Testing the emergency power supply has become an integral part of any industry. For this very reason, the usage of loadbank is an indispensable component of the proper functioning of the factories. A portable loadbank is quite a very popular option these days. It can be rented and trailered to connect to the generator on the site. In order to prevent “block-loading” most of the loadbanks, these days are provided with incremental switching that allows the device to be ramped up and thus, not damage the engine in the process.
Here are some safety measures that you should keep in mind for the proper functioning of the mobile loadbanks at the time of power failures.
Process Involved in Testing
- To mitigate the failure of the primary electricity source, the process of connecting loadbanks should be very thought out during the test. You should be very careful not to disconnect the output load cables from the generator at the time of the test. This is because if an outage occurs at this period, there will be no way of connecting these to the generator especially within 10 seconds that is required for life safety and other emergency loads. In fact, the equivalent loads utilised for testing will be automatically exchanged with the critical loads at the time of failure of the primary source.
- The mobile loadbank should be made parallel with the building load so that reconnection is not essential and the test can be performed safely. There are two ways of properly connecting the loadbank. The first is to connect to the bus that is downstream from an overcurrent protection device that is located inside the switchboard. The other one is to connect it to the bus located inside the connection box that is outside the generator building, mounted to a convenient place.
- You can also get a circuit engineered for connecting the reactive loadbank to the bus which will be a more enhanced but expensive process. In that case, if the main generator is disabled for repairs or failed during the test the power could still be fed into the bus. Some facilities also keep both loadbanks and portable generators on the site to mitigate the needs in case the primary source of the power failed.
The above are some of the measures that you must keep in mind while testing the generators with loadbanks. This will help to prevent the mishaps that may occur at that time of the test.
