NETWORKING—SECURITY—UPS—STORAGE
Opinion
Resellers should inform Manufacturers have taken out, Improvements in electronics and and meantime to repair (MTTR).
customers, and in particular, replaced or improved the parts of use of microprocessor technology Smarter ‘consumables management’
potential customers of the scheme a power protection system that improves overall efficiency in UPS also preserves the lifetime of
and its implications, not so much were inefficient and implemented – not just energy efficiency. Today’s batteries, fans and capacitors, while
through obligation but as part of new technology to reduce or models contain fewer components, improved remote monitoring negates
the overall power reseller service. negate inefficiencies. which also improves reliability – the requirement for engineers to
In many cases, it has been enough meantime before failure (MTBF) visit the site unnecessarily. circlesolid
to persuade customers considering Specifically, what has changed
UPS project installations or is the way in which a UPS draws
upgrades to bring those projects its energy from the mains and
Open Hosting –
forward. The problem is, not its impact on the local electrical
UPS energy efficiency case study
many customers are aware of it. environment. A UPS with a high
The channel could help to get input power factor of 0.95 per cent
When hosting company Open Hosting moved its
information out there and help or more will optimise the use of
operations away from London’s Docklands it had just
itself in the process. mains power. The drive towards
two months to build a new data centre in Manchester. It
entailed converting a modern office into a new data centre
facility. It also included installation of three 100kVA N+1
Riello UPS uninterruptible power supplies and a 550kVA
SDMO generator. Installation of the latest energy efficient
UPS technology is set to achieve a 20 per cent reduction
in energy use. The company has only been given 50 per
cent of the 2MV energy supply it requested from United
Utilities, so reducing consumption is critical.
Cost savings are significant: on a bill of £61,000 per
month, it equates to a saving of almost £450,000 over a
three-year period. Chris Byrd, co-founder of OpenHosting,
explained: “We are currently achieving 95.6 per cent
efficiency from the UPS – and that’s operating at one-third
capacity. Once we are at full capacity that figure will
increase. 98 per cent is what we’re aiming for.”
closing down inefficiency in power
Opportunities for resellers
Energy efficiency protection technology has also
There have never been as many opportunities for power
In the near future, it is likely resulted in lower overall total cost
resellers to add value than there are today, particularly
businesses that consume large of ownership (TCO). Energy
if they are specialists in IT and telecoms, for example,
amounts of energy (upwards of efficient UPS emit less heat and
where high growth in UPS sales is occurring. There are
£500,000 per annum) will be so demand less cooling. Low total
many aspects to power protection, in addition to UPS
penalised financially. The European
supply and installation, which resellers can exploit in
harmonic distortion (THDi) of 3 per
Union (EU) has made it a require -
association with leading manufacturers. These include:
cent or less reduces the impact
UPS overhaul, battery monitoring and testing, power
ment for all member states to on other systems connected to
protection equipment servicing and maintenance, project
tax the business use of energy. the same mains power supply. A
management, consultancy, equipment hire, UPS remote
Climate Change Agreements exist smaller physical footprint also
monitoring, energy and power surveys.
in the UK with over 50 industrial reduces the CO2 emissions
sectors. Participants receive an 80 associated with transporting UPS
Whether it’s Enhanced Capital Allowances, energy
per cent discount from the Climate to the customer and reduces the
efficiency, or any other aspect of power protection
Change Levy, provided they meet need for additional infrastructure
requirements, resellers must look to use any opportunity
carbon emissions or energy investment at the same time.
they can to draw customers in and drive sales forward.
efficiency targets. Replacing less In the case of data centres,
The credit crunch may have made customers more
efficient equipment now makes maximising rack space for
cautious but it has also focused the collective
economic and commercial sense. revenue-earning servers is also
consciousness on cost reduction and efficiency by
facilitated by the introduction
any means, which, in itself, is an opportunity.
UPS technology has made great of smaller footprint, yet more
strides in becoming energy efficient. powerful, UPS modules.
www.itrportal.com
IT RESELLER – NOVEMBER 2009 45
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