Achieving ultra-high system availability in a battery-less -48VDC power plant

This paper describes and discusses a novel approach to achieving ultra-high system availability in a -48VDC power system without the use of batteries. Supporting this approach, several distributed onsite generation technologies are shown and used as primary power system inputs to the DC power plant. An explanation is then provided of the overall power system architecture, which incorporates independent, redundant power paths, and how they effectively eliminate single points of failure and the potential for cascaded failures. The DC power system architecture, which provides the same level of availability as the best existing battery plants, is described and then the relationship between the DC power plant and the utilization equipment´s power system architecture, and its impact on system availability is explored. Finally, a comparison of DC power system availability, based upon fault tree analysis and probabilistic risk assessment, are presented and discussed.