The full gamut

New battery models and enhancements to existing batteries dominate the power product announcements at this year's Supercomm. Power product manufacturers will feature advances in surge suppression, rectifiers, power supplies, generators and remote power and monitoring systems.

VRLA revised Yuasa, formerly Yuasa-Exide, will exhibit its enhanced DDH series of valve regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries. The redesigned 120A series is more compact than earlier versions and is available in 24 V and 48 V versions.

Yuasa also will display its new DGX series modular VRLA battery, designed for long-duration, high-cycle telecommunications applications. It features tubular positive plates with gelled electrolyte to resist dryout for optimum cycling performance.

Eagle Pitcher will introduce a new 12 V 29 Ah VRLA battery designed for telecom applications. It fits in AT&T/Lucent Technologies' SLC series of switching cabinets and is made of flame-retardant Lexan, says Mark Jost, vice president at Eagle Pitcher.

The battery does not need a metal container for support. It features a 10-year service life and won't swell, according to Jost.

Hawker Batteries will exhibit its Genesis line of VRLA batteries. Typical applications include high-power uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, but the batteries can also be used for deep-cycle applications, says Frank Fleming, technical director at Hawker.

Although not introducing any new products, Johnson Controls Inc. will unveil a 10-year warranty on its batteries. The company will offer a full warranty for the first four years and a pro-rated one for the final six years, a spokeswoman says.

Surge suppression and power protection Several companies will debut new products for surge suppression and power protection.

Liebert Corp. will display the Hybrid Advantage Active Switching Network, which provides a multistaged suppression system. It uses a silicon avalanche diode module as its primary suppression method and shifts to a secondary suppression method that uses a metal oxide varistor module when subjected to overvoltage and transient conditions.

KGP Telecommunications will demonstrate its high-voltage interfaces designed to help prevent damage from ground potential rise at power stations or personal communications system power towers. The company also will demonstrate its Slim Line high-density station protection system designed for use in huts, controlled environmental vaults and customer premises applications.

Telect will introduce several new fuse and circuit breaker panels. The high-current GMT/KTK fuse panel is as tall as one rack space, has dual 100 A inputs and accommodates four KTK and four GMT fuses per side.

"The demand for this was a higher distribution panel in the small existing rack space," says Jim Poitevin, product marketing manager for power products at Telect. The old panels required two- or three-rack panels to accomplish the same thing.

Telect also will introduce a dual 50 A input circuit breaker panel that fits in one rack space and a high-current circuit breaker/fuse panel with dual 200 A inputs.

Rectifiers, generators and systems ABB CEAG Power Supplies will exhibit three new products at Supercomm, including a 2000 W and 48 V switchmode power supply, a microprocessor-controlled cabinet-style power system and a 48 V 150 A switchmode rectifier.

"We're seeing a lot of demand [from] people wanting to replace their ferroresonant rectifiers with high-efficiency switchmode rectifiers," says Jim Reiser, telecom project coordinator at ABB CEAG.

For backup power applications, Kohler recently introduced two products that the company will display at Supercomm. The Com-6 generator set is powered by a 20-horsepower engine and uses variable speed controllers and power conditioners to help provide precise DC voltage output. The 8.5/11RMY standby generators are powered by air-cooled four-cycle engines and run on LP or natural gas. Users can choose 8.5 kW or 11 kW versions.

Power Conversion Products Inc. will exhibit the SSD3 system status monitor and control, which can be installed at remote sites to monitor rectifiers, converters and batteries. The system provides both local and remote status and alarm conditions, and it has some remote control functions.

Yuasa will introduce the Horizon remote power system. Designed to provide a single power source for 48 V remote terminal equipment and associated 130 V optical network units, the remote system can eliminate the need for multiple power nodes.

For fiber-in-the-loop applications, Alpha Technologies will demonstrate its Radium line of power systems.

Fiber-fed communications networks require power only for the final copper section of the connection, a spokeswoman said. But in the past, companies have sent power from a central location.

"This is an outdoor robust cabinet that can be placed right next to the optical network unit and provide the power from there," the spokeswoman said. The Radium systems provide eight hours of backup power.

Finally MGE UPS Systems will display a new power management module and three new UPS systems. The power management module provides electrical isolation and power conditioning for sensitive equipment, distributing and monitoring power to ensure continuous operation. It supports 30 to 300 kVA loads.

MGE's new UPS systems include 100, 125 and 150 kVA units. The three modules, which join MGE's Comet UPS line, are all on-line three-phase devices.