An industrial power supply is one of various types of power supplies designed to monitor and control the amount of energy provided to a specific business operation. This is in contrast to home or domestic power supplies, which help to control the flow of current through a residence. With an industry power supply structure, the system normally includes equipment that not only controls the flow of power through the facility, but also makes it possible to disengage from a main power source and switch to an auxiliary source when and as needed.
The exact type of industrial power supply employed will depend on the type of business operation involved. Some systems are designed to carry higher energy levels than others, making it necessary to utilize equipment that will provide the proper level of power supply output. For example, the output required for a large manufacturing plant will be different from the flow of power needed by a smaller business.
With most industrial power supply systems, the focus is on the ability to monitor and control the flow of electrical power into the facility. This means that most systems will be structured to include what is known as a power supply regulator. The regulator makes it possible to adjust the power supply to meet current needs, a feature that aids in managing power costs and usage to greater efficiency. At one time, regulators of this type required manual intervention on the part of employees who would actively monitor the power flow. More recently, most models of the industrial power supply incorporate some sort of computer interface that allows technicians to set automated controls and monitoring of the power supply, while also retaining the ability to disengage and manage the power flow manually if necessary.
One of the other key features of the modern industrial power supply is the ability to make use of more than one power source in order to maintain production. Hybrid regulators make it possible to easily switch from power supplied by a utility power grid to a private grid that makes use of solar or wind energy. This can come in handy if the company wishes to utilize multiple sources for energy, or needs to draw on an alternative source of energy during some sort of power grid failure. In some systems, the function of the industrial power supply equipment are configured to detect fluctuations in the power supply from a grid and initiate a switch to a backup power source of those fluctuations fall outside pre-set parameters. This makes it possible for the manufacturing process to continue, typically without even a momentary loss of power to the machines in operation.