Network Communications News (NCN) April 2017 | Page 32

UPS
Protecting against short and
long term power disruptions
Alan Luscombe, director at Uninterruptible Power Supplies, a Kohler company,
looks at the solutions available to handle various scenarios.
D
ata centres and
other ICT resources
need protection from
power aberrations
during normal mains
operation as well as complete
and extended power blackouts.
Although compromises can
sometimes be made, the best and
most comprehensive solution is to
use a dual-conversion, online UPS
which is backed up by a generator.
32 | April 2017
Today, a typical organisation’s
performance is only as good as
its ICT resource – which depends
just as critically on the quality and
continuity of its power supply.
Accordingly, such resources, which
can range from large data centres
to small IT rooms, are usually
protected with a UPS system.
However, simply sourcing a
UPS of suitable capacity isn’t
necessarily enough to provide
the level of protection that the
facility needs. What happens if
an extended blackout of several
hours or more occurs? Or if the
mains input supply is subject to
elevated levels of electrical noise
or interference? In this article, we
look at the factors to consider
when accurately matching a power
back up system to your particular
data facility’s real needs.
We c a n sta r t b y reali s i n g that
p owe r su p p l y i ssu e s di v i de i nto
l o n g te r m b l a c ko u t s of ex ten ded
d u rat i o n , a n d sh o r t te rm
p ro b l e m s su c h a s t ra ns i ents ,
n o i se , b row n o u t s a n d b ri ef
d u rat i o n b l a c ko u t s.
Long term blackouts
– using generators
The long term blackouts need
special consideration because a
UPS alone is never sufficient to
guarantee cover. No matter how
much the battery autonomy, a
blackout of longer duration is always
a possibility. Some facilities can
tolerate this provided they can shut
down safely, but most – especially
if the system is processing on
line transactions – must continue
running under all circumstances.