FEATURE UPS & STANDBY POWER
STORING THE BENEFITS OF AN ENGINEERED UPS SOLUTION
Dr Alex Mardapittas, managing director at Powerstar, discusses how engineering-led solutions can assist in providing UPS to facilities in a host of growing industries with critical on-site equipment
I
n a world where more and more sensitive information is being stored
offsite and in the cloud, it is essential to protect software and data, not only from security breaches, but also from electricity supply quality issues that cause critical systems to fail. When it comes to protecting such facilities, one of the most popular solutions is uninterruptable power supply (UPS), as it continues to provide electricity to a site during periods of power supply quality issues, such as blackouts, brownouts, voltage spikes and dips. Issues with an incoming supply can cause significant damage to highly sensitive areas that rely on critical electrical equipment, inflicting significant and costly downtime for industrial electrical equipment. Data centres, hospitals, or even manufacturing and processing sites, where equipment must function correctly 24 hours a day, are particularly vulnerable. Currently, many facilities use diesel generators and combined heat and power (CHP) to provide UPS. However, even though both can provide off grid power support, they are both ageing technologies struggling to keep up in an advancing world. A more recent innovation that is becoming increasingly popular for UPS functionality is battery- based energy storage technology, which stores the energy provided by the
10 JUNE 2017 | ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
National Grid at times of low demand, or directly from renewable sources, for use at peak times or when required. Energy storage technology provides facilities with a host of benefits, particularly when used for UPS. The solution not only monitors and measures electricity supply to the load, it also recognises when the National Grid fails to supply energy within a 3ms timeframe, and will seamlessly continue to provide power to the load for up to two hours. With frequent increases in the
processing power and speed of critical IT equipment, along with the ever-growing amount of electrical equipment, a UPS solution can be scaled accordingly to manage demand. Therefore, energy storage is a future proof technology for such applications, as capacity can be added by simply installing and connecting additional batteries, which can be accounted for during the specification process, or once growing demand is recognised. It is predicted that data centres will require three times as much energy as they do now in the coming decade. This makes it essential to have engineered energy solutions installed that ensure a constant, stable supply whilst reducing electricity consumption and CO2
emissions.
As UPS continues to become an increasingly important solution for
Powerstar
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facilities that operate in critical environments, it is crucial for such industries to seek a reputable provider to deliver a fully bespoke engineered solution, such as energy storage technology, that guarantees the power supply to a site whilst simultaneously improving energy efficiency, electrical supply quality and equipment efficiencies. Aside from UPS, another factor that data centres have to deal with is increasing fees, and the rising costs of DUoS (Distribution Use of System) and Triad tariffs. However, by using energy storage technology that provides an off-grid solution that is tailored for a specific facility, businesses can save on average 24 per cent on electricity costs by avoiding peak electricity fees. There is also the additional benefit of generating extra revenue by accessing demand side response (DSR) incentives. This offers a significantly cheaper option than attempting to maintain a level of electricity consumption during high tariffs periods throughout the year. DSR is a broad term that encompasses any method of assisting reserve, frequency response, peak avoidance and capacity on the electricity network. DSR incentives are broken up into three categories: Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR), Firm Frequency Response (FFR) and Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR). By using energy storage systems, companies can benefit from the highest level of DSR incentives, resulting in financial benefits for users.
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