A Look Back and a Look Forward at the DC Power Industry

DC Power Hour

Batteries are a critical part of the telecom infrastructure and can be found in many different types of telecom equipment. They provide backup power and support to essential systems during an outage or emergency situation. Most substations have some kind of telecom element to them. This could be as simple as a few batteries, or it could be a much more complex system. In either case, a DC battery is typically used. However, batteries alone are not enough to power a substation. They must be connected to the utility's power grid in order to function properly. Without this connection, the substation would not be able to provide the necessary power to the community it serves.

Episode Highlights

06:34 - The challenge has become another direction because it’s a lot more difficult to innovate because you're stuck to certain things that you have to do.

09:42 - We already got computerization within the main switching centers. With a lot of fancy details and fancy fonts, one of the problems was that they needed to be able to operate the monitor and the keyboard in order to access the switch.

14:43 - Customers said, “Well, we don’t want these nasty batteries with electrolytes rushing around inside, we want something that is more user-friendly, we want something that’s smaller, something that’s lighter, something that’s cheaper, something that doesn’t require maintenance,” and low and behold, the industry came up with one of the greatest marketing ploys I thought ever happened and it’s a complete oxymoron. They come up with selling free batteries.

29:14 - There’s a telecom element within every substation. Some more complex than others, sometimes they are stand alone. It all depends on the utility structure.

34:08 - There’s almost a disconnect within certain utilities as an entity within their own substation sometimes and I’m sure some people are upset about being told that.

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