Load bank testing is imperative for commissioning, verification, and maintenance of power systems. Maintenance of a safe workplace and understanding the load testing fundamentals is absolutely imperative for promoting safe and efficient testing. And in this endeavour, reactive load banks play a crucial role. However, to make sure the loadbank plays to its potential you need to maintain the load bank properly. Now there are various aspects of safeguarding these load banks.
Protecting the Personnel
Engaging qualified personnel is imperative for successful testing. An experienced and qualified operator or technician must properly ascertain and understand all the applications for ensuring the correct set up of the load bank and its application along with operation. The testers need to have the capacity of safely administering the load test, and operate the load bank under a variety of conditions, and assess the preset capabilities with the use of handheld operators or other devices. Besides, every member of the load testing team needs to understand and anticipate the potential response of the load bank to the incidents like shut down or errors.
Scheduling the Tests
Fixing the time and frequency for the conduction of the load test in most cases depends upon the requirement of the concerned facility along with the standards or regulations that are applicable to the facility. Mission-critical facilities like data centres, hospitals, power plants, production units, financial institutes must have backup power hubs that need precision load testing by reactive load banks.
However, before the initiation of the load test, it is important to carry out the review of the test procedures, as well as regulations of the facilities in question. Non mission-critical generators powered by diesel are normally exercised at 30% to 50% of their full load capacity once or twice a month for about 30 minutes. During this ruin time, lubrication of mechanical components, prevention of oxidation of various electrical components, and estimation of the consumption of fuel is evaluated. It is during this time when load bank testing is also conducted to see how much the generator will respond to the emergency situation.
Calibration
A number of manufacturers of load banks put to use a wide spectrum of integrated electronics for controlling and monitoring their products. Hence, the users of these load banks must check the operational methods and the accuracy of the load banks. This can be done by calibrating the load banks periodically or as per the specifications of the manufacturers.
Proper calibration guarantees that the electronic components and controls are sensing and communicating with the load bank correctly and flawlessly sensing the parameters, and are displaying correct information.
All these are needed to maintain the load bank and ensure that it performs optimally.
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