Power4, a specialist provider of power and lighting equipment to the rail industry, has been awarded a £2.95 million contract by Network Rail to design and supply 26 Principal Supply Points (PSPs) across Wales and the South West region.
Power4 will supply PSPs at critical areas of the rail network to ensure a back-up power supply is available at key signal points across the region including Taunton, Exeter, Bridgewater and Llanelli. Each PSP is designed to start the generator automatically when there has been a failure of the mains power supply to ensure continuous operation of essential equipment.
The PSPs also include the added functionality of remotely monitoring the unit and essential alarms are generated to warn operators of any malfunction of the system. They can be monitored remotely by PC and include the option of railway maintenance engineers being informed by text message (SMS) when an alarm is generated.
Mike Reed, technical director at Power4, said: “In submitting our proposal, we suggested the use of the latest type of generator control panel to simplify managing the system. Having an in-depth understanding of the challenges facing Network Rail has enabled us to propose the ‘best value’ solution to meet their requirements.”
Network Rail will take receipt of the first PSP in January and all units will be delivered by the end of the 2007.