New Industry Products

Maxwell Intros Two POWERCACHE Backup Power Modules

September 16, 2004 by Jeff Shepard

Maxwell Technologies Inc. (San Diego, CA) announced that it has introduced two POWERCACHE™ ultracapacitor-based, backup power modules that provide a space-saving, maintenance-free, alternative to batteries for short-term "bridge" power in uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems for telecommunications, industrial and medical applications.

The new 48 V rack-mount modules, rated at 1.6 kW and 2.3 kW, are designed and constructed to comply with Network Equipment Building System standards required for telecommunications installations. Maxwell has been collaborating for some time with UPS system integrators and fuel cell and other backup power generator manufacturers to integrate its ultracapacitor-based, bridge power systems with long-term backup power sources.

"Mission-critical facilities, such as wireless telecommunications base stations, data centers, automated factories and hospitals rely on UPS systems to avoid downtime in the event of power interruptions," stated Robert Tressler, Maxwell's vice president of sales and marketing. "The batteries that currently are used in most of these systems are large and heavy, require regular maintenance and replacement, and are difficult to monitor in terms of state-of-charge. For those reasons, many end users are looking for more reliable, more compact, lower maintenance alternatives, which is where Maxwell's POWERCACHE products come in. Fuel cells, diesel generators and microturbines all take from a few seconds to a minute to start up and reach their full output, so UPS systems in which they are the primary backup power source all require a complementary short-term source that is instantly available. Our POWERCACHE modules stay fully charged, recharge in seconds in case there are multiple grid power interruptions, and operate reliably for the life of the system with zero maintenance."