Much has been written about pervasiveness of technology in the world. Even in developing
countries, electrical equipment of all sorts, ranging from convenience devices like air
conditioning and television to protection and preservation of life, like hospital equipment, is moreand more common. Power demand in more developed countries, rather than stabilizing, isgrowing, and the patience of the populace for “life without power”, even for a short period oftime, is dwindling, requiring more and more entities to invest in on-site power generation equipment.
With the ever-increasing demands for power come general trends that are driving
the use of more and more applications where generator sets are paralleled to provide the power system capacity and reliability that customers need and want.
It has long been recognized that paralleling of generator sets can be a valuable tool in the drive to improve power system reliability in critical installations. Use of multiple generator sets capable of serving a common load is often considered to be more reliable than single level backup and support systems. So, for applications that depend on power for life safety, and applications that depend on power to assure the financial viability of a business, paralleling is often considered to increase the probability that critical loads are served.
Paralleling is also common in applications where there is no normal utility-supplied power, such as in remote communities where extension of a utility-based transmission system is not practical and in applications where power is needed only on a relatively temporary basis.
In these cases
the function of paralleling is the same, but the system designs are somewhat different in that
they typically do not use load sequencing functions and there is a greater concern for
minimizing fuel consumption and protecting the equipment for the long run.
These applications are common in remote areas of Canada, many areas of South America, outback Australia, the
Pacific islands, and Africa. Even in more populated areas, they may be used for mining
applications, new building projects, or as part of the upgrade of existing facilities. Often these applications utilize rental generators rather than customer-owned equipment.
Beyond these emergency/standby and prime power-driven needs, automatic paralleling is often employed as a means to improve the utility/mains power distribution system or provide temporary solutions to capacity constraints in utility distribution systems. Small diesel generator sets are not particularly efficient equipment for prime power applications compared to traditional
utility service equipment that is many times larger. However, small generator sets rated up to about 2500kW and employed in systems as large as 20MW or more can provide valuable
service in providing temporary relief to overloaded distribution grids whether that overload is due to capacity constraints or distribution equipment constraints. In this application, as the “Smart Grid” develops, it is likely that synchronous paralleled generation will play a significant role due to the ability of the equipment to quickly start and drive power into the system.
Whatever the application, when expanded on site capacity is needed, or reliability enhancement is desired, paralleling is a tool that can be used to meet system goals and requirements
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