As a global leader in the design and manufacture of power electronics for in excess of 30-years, we have seen a significant increase in the enquiries for Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) to provide a secondary supply for emergency evacuation and firefighting lifts.
The driver for these enquiries is typically as a result of the change in UK legislation, particularly the BS 9999 Annex G standard. This standard states that any lift intended for evacuation or firefighting use, must have an alternative power supply in the event of a utility mains power outage.
Although standby generator sets are often used, UPS systems offer an environmentally friendly, cost-effective alternative as they are generally energy efficient, easier to install and simpler to integrate into the existing electrical infrastructure.
An area that that needs to be taken into account when considering a UPS system to support a lift application is the presence of regenerative power during operation. Regenerative power is energy that is generated by the lift motor and returned to the grid. This power has the potential to increase the voltage above the systems DC bus limits resulting in possible damage to the DC capacitors, rectifier and inverter boards.
To alleviate the risk of system damage, Ablerex have designed a patented GLM® function to manage the power from regenerative load applications.
With Ablerex GLM (Generative Load Management solution), the energy generated by a braking motor (e.g. lift) is used to power other parallel loads or to charge the batteries. The GLM feature avoids the need to switch off the UPS system or transfer to bypass when the regenerative load is present, hence ensuring maximum continuity and efficiency.
Other benefits of the GLM function are:
- Built-in feature that is easy to implement
- Dramatically reduces energy costs
- Reduces TCO by avoiding the need to oversize the UPS and batteries to support energy feedback
- Maximises battery protection and life expectancy
- Reduces consumption by recycling energy, thereby contributing to environmental sustainability
In addition to supporting evacuation and firefighting lifts, this function is also ideally positioned for industrial applications such as:
- Electro-medical equipment (e.g. CT scanners)
- CNC machines
- Tower cranes
- Radar
