Date: 06/07/2010

New series of AC/DC power sources with power sink option from AMETEK

AMETEK has made available the MX Series AC / DC Power Source with a power sink option (SNK) that is designed to reduce the total energy consumed in the production testing of grid-tied inverters designed for distributed resources such as solar energy systems. By using the MX Series to simulate the interconnection with the utility grid, the output power generated by the inverter is returned to the grid, which AMETEK says saves over 85% of the energy consumption. The MX Series source is programmable and can be programmed to simulate utility power variability (voltage, frequency, harmonic distortion) necessary to test the inverter's ability to source energy to the grid. The unit can also test the inverter's ability to comply with the anti-islanding tests required of grid-tied distributed resources. Islanding is the term used to describe the unsafe operation of a distributed resource in the event of a loss of utility power.

"The use of the MX Series in this application can result in significant reduction of energy usage in production testing," comments Eric Turner, AMETEK product manager for solar energy test systems. "Instead of using a load bank to dissipate the energy in the form of heat, over half of the energy is returned to the grid. And the added energy costs needed for cooling are also eliminated."

Some of the key features of the MX Series are:
1. Provides power levels from 15 kVA to 270 kVA.
2. Uses a digital signal processor-based arbitrary waveform generator and power analyzer.
3. It can eliminate the need for additional equipment to create a complete AC and DC power test system.
4. It has a large graphical LCD display which aids in measurement and analysis capabilities and can be accessed directly from the front panel without the need for remote control.
5. IEEE-488, RS-232C, USB and Ethernet interfaces are included and Windows Graphical User Interface application software comes with each MX unit.


For more information visit: www.programmablepower.com