Standby power supply using alternative energy through co-generation technologies

A special co-generation system, developed for producing electric and heat energy from low pressure saturated steam or some other working medium has been developed. The system consists of a high speed turbine, coupled to a three-phase permanent magnet synchronous generator, a three-phase AC/AC converter and a microprocessor supervisory control unit. The main purpose of the system is to produce electric energy, that can be utilised directly to supply loads in stand-alone mode or it can be fed back to existing utility mains. In the latter case the converter, connected in parallel to the mains, can serve also as a source of reactive power and higher harmonic current components, i.e. the converter, by changing its control method, can be turned into a system providing not only active power, but functioning as a complete active filter or AC line conditioner at the same time. In the paper a further feature of the system, its ability to serve also as a stand-by (SPS) or uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is presented in some detail.