Autonomous power supplies for remote, safety critical electronic equipment

The Collaborative Autonomous Power System has been developed through the need to provide electricity for remote safety critical electronic equipment for central and local governments. The development has been over eight years, thus far, and has included research into different types of fuel cell and their fuel including research into alternative renewable power sources. The process has included a trial of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell as a primary support system for a battery power supply to check the refuelling requirements against the calculated predictions. The results obtained were used to identify the trial that this paper is related to which is intended to prove that re-fuelling can be reduced to once a year to coincide with the existing maintenance requirements of the electronic equipment thereby making it a viable, sustainable solution.