A Battery Plant Designed to Save Energy

This paper will describe a power system configuration that provides improved energy efficiency for telephone power plants. This is accomplished by supplying the plant load with a voltage lower than typically used. The approach will be explained using a standard configuration for a +24 volt (12 cells per string) battery plant. The following points will be emphasized: - Circuitry necessary to maintain the batteries at a regulated 26 volts while supplying a regulated 24 volts to the load; - Control circuitry necessary to detect the need for battery support and initiate the necessary switching; - Switching circuitry necessary to bring the batteries to the load when needed; - Some typical fault modes of operation to show that the system has been designed to be "fail-safe".