Power supply system including power sharing control arrangement

A power supply system for powering a plurality of loads comprising:

• A. a plurality of energizeable power supply circuits each including a power supply terminal for supplying power to one of said loads in response to a power supply control signal;
• B. a actuable power sharing arrangement connected to all of the power supply circuits for sharing power among the power supply circuits in response to a power sharing control signal, said power sharing arrangement including a multi-pole contactor including a plurality of poles each connected to a power supply terminal, said contactor when actuated in response to said power supply control signal connecting said power supply terminals to a common node to effectively share power from said power supply circuits among all of said loads, and said contactor when de-actuated disconnecting said power supply terminals from said common node so that each power supply terminal is only connected to one of said loads;
• and
• C. a control circuit for generating the power supply control signals to individually control energization of each of the power supply circuits, the control circuit further generating the power sharing control signal to maintain the power sharing arrangement in an actuated condition when the power supply circuit control signals are controlling all of the power supply circuits to be energized, and otherwise maintaining the power sharing arrangement in a de-actuated condition;
• whereby:
• (i) while the control circuit controls the power supply control signals to control all of the power supply circuits to be energized, it contemporaneously controls the power sharing arrangement to share power among the power supply circuits to ensure continuous availability of power to all of the loads in the event of failure of one of the power supply circuits, and
• (ii) while the control circuit controls the power supply control signal to de-energize one of the power supply circuits, it contemporaneously controls the power sharing control signal so as to de-actuate the power sharing arrangement to disable it from sharing power among the power supply circuits.