MD-83
Flight Crew Total 23000
Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution
Aircraft
During climb out; climbing through FL280; experienced a complete electrical failure on the left side; then continued AC power Interruptions; with loss of Captain's instruments; Auto Throttles; and Auto Pilot. After several seconds; some of the left side systems began to 'come back' and got Generator Fail light. We notified ATC and were given FL300 to level off. We ran the checklist; and were unable to get the generator to come back on line. We descended to FL280 in order to start the APU. In addition; we got a Center Fuel Pressure Low light. We continued to follow the checklist; starting the APU and disconnecting the Left CSD. Due to the fact we had the center fuel pressure low lights; still very close to ZZZ and were flying into areas of Thunderstorm activity in ZZZ1; at night; we decided to [advise ATC] and return to ZZZ. We returned to ZZZ and landed at 134;000 lbs; pulled off the active runway into a taxi area where the emergency vehicles could drive around the aircraft and inspect the tires and wheels for overheating. Temperature never got above 170 degrees while on taxiway and 200 after parking.
MD83 Captain reported a failure of the CSD drive after takeoff thereby losing several electrical components.