dynamic range is pushed to...(read more)
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The ABCs of Service Options for your UPS System
The old adage of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" may be feasible in some circumstances, but applying it to the maintenance of a UPS can have devastating consequences....(read more)
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Electric Power - Utility Power Profile: Henri Fraise Fils & Cie
Keeping port city operations running is vital for all countries across the globe, but even more so for island nations. Approximately 360 kilometers (225 miles) southeast of Africa in the Indian Ocean...(read more)
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Device Networking for Windmill Turbine
Windmill turbines contain many components that are connected to a PLC for communication and control with a host on the ground. The addition of a small device server can make it possible to manage the...(read more)
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Sun Rises on Solar (.pdf)
Late last October, the California public utilities commission approved plans for a 4,500-acre sun farm that will begin harvesting solar energy in late 2008. By 2012, this first of two huge energy...(read more)
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Wind Power Farms And The Use of Ethernet and Fiber Optics for Remote Monitoring
Remote monitoring and control systems for wind power farms must be designed for long-distance transmission and the highest degree of reliability, while facing harsh environments involving extreme...(read more)
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EPA Tier 4 and the Electric Power Industry (.pdf)
The initiative to lower diesel engine emissions started with on-highway engines in 1973 and now extends to non-road mobile equipment, marine and locomotive engines, and stationary engines. These lower...(read more)
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Sustainable Application of Reciprocating Gas Engines Operating on Alternative Fuels
The concern for the anthropogenic release of methane (CH4) into the environment and methane's potential for global warming-21 times higher than that of carbon dioxide-continues to draw international...(read more)
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Sustainable Application of Reciprocating Gas Engines Operating on Coal Mine Methane Gas (.pdf)
Coal provides 25 percent of global primary energy needs and generates 40 percent of the world's electricity, according to the World Coal Institute. The People's Republic of China produces the largest...(read more)
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Case Study: Minnkota Power's Milton R. Young Station Electrical System Assessment
Minnkota Power's Milton R. Young Station Unit 1 was put into service in 1970. The original electrical distribution equipment is approaching 40 years of age. Life extension measures such as...(read more)
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Combined Heat and Power Plants: A Balanced Alternative (.pdf)
Today's electric power industry is challenged to meet the demands of many masters: client needs, economics (lowest cost), environmental permitting and citizen focus on global warming. One option to...(read more)
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Determining System Loads/Power vs. Energy (.pdf)
A key step in defining the size of a photovoltaic (PV) system is to first determine the size of the load. Customers and PV system designers must speak the same language to determine the correct load....(read more)
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Solar Radiation and Solar Power System Design (.pdf)
What information do photovoltaic (PV) engineers use to size a system? Solar radiation is the energy the earth receives every day as photons of light travel through space from the sun to the earth. For...(read more)
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Case Story: Solar Cells
Challenge * Dramatically reduce manufacturing cost to meet market demand for economical solar electric cells. * Variation in production batch size to meet short-term demand. * Extremely brittle...(read more)
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Designing a Base Station Coil for the HCS410
This application note describes the Excel spreadsheet to design base station coils. The spreadsheet file name is basestaxls. The basic approach used is to choose the driver circuit driving voltage and...(read more)
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A Method to Determine How Much Power a SOT23 Can Dissipate in an Application
With the introduction of smaller surface mount (SMT) packages, it is becoming increasingly important to know their maximum power handling capability in specific applications. The power dissipation...(read more)
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Interfacing a KEELOQ® Encoder to a PLL Circuit
Most of the recently introduced advanced KEELOQ® Encoders, like the HCS362, HCS365, HCS370 and HCS412, have provisions for controlling a multiple stage RF transmitter or a Phase Locked Loop (PLL)...(read more)
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Operational Amplifier AC Specifications and Applications
This application note defines the ac specifications of voltage feedback operational amplifiers (Op Amps). Directly following these definitions, related amplifier circuits are given where the...(read more)
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Operational Amplifier Topologies and DC Specifications
Operational amplifiers (op amps) are as prolific in analog circuits as salt and pepper is on food. They are sprinkled throughout the sensor data acquisition system, performing a variety of functions....(read more)
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Passive RFID Basics
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems use radio frequency to identify, locate and track people, assets, and animals. Passive RFID systems are composed of three components an interrogator...(read more)
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Using Single Supply Operational Amplifiers in Embedded Systems
Beyond the primitive transistor, the operational amplifier is the most basic building block for analog applications. Fundamental functions such as gain, load isolation, signal inversion, level...(read more)
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+/-5V Power Supply Operation with TC7106A/7107A (TC7106A/7107A)
This application note describes how the TC7106/A/7107 3-1/2 digit analog-to-digital converters with liquid crystal display drive can be powered from ±5V power supplies using low cost regulators such...(read more)
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Antenna Circuit Design
Passive RFID tags utilize an induced antenna coil voltage for operation. This induced AC voltage is rectified to provide a voltage source for the device. As the DC voltage reaches a certain level, the...(read more)
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Considerations for Driving Power MOSFETs in High-Current, Switch Mode Regulators
The low on-resistance and high current carrying capability of power MOSFETs make them preferred switching devices in SMPS power supply design. However, designing with these devices is not as...(read more)
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DC Performance Comparisons of CMOS vs Bipolar LDOs When Operating in "Dropout" (Vin = Nominal Vout) Mode (list devices)
More and more, battery operated systems are requiring lower terminal voltages to power internal circuits. Multi-cell designs are rapidly migrating to single-cell architectures to reduce system cost. A...(read more)
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Differential ADC Biasing Techniques, Tips and Tricks
True differential converters can offer many advantages over single-ended input A/D Converters (ADC). In addition to their common mode rejection ability, these converters can also be used to overcome...(read more)
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Digitally Addressable DALI Dimming Ballast App.
This reference design is a high efficiency, high power factor and digital dimming electronic ballast designed to drive rapid start fluorescent lamp types. The design contains an active power factor...(read more)
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Latch-Up Protection for MOSFET Drivers
Most CMOS ICs,given proper conditions, can "latch,"(like an SCR) creating a short circuit from the positive supply voltage to ground. This application note explains how this occurs and what can be...(read more)
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Linear Circuit Devices for Applications in Battery Powered Wireless Systems
Conventional wisdom says smaller is better where battery operated wireless systems are concerned. Higher silicon integration and smaller package technology have shrunk system electronics to the point...(read more)
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Mastering the PIC16C7X A/D Converter
The Analog-to-Digital converter (A/D) is the primary tool that allows analog signals to be quantized into the world of digital electronics. Once the signal is digitally represented, it can be stored,...(read more)
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System Design Practice (TC4426/7/8, TC4426A/7A/8A)
The TC4426/4427/4428 are high-speed power MOSFET drivers built using Microchip Technology's tough CMOS process. They are improved versions of the earlier TC426/427/428 family of high-speed power...(read more)
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Universal Power MOSFET Interface IC (TC4420/9)
The TC4420/4429 are 6A high-speed MOSFET drivers available in an 8-pin SOIC package, 8-pin CerDIP and PDIP packages, and a 5-pin TO-220 package. These parts have additional improvements over the TC429...(read more)
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Using the Microchip TC54 Voltage Detector
Microchip's TC54 series of voltage detectors are designed to supersede a variety of discrete comparator circuits and bipolar technology voltage detectors....(read more)
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Using the TC1142 for Biasing a GaAs Power Amplifier
RF bandwidths for cellular systems such as AMPS, TACS, GSM, TDMA, and CDMA range from 800MHz to 1.0GHz. To provide RF transmissions over this range of frequencies, Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) has become...(read more)
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Voltage-to-Frequency/Frequency-to-Voltage Converter
One of the most difficult circuits to build is one which will divide one analog signal by another. Two voltage-to-frequency (V/F) converters can do such division with ease. The numerator is counted...(read more)
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Interfacing to AC Power Lines
This application note describes a simple method for measuring parameters from the AC power line. Parameters such as zero crossing, frequency, and relative phase can be measured. This method is useful...(read more)
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Generating High Voltage Using the PIC16C781/782
The Nixie tube is a device born out of the middle twentieth century, used to display digital information in a human readable format. Basically, it is a high-voltage numerical display. Today, the Nixie...(read more)
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AC-DC Conversion
In most power electronic applications, the power input is in the form of a 50 Hz or 60 Hz sine-wave AC voltage provided by the electric utility, which is then converted to a DC voltage. Increasingly,...(read more)
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Design A Load Sharing System Power Path Management with Microchip's Stand-Alone Li-Ion Battery Charger
AN1149 Designing A Li-Ion Battery Charger and Load Sharing System With Microchip's Stand-Alone Li-Ion Battery Charge Management Controller However, most of the time, batteries are designed to be...(read more)
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Filter Solutions for the Regeneration of Electrical Power
Energy, which is being generated during the braking process of fast rotations or heavy masses, used to be converted into useless heat by means of bulky brake resistors. Today, innovative drive...(read more)
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Sensorless Switched-Reluctance Generators: a Technology Read for Aerospace Applications
Commercial, combat, and cargo aircraft face an ever-increasing demand for more electrification, a concept called "More Electric Aircraft." Actually today's modern aircraft consume something between 10...(read more)
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Average and Peak Power - A Tutorial
It is easy to calculate the power or energy of optical pulses if the right parameters are known. Presented here are the relationships among some basic quantities often needed when working with laser...(read more)
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Calculating Power Density - A Shortcut
It is often necessary to calculate the power density (Power/Area) of a laser beam (for example, when trying to determine whether a beam will damage an optic or detector). Usually power density is...(read more)
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Power Meter Minimum Measurable Power
There seems to be some confusion regarding terms such as 'Resolution', 'Noise Level', 'Minimum Detectable Power' or 'Minimum Measurable Power' of the device. These terms are all used in conjunction...(read more)
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Coal Strategy and Boiler Optimization
Since the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) were implemented in 1995, a plethora of changes to the operating environment of every electric utility has occurred. Initial (Phase 1) CAAA changes were...(read more)
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Coal-Fired Boilers: Lessons Learned from Challenges to PSD Permits
Almost every recent submitted application for a new coal-fired power plant has been challenged during the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permitting process. Environmentalists and other...(read more)
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Construction Challenges of 345-kV Underground
Burns & McDonnell is providing Program Management and detailed design for the Northeast Utilities (NUSCO) subsidiary Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) on the Middletown/Norwalk Bulk Transmission...(read more)
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Familiar Story, Better Ending: City of Jackson Raises Electric Rates 40% - and the Residents Understand
No one likes to hear that electric rates are going up. Travel the state of Missouri, in fact, and you'll find few communities where residents aren't - or won't soon be - up in arms over sharp...(read more)
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Green Just Makes Sense
No matter what you think of Al Gore, you have to give him credit for one thing. He has the entire country focused on using energy more efficiently. This is a critical issue that will only grow in...(read more)
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Hybrid Lighting: Renewable Energy's Best-Kept Secret
A thousand years ago, mankind began to find ways to pipe water into homes and buildings. Today, building a home or business that had no water piped in would be unthinkable. In the mid 1800s, natural...(read more)
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Managing Risks of Generating Assets in LMP Markets
Today there are about 720 gigawatts (GW) of power generation in the United States. As shown in Figure 1, much of the U.S. is divided into distinct regions in which the use of the electric transmission...(read more)
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Maximizing LEED, Minimizing Your Building's Energy Footprint on the Environment
Sustainability, green credits, carbon offsets, renrewable energy certificates, high-performance buildings, LEED. All of these are terms that increasingly have become everyday factors in our design...(read more)
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Guidelines for High Reliability Remote Power System Design
When designing high reliability power systems for critical loads at remote sites, a variety of considerations must come into play during the design process. The purpose of this class is to familiarize...(read more)
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How are "Equalize", "Boost" and "Fast Charge" Charging Different?
Each of these terms describes the same function of the charger where the charger temporarily elevates the battery's voltage above the float level. There are different uses for elevated charge voltage,...(read more)
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Improve Genset Availability By Detecting Bad Batteries Early
Failure to start is the most significant avoidable cause of diesel generator malfunction. Over 80% of failures to start are caused by battery problems. Genset customers invest significant amounts of...(read more)
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Technical Reference: Battery Glossary
First, all lead batteries are based on an electro-chemistry involving lead and lead dioxide with a sulfuric acid electrolyte. There are many variations on, and descriptions for, lead-acid batteries...(read more)
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What Does "Equalize" Charging Do, and Why is it Needed?
All batteries, even those assembled into unitized blocks, are all built of individual battery cells connected in series to obtain the required DC voltage. Like all manufactured products, there is...(read more)
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What is the Correct Charging Voltage?
The value of both float and equalize/boost/high rate voltages is determined by the battery manufacturer, and depends on the chemistry and construction of the battery. Deviating from the recommended...(read more)
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Whitepaper: Green Power Quality
Two issues involving electric power are escalating simultaneously: consuming and producing electric power in a more "green" fashion and the need for a better quality of power. Green power, as splashed...(read more)
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Fuel Cell Stack Assembly
The I-Scan® force and pressure measurement system is an important research and development tool for fuel cell design. In a fuel cell, numerous thin plates are stacked in close proximity to...(read more)
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Government Systems Including National Defense: SENS DC Power in Government Service
Standard and customized SENS chargers are used in a variety of applications in nearly every branch of the US military including Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Army....(read more)
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Shipboard / Offshore Safety and Control Systems: Marine Safety Depends on DC Power
Reliable non-stop DC power is required offshore to insure efficient and safe operations. Communication, fire suppression and automated control systems all depend on non-stop DC power....(read more)
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Standby Electric Power: Assuring Critical Engines Start When Needed
Engine-driven backup generators reduce risk and cost at installations dependent on electric power such as nuclear plants, hospitals, telephone exchanges, high-rise building, data centers and water...(read more)
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Special Report: Fuel Cell Power Controllers (.pdf)
Fuel Cell's are similar to solar panels in that they exhibit a VI curve where the voltage decreases with increasing output current. Adapting a switch mode DC-DC converter to work with a fuel cell is...(read more)
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Reducing Utility Demand Charges
This is a brief explanation of an important subject matter. If you want to know more about changes you can make that can save you money on your electric bills, get in touch with your electric utility...(read more)
- Harnessing the Power of Maintenance
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Wind Turbine Technology Turns on Bearings and Condition Monitoring
For those pondering how to control the economics of energy and cultivate "greener" power sources, one answer is clearly "written in the wind." Modern wind turbine generators have become true power...(read more)
- Regulatory Compliance and Critical System Protection
