The Critical Nature Of Stationary Battery Maintenance

Rick Raczak, P.E.

Caterpillar, Electric Power

April 2016
INTRODUCTION

Stationary batteries are one of the most critical aspects of an emergency power supply system, and yet they are the most overlooked and neglected part of the system. During power outages, they are called upon to provide backup power for critical electrical systems which keep data, life safety and key production equipment in operation until a generator set or another secondary power source comes online.

For example, generator sets at a hospital can take up to 10 seconds to begin accepting loads, so batteries provide the power necessary to bridge that time gap. No surgeon wants to be in the middle of an operation without properly maintained batteries when a utility outage occurs.

The applications protected by batteries are numerous and critical, and batteries are frequently forgotten until an outage occurs. Lack of maintenance is usually only discovered when batteries are unable to support the intended load.