Patent ID: 7417410

Claim:
A power control system, comprising: a power reduction module operable to reduce power to a load; a switching module operable to selectively transfer power directly to the load or to the power reduction module; a harmonic reduction module connected to an output of the power reduction module for reducing signal harmonics from power transferred to the load; a controller linked to the switching module; a resistor coupled between the switching module and the power reduction module; a resistor voltage monitor coupled to first and second terminals of the resistor, wherein the resistor voltage monitor measures a voltage across the resistor and sends voltage measurement data to the controller; and a low voltage monitor coupled between the power reduction module and the load, wherein the low voltage monitor measures a voltage across the load and transmits voltage measurement data to the controller, and the controller provides control signals to the switching module after comparing the voltage across the resistor to a first value and after comparing the voltage across the load to a second value.