[ Spotlight: UPS ]


protection. ‘The key is for them to work with a reputable UPS vendor that can deliver secure and safe solutions,’ says Mannerkoski. ‘In general, contractors are looking for competitively-priced UPS systems that can be delivered promptly and that dependably deliver the protection their customers require. Reliable and eff ective support from the vendor is the key to success.’


Cost factors Contractors need to understand the drivers for UPS from an end-user perspective. ‘The capital cost of the UPS is important, but so are the operational costs over the life-cycle of the UPS, with energy effi ciency, total cost of ownership, fl exibility and reliability being the key drivers,’ says Alan Luscombe. ‘Service is equally as important to the end-user – from a capability, coverage and response time point of view. An IT manager running a data centre wants to sleep easy at night.’


Comprehensive UPS services, covering planned


preventative maintenance visits, nationwide coverage with guaranteed on-site response by trained UPS engineers, spares availability and access to technical support 24/7 are all critical to this. Other services, like remote monitoring, are also important. ‘End users want 100 per cent uptime and zero


hassle,’ says Darren Pearce. ‘They want remote monitoring, servicing and automated call-out for both UPS and generators. Powertecnique’s remote monitoring software is PowerVue, which identifi es specifi c problems on any piece of equipment, and


Energy effi ciency, total cost of ownership, fl exibility and reliability are the key drivers


automatically notifi es an engineer. As this is combined with a service agreement, we can be proactive and solve a problem often before the customer knows it’s there – a true defi nition of zero hassle.’


Technology developments So what technological developments should contractors be looking out for? ‘Effi ciency is a key topic in every business, and it is essential to provide UPS solutions that maximise effi ciency,’ says Jorma Mannerkoski. ‘The best UPSs can now achieve effi ciencies of more than 99 per cent when the mains power quality is good, and this means big savings in running costs over the life of the UPS. Long battery life is another important factor, so contractors should be looking for UPSs that use ABM technology, as this can extend battery life by as much as 50 per cent. In addition, UPSs need to be monitored and to have management tools that can be integrated with the user’s IT systems and, where appropriate, their virtualised environment. Choosing a UPS vendor that can support the IT infrastructure is vital to ensure graceful shutdown, or even live migration of virtual servers, in the event of a power failure.’ ‘We are experiencing greater frequency in data


shelter application, as data centres look to reduce both capital and running costs,’ says Pearce. Powertecnique’s Shelter range takes the fi ve basic elements of data centres and splits them between two packages. The fi rst is DataShelter which off ers server racks, UPS and cooling equipment. Both the cooling solution and the UPS are built to incorporate an N+1 level of


SSE and UPS slash West Sussex running costs


West Sussex County Council recently took over Horsham’s landmark County Hall North building, formerly occupied by insurance giant Royal Sun Alliance. The site is now one of the council’s fi ve main hubs, housing up to 600 employees and managing a broad range of critical data relating to day-to-day operations across the county, including social services, local residents’ details and other highly sensitive information. In line with the council’s carbon


reduction commitment policy, a review of the current UPS system was commissioned to identify how the function of the building had changed and where savings could be made. Nicola Winser, carbon management offi cer for the council, explains: ‘Fundamentally, the way we are using the building and the quantity of critical data we are producing is very diff erent today. This building’s previous


owners were heavily data-focused, and therefore required a much greater data storage capacity. Because of this, the UPS system was also much larger than we needed, and was therefore generating more heat that, in turn, meant it needed more air conditioning. ‘The old UPS had a capacity of 200


kVA, with another 200 kVA standalone UPS just for redundancy. In itself, this was an ineffi cient system compared with current technology and we didn’t need anywhere near that amount of capacity, so immediately we recognised that we could reduce the size of the UPS, thus also reducing our cooling requirements,’ says Winser. Uninterruptible Power Supplies


Ltd (UPSL) was contacted by the council and its maintenance contractor, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) Contracting, to provide an appropriately-sized and effi cient UPS system that could manage the


transition between the mains and a standby generator, ensuring that all data remained accessible and unaff ected by any power interruptions. The selected PowerWAVE 9000DPA


system off ered the council a 100 kVA load capacity, comprising three 50 kVA modules with N+1 redundancy. Should the council’s load require it, the PowerWAVE 9000DPA’s true ‘hot-swap’ modularity enables capacity to be added in cost-eff ective incremental steps, as power requirements grow. Additionally, the ability to ‘hot-swap’ modules while the system is online signifi cantly reduces mean time to repair (MTTR) and simplifi es system power upgrades. Projected running cost savings are


impressive. The old UPS cost £7,631 a year in power consumption, with the air conditioning costing a further £2,500 a year. West Sussex is expecting power costs of £1800, with cooling


54 ECA Today December 2013


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