ITW GSE's smarter gate power system with IPM

As airports are already at their power capacity limit, ITW GSE’s Intelligent Power Management (IPM) allows airports to connect more equipment to an existing gate while removing complexity and eases maintenance.

“Airport gate installations often have excess power capacity because they are designed to cover the power needs in a worst case scenario and not simply the actual demand,” said ITW GSE sales director David Feuga.  “The surplus may be rather considerable, up to 30-50%.

Many years of experience doing world- wide airport installations have provided us with extensive field data recordings, Feuga continues. Those recordings show that 400 Hz ground power units rarely draw full current. And if they do, it’s only for very short periods of time. Due to its variable frequency drive technology that allow step-less regulation of the discharge temperature, the intelligent ITW GSE PCA, the brain of the IPM system, can easily cope with those periods.”

At all times, the PCA ensures that the total power consumption does not exceed the power capacity limit.

“When connected GPUs draw more power i.e. during aircraft engine start, the PCA smoothly reduce the its own consumption. And because the GPUs only require more power for a very short time i.e. from a few seconds to a few minutes, passengers presumably not even register any rise of the cabin temperature,” said Feuga.

“The IPM system is a big advantage for airports that have reached their power capacity limits. Besides room for connection of more equipment to existing stands without investments in expensive infrastructure, the simpler installation reduces maintenance costs. ITW is ready with advice and calculations, if you wonder how you can benefit from implementing the IPM system.”

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