Mobile Automation designed and installed an automatic transfer switch system for a facility whose standby generator had to be started by hand. The site now changes over to generator supply on its own, with nobody attending.
What the essential services depended on before
The loads on this supply could not sit and wait for someone to arrive.
- Standby generator started manually, with the supply switched across by hand
- Someone had to attend site before any load could be picked up again
- Restoration therefore depended on who was available at the time
- Chillers, fire monitoring and security all carried on the essential services supply
Twin air circuit breakers built into the existing main switchboard
The transfer system was engineered into the board already on the wall.
- Two air circuit breakers forming the transfer arrangement
- Custom busbars made to suit the existing gear
- Complete system integrated into the existing main switchboard
- Automatic changeover to the generator within seconds of a mains failure
- No human intervention needed at any point in the changeover
Essential services held live while the board was open
The switchboard work was staged so the site never lost its protected supply.
- Switchboard works taken during a weekend outage, clear of normal operations
- Temporary generator connected to carry the load through the isolation
- Chillers, fire monitoring and security supplied from that temporary set throughout
- No point during the installation at which the essential services were unprotected
The results
- Automatic transfer to standby generation within seconds of losing mains
- Manual start and manual changeover taken out of the site's response
- Chillers, fire monitoring and security backed by the generator without anyone attending
- New switchgear and busbars integrated into the existing main switchboard