With the rapid advancements in power efficiency technology for data centers and similar applications, load banks have become increasingly important and have undergone significant innovation in recent years. These advancements enable electrical engineers to simulate future needs and challenges more accurately while optimizing current power usage.
In this article, we’ll highlight the importance of load banks, explore emerging trends in load bank technologies, and examine how these advancements are driving significant progress in electrical engineering as a whole.
What Are Load Banks?
Load banks are electrical testing equipment, which can be either portable or fixed, used to calibrate and measure an electrical load before it is connected to its normal operating load. The load bank is connected to a power source, such as a generator, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), battery, or renewable energy system, and presents it with the same features as the typical load it will serve. It is then run, replicating the demands of the power system in real conditions.
Load banks serve several functions, including:
Verifying that electrical systems and backup power meet regulatory requirements
Testing storage and inverter systems
Checking the reliability of current power systems
As part of maintenance for generators and transformers
Testing backup power systems and UPS
Load banks are commonly used for testing and validating ratings across several industries, including hospitals, data centers, manufacturing, utilities, and renewable energy systems.
The load bank includes instruments for metering, overload protection, and load control. It allows operators to measure performance under controlled conditions and change metrics where needed to optimize efficiency without having to connect to the normal load, which might be more sensitive to electrical overload. The load bank also has mechanisms, such as heavy-duty resistors or a bank of resistive heating elements, which convert the power used in the testing to heat, which is then removed with a water or forced air cooling system.
Types of Load Banks
Several different types of load banks are deployed depending on resources available and needs. These include:
Resistive load banks: This is the most common type of load bank. It often uses wire resistance to simulate real-life resistive loads, such as lighting and heating, and the unity power factor of magnetic loads, such as motors and transformers. Resistive load banks create equivalent loading to test generators and their prime movers, with the resultant electrical energy dissipated by forced air (fan) cooling, water or convection.
Inductive load banks: These test inductive or lagging power factor loads, which are created when a resistive load bank is used in conjunction with an iron-core reactive element. Full power system testing is possible with inductive loads, such as evaluating the performance of voltage regulators, conductors, load tap chargers, and switchgear.
Capacitive load banks: Also known as capacitor banks, this type of load bank creates leading factor power loads, with reactive power being supplied to the system. This simulates electronic or non-linear loads, such as those found in the IT or telecommunications industry or with UPS systems.
Restrictive reactive load bank: These are load banks that combine resistive elements and inductors to allow for lagging power factor load testing. The load bank can be set to have resistive only, inductive only, or varying lagging power factor testing. This can be used to ensure the rated capacity of backup generators and turbines and test switchgear, substation protection systems, generators, and UPS systems.
Emerging Trends in Load Bank Technologies
Along with other fields within electrical engineering, significant advances in load bank technologies have occurred in recent years. This has been built on the growing demand for sustainable, more efficient power systems. Some of these advances include modular designs, load bank networking, and automatic testing.
Modular Designs
To improve time to market and allow for quicker maintenance operations, load banks need greater portability. By using compact modular designs, teams can get to where they need to be and perform their testing processes within shorter windows. Modular designs also allow for scaling where necessary for larger systems.
Greater Efficiency
A glaring inefficiency of load banks was the necessity for fans or water coolers to dissipate all the heat energy when running. A key element of the current focus on energy efficiency is attempts at recycling that energy by using systems that convert it back into usable electricity.
Digital Monitoring
Advances in IoT technologies mean that most modern load banks have digital monitoring and control systems. Load banks with greater connectivity can provide operations teams with real-time data on voltage, current, and power factor, among other data, meaning they can work on multiple instances at once. These data streams can be further integrated into software, guiding predictive maintenance, improving outcomes, and reducing downtime.
Load Bank Networking
Modern load bank units can be networked together to scale their capacity. This is especially useful for rooftop or basement applications where it may be difficult to physically bring in a very large unit.
Automatic Testing
Better digital controls can automatically set the load bank parameters, allowing for consistent testing across multiple instances. Digital controls can also automatically detect a power system’s voltage and frequencies so they can precisely load test generators to percentages of their nameplate ratings.
Conclusion
Load banks play an essential role in many industries and are used to simulate load requirements, verify equipment ratings, and test backup and UPS systems, among other functions. With growing demand in data centers and renewable energy providers, significant advances in load bank technology have been made to help improve results and efficiency. These include the incorporation of digital instrumentation and controls, remote monitoring, load bank networking, and the increased recycling of the heat energy created during load bank operations.
At Enercon, we are always looking to help our customers improve their energy efficiency and work operations. Verifying generator ratings and test loads within a system are essential safety features that improve maintenance outcomes and reduce downtime. To find out more about how Enercon can help your business with its backup generators, UPS systems, and electrical systems, contact us here.
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