Patent ID: 6980911

Claim:
An Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) system comprising: at least one input port capable of being coupled to first and second power sources and receiving first and second input powers from those power sources; a first output port capable of being coupled to a load and providing output power to the load; at least one sensing device that is coupled to the at least one input port and senses first and second characteristics of the first and second input powers, respectively; at least one control device coupled to the at least one sensing device that determines whether a first phase of the first input power and a second phase of the second input power either have or will become synchronized within a first period; and a second output port coupled to the control device, wherein a control signal generated by the control device is output at the second output port when the control device determines that the first and second phases either have not or will not become synchronized within the first period; wherein the control signal is configured to cause a change in operation of at least one of the first and second power sources so that at least one of the first and second phases is adjusted in a manner that could lead to synchronization of the first and second phases, and the control signal is a high-level signal, which is intended to precipitate a change in an output frequency of one of the power sources.