Wednesday, February 14, 2001
While brownouts in California are making that state's residents
painfully aware of the need to use electric power wisely, Ecostar, a new joint
venture owned by Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, and Ballard Power Systems, is providing
a much-needed boost to power conversion and control electronics. They are
adapting technology developed for the automotive industry to a variety of
industrial applications from 75 to 350 kW.
Fred Flett, Ecostar's vice-president of engineering, explains that
the company's new stationary power conversion electronics began in electric
vehicles. "Due to our automotive experience, we are very fortunate to have been
involved in developing efficient power-conversion electronics," says Flett. "Our
advanced control architectures and hardware-in-the-loop development tools allow
development of control strategies-for example, alternative
pulse-width-modulation techniques--while being connected to the grid," he
says.
Applications for the new power conversion and control system
include microturbines, fuel cells, and other portable or stationary power
generation systems. Usage modes for the Ecostar power-conversion system include
peak shaving, load following, base load, and grid blackout auto start. Operating
modes include grid parallel operation, stand-alone power generation, auto
transfer from grid parallel to stand-alone, and multi-unit connects.
For more information, contact Dwight Hansell, Ecostar, 15001
Commerce Dr. North, Dearborn, MI 48120; Tel: (313) 248-1496; Fax: (313)
845-5349.
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