Automating the design of a generic modular power system for the global market

The concept of automating the design of a modular power system built from generic blocks and suitable for use in any country or application may be considered by many to be unrealistic. However as a result of the removal of the national telephone monopolies in many countries and the inevitable staff reductions, the nonrevenue positions such as power engineers have been in most cases greatly reduced or eliminated. This has resulted in the perception that power is a commodity which can be procured against a generic or nonexistent specification, placing the responsibility for ensuring that the system design is correct on the power equipment vendor. Under this scenario the potential for a rule based design system and the associated products becomes very important. Not only as a means of rapidly configuring standard systems, but as a tool to validate the design of nonstandard concepts.