Company History

Enerpro became a significant contributor to the power electronics control industry upon its founding in 1983, and has maintained the distinction by staying on the forefront of technological advances. Its first achievement was its original product, the FCOG6100. This three-phase thyristor firing board was the first to incorporate the company’s proprietary digital LSI device, and its small size, low cost and reliability became an industry standard in North America.

In 1985 Enerpro’s founder, Frank Bourbeau, patented the company’s second product, a controller that synchronizes wind turbine powered cage type induction generators with the electric grid. More than 2200 of these simple and effective controllers were used at wind farms in Europe, North America and Asia. In the 1990’s the wind powered generators migrated to wound rotor generators and Enerpro made hundreds of rotor crowbar transient protection controllers for GE and predecessor wind turbines.

Enerpro entered the diesel-electric transportation industry in 1987 when General Motors Research Laboratories requested that the basic Enerpro three-phase firing circuit be modified for operation with variable frequency (VF) three-phase AC power. GMR used Enerpro’s VF rectifiers for research on permanent magnet generator control and for a hybrid battery-electric vehicle. Enerpro extended the variable frequency application to locomotive and mining truck battery chargers and generator field exciters. Early customers included Morrison-Knudsen, Wabtec, ABB Traction and Siemens Energy and Automation.

In 2005, Enerpro developed a 74 V/425 A thyristor rectifier for locomotives made by EMD (Progress Rail). More than 4,500 of these variable frequency rectifiers are in use in the SD70ACe, GT Series, and F125 EMD locomotives.

Recognizing that the conventional constant voltage locomotive battery charging had become ineffective because of frequent engine shutdown-start cycles, Enerpro developed a 3-stage battery charging regulator for use on legacy locomotives. Enerpro 3-stage charge VR31 and DVR31 regulators are installed on 3,500 EMD SD40-2 through SD70M locomotives throughout the U.S, greatly improving locomotive starting reliability, extending battery life, and reducing fuel consumption.