Auxiliary power

Auxiliary power: Electric power that is provided by an alternate source and that serves as backup for the primary power source at the station main bus or prescribed sub-bus.

An offline unit provides electrical isolation between the primary power source and the critical technical load whereas an online unit does not.

A Class A power source is a primary power source, i.e., a source that assures an essentially continuous supply of power.

Types of auxiliary power services include Class B, a standby power plant to cover extended outages of the order of days; Class C, a 10-to-60-second quick-start unit to cover short-term outages of the order of hours; and Class D, an uninterruptible non-break unit using stored energy to provide continuous power within specified voltage and frequency tolerances.

Source: originally from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188

See also distributed generation.