Paralleling Generators

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mhs8524

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I am in the process of designing an emergency power system that will parallel 3 750KW deisel generators. One being for redundancy. I have never paralleled generators before. Does anyone have any information/instruction or advise on the design of such a system ? Also, any information on any potential NYSERTA rebates and/or Utility peak load shaving or similar programs which may benefit my customer ? My local utility company is New York State Electric and Gas.

Any wiring diagrams or link to wiring diagrams would be very useful.

Thanks !!
 
Re: Paralleling Generators

You mentioned design.
Are you looking for information on purchasing an automatic synchronizing panel, or building a manually operated one?

Here is a link to a chapter from a popular text book. Unit 14 - Wiring for Alternators

The only diagram I have at present is this sketch illustrating a very basic manual synchronizing setup.

Ed

Parallel%20Alt1.gif


[ July 13, 2004, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: Ed MacLaren ]
 
Re: Paralleling Generators

There are companies that make switchgear that can do this. I'm sure a sales rep will be glad to tell you all about them.

One company to start with might be Caterpillar. Check out:
Caterpillar Switchgear
 
Re: Paralleling Generators

You also must deal with the vendor of the generators themselves. There are limits to the number of generators that can safely be placed in parallel. The limits are unique to each generator, and involve the switchgear as well. One issue is that if you parallel two machines you will (approximately) double the available fault current.
 
Re: Paralleling Generators

Thats one of the nice things about Caterpillar. If the generators are new, you can get the switchgear, control software and hardware, and gensets all from them. One stop shopping!! And if something doesn't work right, you don't have 3 venders all pointing the finger at each other.

I feel like I should be getting a sales commission for this!!! There are probably other companies that do the same thing.

Steve
 
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