Development of management technology for large power systems

Autonomous power management has been proposed as a method to perform optimization of power subsystem performance in connection with the management of multikilowatt space platforms. A concept for a 250-kW utility-type power subsystem was developed. A Cassegrain concentrator solar array primary source is conditioned by a solar array switching unit which supplies seventeen 220 +20 Vdc power channels. A power management subsystem provides the monitoring and control of the overall electrical power subsystem. The discussed system concept for autonomous management of high power space platforms utilizes on-board microprocessors in a decentralized data management architecture. A data bus protocol and a data bus contention resolution scheme were selected in conjunction with the dencentralized management architecture.