Solutions - Secure Power

“Reliable power Where and When You Need It”

Capstone MicroTurbines can operate connected to a utility grid or provide stand alone power to critical loads. Transition time between these two operating modes is less than 10 seconds, allowing customers to secure their critical power needs.

Today’s businesses face a tough situation – continuity of electric power is becoming more critical to their business success while the potential for extended utility power outages is increasing. Recent large area weather-related power outages and the continued threat of terrorist disruption, are reminders of how fragile our electric infrastructure really is.

Traditional backup gensets just sit there as idle assets most of the time, and then don’t always start when you do need them. The new paradigm is to operate Capstone MicroTurbines as continuous power supplies – saving money in CHP, CCHP, or Resource Recovery applications most of the time, and quickly transitioning to standby power when you need it. We call this “Dual Mode” operation. It’s a reliable standby power source that pays for itself.

Capstone offers a Dual Mode Controller to facilitate protection of critical loads. Acting like an automatic transfer switch, the Dual Mode Controller monitors incoming power and tells the Capstone Microturbines connected to it to switch to stand alone operation when the grid fails. Protected loads see less than 10 seconds of outage while the microturbines transition from grid-parallel to stand alone operation.

As noted in this article in Distributed Energy magazine, one of the largest natural gas transmission and storage corporations use Capstone MicroTurbines at several of their facilities. Among them, Dominion Transmission’s Ithaca, New York, station relied on their Capstone MicroTurbines to keep the gas flowing when they lost power for more than a day during the August 2003 Great Northeastern Blackout.

Opting for a pair of Capstone MicroTurbines to energize his premium vineyard, Vineyard 29 owner Chuck McMinn said "A backup diesel generator would sit here and rarely be used, although it would have to be run once a week just to make sure that it worked. They're heavily polluting, they're noisy. So the microturbine equipment is a much better alternative – we use it every day."

• C30 Natural Gas  p/n 331031D
• C65 & C65 ICHP Natural Gas  p/n 331035D
• C65 ICHP Natural Gas CARB  p/n 331037D
• C200 High Pressure Natural Gas  p/n 331042D
• C600 High Pressure Natural Gas  p/n 331050C
• C800 High Pressure Natural Gas  p/n 331053C
• C1000 High Pressure Natural Gas  p/n 331044D
• Secure Power  p/n 331046C

C30 and C60/65 MicroTurbine Engine Generator systems are certified by Underwriters Laboratories to UL2200. US UL & Canadian UL listed file Number AU2687. CE certification available.

The C30 and C60/65 MicroTurbine Stand alone/Grid connect systems are certified by Underwriters Laboratories to UL2200, UL1741. US UL & Canadian UL listed file Numbers AU2687, E209370. CE certification available.