Emergency power system

They find uses in a wide variety of settings from homes to hospitals, scientific laboratories, data centers,[1] telecommunication[2] equipment and ships.

Emergency power systems can rely on generators, deep-cycle batteries, flywheel energy storage[3] or fuel cells.

[4][5] Emergency power systems were used as early as World War II on naval ships.

Mains power can be lost due to downed lines, malfunctions at a sub-station, inclement weather, planned blackouts or in extreme cases a grid-wide failure.

[6] Lately, more use is being made of deep cycle batteries and other technologies such as flywheel energy storage or fuel cells.

In commercial and military aircraft it is critical to maintain power to essential systems during an emergency.

This can be done via Ram air turbines or battery emergency power supplies which enables pilots to maintain radio contact and continue to navigate using MFD, GPS, VOR receiver or directional gyro during for more than an hour.

Localizer, glideslope, and other instrument landing aids (such as microwave transmitters) are both high power consumers and mission-critical, and cannot be reliably operated from a battery supply, even for short periods.

This is opposed to the typical view of emergency power systems, where the backup generators are seen as secondary to the mains electrical supply.

Computers, communication networks, and other modern electronic devices need not only power, but also a steady flow of it to continue to operate.

To achieve more comprehensive loss protection, extra equipment such as surge protectors, inverters, or sometimes a complete uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is used.

Under these circumstances, the emergency station supply must kick in to avoid damage to any equipment and to prevent hazardous situations such as the release of hydrogen gas from generators to the local environment.