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A Vacation from Diesel: EVRs Are Changing the

Formula for Backup Power Generation

at Resorts, Hotels and Casinos

Dr. Robert C. Degeneffand David K. Wightman

Once, vacationing meant occasionally tolerating rustic now cause traditional backup systems to engage can be
conditions. No longer. The modern consumer expects safely bridged. More importantly, an EVR allows a facility to
a “quality power experience” wherever they go. Anything remain connected to the local source through brownouts,
less immediately generates a demand for comp days and sags and surges of any duration, while providing full power
the posting of bad online reviews.In developed regions of for all guest services.
the world, this is not a big problem.

TAPPING THE POWER OF AN EVR
But as the demand for exotic travel experiences grows,
resort developers are increasingly building in places The EVR is the modern standard for voltage regulation
where power quality remains a significant challenge – the in most power quality applications. Electronic voltage
Caribbean, Central America, South America, the South regulators minimize and balance out variations in voltage
Pacific, much of Africa, and parts of Asia. to protect equipment that draws electricity from a power
source. As electronics become more prevalent in
hospitality, industrial and commercial applications, the
To meet the growing consumer demand for an “invisible”
power experience, engineers have had little choice but to EVR’s speed and performance advantages allow it to fill
specify ever-larger and more expensive diesel and battery a gap in backup power system design that older, slower
backup systems. mechanical voltage regulators cannot.
EVRs “sense” even the smallest voltage fluctuation within a
But a new technology, electronic voltage regulators
(EVRs), transformers equipped with electronic on-load tap single cycle and adjust electrical output by transforming the
changers,are significantly altering the formulafor backup voltage coming in from the grid before passing it through
system investment. When an EVR is placed between the to the load they serve. This allows facilities to remain
source and the load, many of the electrical “events” that safely connected to the local grid and deliver full power
to all services whenever incoming voltage swings above

Standard Backup Power Systems Configured Without and With an Electronic
Voltage Regulator
INDUSTRY JOURNAL 20