Narrative:

During climb out around 7;000 feet; we got and ECAM that stated dc essn bus on battery. I asked the first officer to see if we could level off at 10;000 feet. As we were looking at the problem; it cleared itself. We discussed it briefly; looked around the instruments to see if we could find any abnormalities. We did not see any so we pressed on. Around 17;000 feet or so; we received the same alert again. This time it stayed and we were losing various systems and instruments. We leveled at FL200. I continued to fly as she worked the ECAM items. We discussed the situation and decided to go back to ZZZ. I [advised ATC] and got vectors back to ZZZ. The checklist had us on stby gen pwr. Several systems that should not have been working; were actually working and vice versa. Checklist stated that gear may not extend normally and that we may not have nose wheel steering. I asked for firetrucks to be standing by after knowing this may happen. We took our time; completed all checklist. Briefed the two jump seaters to strap in tightly as we may not have steering on landing. We landed with no problems. Gear came down fine and the steering worked ok. Taxied to our gate and debriefed. We were told they were transloading to the ac next to our gate. We walked over to that AC and departed. The first officer did an outstanding job handling a very confusing checklist and situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A300 flight crew reported ECAM 'DC ESSN bus on Battery' and several electrical system anomalies during climbout. Crew ran associated checklists and returned to the departure airport.

Narrative: During climb out around 7;000 feet; we got and ECAM that stated DC ESSN bus on Battery. I asked The FO to see if we could level off at 10;000 feet. As we were looking at the problem; it cleared itself. We discussed it briefly; looked around the instruments to see if we could find any abnormalities. We did not see any so we pressed on. Around 17;000 feet or so; we received the same alert again. This time it stayed and we were losing various systems and instruments. We leveled at FL200. I continued to fly as she worked the ECAM items. We discussed the situation and decided to go back to ZZZ. I [advised ATC] and got vectors back to ZZZ. The checklist had us on STBY GEN pwr. Several systems that should not have been working; were actually working and vice versa. Checklist stated that Gear may not extend normally and that we may not have nose wheel steering. I asked for firetrucks to be standing by after knowing this may happen. We took our time; completed all checklist. Briefed the two jump seaters to strap in tightly as we may not have steering on landing. We landed with no problems. Gear came down fine and the steering worked ok. Taxied to our gate and debriefed. We were told they were transloading to the ac next to our gate. We walked over to that AC and departed. The FO did an outstanding job handling a very confusing checklist and situation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.