Patent ID: 11955835
Assignee: ABB SCHWEIZ AG
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G  Y | IPC G  H

Claim 16:
17. A method of turning on at least one fuel cell module in a system without interrupting power to a system load, the system comprising:
a ring bus;
a plurality of static uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), each static UPS of the plurality of static UPSs comprising:
at least one battery;
an input that is electrically connected to respective external electrical power source; and
an output that is electrically connected to a respective load, and, via a first corresponding unswitchable choke, without any intervening switch to the ring bus,

the method comprising:
sending a signal to a fuel cell system to start up, the fuel cell system comprising the at least one fuel cell module, a respective fuel-cell interface converter (FIC) electrically connected to an output of the at least one fuel cell module and that converts direct current (DC) electrical power to alternating current (AC) electrical power, and a second corresponding unswitchable choke that electrically connects an output of the respective FIC to the ring bus without any intervening switch;
providing, from the at least one battery, electrical power during start-up of the fuel cell system;
supplying electrical power from the fuel cell system to at least one load via droop control applied to the respective FIC and the at least one static UPS, and the ring bus; and
reducing power consumption from a source external to the system,
wherein each respective FIC supplies AC electrical power to one or more respective loads indirectly via the ring bus and does not directly supply any other AC electrical load.