Paralleling Generators
Need of Paralleling Generators
Any remote location or a remote site can be in demand for a power supply! This need arises from the inexistence of electrical power grids. Many big industries such as manufacturing industries, IT industries, and agricultural industries need a continuous and uninterrupted power supply.
But many times, many hurdles come their way of continuous power supply. In such cases, companies seek power through mobile generation. Some companies carry larger generator sets, but then they get into a whole new set of issues. There are many issues associated with carrying large dg sets. This is when the parallel generators come into the picture and the ability to parallel multiple smaller generators becomes advantageous.
What do you mean by Paralleling Generators?
Paralleling generators means any combination of electrical generation and storage technologies and devices such as portable diesel generators, load banks, transformers, etc. connected in parallel, and it may be grid-connected or may be separate from any transmission grid.
Typically, paralleling generators refer to two or more diesel generators physically connected, and the electrical output of the generators is synchronized and connected to a common bus on a main distribution panel. A conduit gets created through this, due to which the combined electrical output is delivered to the facility.
The connected generators must match each other in several specifications including pitch, voltage, phase, frequency, etc. for the paralleling synchronization to work successfully.
Advantages of Paralleling Generators
There are various advantages of paralleling generators.
Reliability
Reliability is the most noticeable and important advantage of paralleling generators. If you have only one large generator onsite and if this generator fails, what will happen? In such cases, if you do not even have other backup options onsite to take over the electrical load, then it would be a big problematic situation. A replacement generator can take hours or even days to be in function.
The use of paralleled generators will provide you with the ability for generator redundancy. If a generator fails, the controller in the other generators senses the increase in the load and carries the excess load over to the remaining generators. This technique allows companies to never lose their power in any situation. When this setup of paralleled generators is properly installed, it can be easily swapped out without shutting down all of the current operations of equipment and without losing any valuable production time.
Increased Power Capacity and Flexibility
The system of generator paralleling and load sharing improves scalability and it provides a business the ability to add additional power as a business grows. That means this setup of paralleling generators allows for more flexibility. It becomes easy especially if planned. When more power capacity is needed, additional generators can be daisy-chained into the paralleled system. The generators can be paralleled and a multi Megawatt system can be formed.
Downsizing also becomes easy using a parallel setup of generators. Because the company can release one or more of the generators without waiting for the rental generator company or without having to lose hours of production time.
Ease of Generator Maintenance
When a company opts for a single generator instead of multiple parallel generators then it becomes tedious for the rental generator company and the customer. Instead, if a company uses paralleling of generators, then there can be redundancy in the setup.
If one generator fails or needs to shut down then the other generator can pick up the load and maintain running operations.
Due to this, there is no need for shutting down daily operations for maintenance. This makes maintenance tasks easier. This system of Paralleling of generators enables the emergency backup power system to remain active even during the maintenance period.
Efficiency Optimization
Loads do not remain constant in most of the applications. Due to variations in power demand, a single larger generator may have to operate below its optimal power capacity, and that will lose its efficiency and this may cause fuel problems. These ups and downs in the power supply are handled very well by synchronization of diesel generators, where generators can be kept running at the optimal 75-80% of rated capacity. This maximizes efficiency.
Conclusion
Thus, we can say that one of the main reasons for paralleling of generators is to create redundancy and maintain power continuity. There are many advances in technology nowadays. Parallel generator systems are performing even better due to these technological advancements.
In businesses where power is mission-critical, synchronization of diesel generators can offer some real advantages. These systems are now easily available, easy to control, and can be deployed quickly with minimum investment.
We, at Perennial Technologies, provide synchronization of diesel generators which is a combination of generators, transformers, load banks, etc. If you think you should opt for this system of paralleling generators then you can contact us. We are ready to help!
Our team of experts will help you and provide engineering and project management support from the beginning till the setup is ready to run!
We also provide genset rentals, load banks on hire, and dewatering pumps for rent at Perennial Technologies Pvt. Ltd.