Network Communications News (NCN) June 2016 | Page 41

UPS & power management

The maintain game

S P E C I A L F E AT U R E

Intelligent
thinking

It is misguided to assume that just
because a UPS is running; it is fully
operational, fit for purpose and legal.
While a power failure may only occur
for minutes, recovery can take weeks,
if not months (and be expensive). UPS
testing is riddled with complexities
and dangerous, but what is involved?
A maintenance contract provides
24/7 emergency technical support,
plus monthly, bi-annually and annual
testing including:
P
 reventative maintenance – test transfer switches, circuit breakers and maintenance
bypasses, use thermal imaging to locate hotspots and reveal poor connections and gauge if
anything is unusual.
C
 hecking protection settings and calibration – proactively assess what is going on and
determine if any element is at the end of their useful life.
F
 unctional load testing – ensures optimum operational efficiency incorporating:
S
 teady-state load tests to check input/output conditions and harmonics at varying load
percentages (typically 0, 50 and 100 per cent).
C
 omplete operational test, including a monitored battery rundown to verify system
continuity in a failure situation and determine battery degradation.
Using a company, with significant experience in UPS maintenance, testing and monitoring,
such as Critical Power is paramount. Having the ability to claim for component failure under
warranty or maintenance contracts means the manufacture faces the cost rather than the user. So,
granted UPS testing is costly and time consuming, but the costs associated with an unanticipated
loss of business will, without doubt, outweigh those incurred from testing.
For further information visit: www.criticalpowersupplies.co.uk

The Excel Intelligent PDU family offers
a high specification portfolio of power
distribution units that are designed to suit any
environment where monitoring or managing
of information is required.
The Excel Intelligent INT1 is available with
up to 48 sockets with any combination of socket
type including UK, Schuko, C13, C19 etc. It can
work as an individual master or run as a master
and slave system. One master can have up to
31 slaves, all from one IP address, reducing the
requirement for multiple IP addresses.
The Excel Intelligent INT1 comes with free
software making it a highly
competitive solution
allowing the user
to monitor and
report on up to 50
IP addresses with
the software. The
unit provides billing
quality accuracy to better
than one per cent, allowing
the unit to be used in colocation
centres for the monitoring and
charging of power used.
For further information visit:
www.excel-networking.com

Call for back up

Great eight

With the introduction of its Prefabricated Data Centre
offering, Schneider Electric provides fast and flexible
power protection for modular data centres. It includes
integrated and scalable UPS, battery room and
switchgear, to form part of Schneider Electric’s increasingly
comprehensive system for the modular data centre.
For smaller applications, APC Back-UPS provides
battery back up with surge protection, while the Smart-UPS
range has sold 20 million units sold globally.
APC Symmetra PX (16kW – 500kW) provides the power
train for InfraStruxure on-demand data centres. Engineered
with redundant scalable power, intelligence and battery
modules, the UPSs are perfect for efficient, pay-as-yougrow power protection and are included on the ETL list for
Enhanced Capital Allowances.
The range also includes Symmetra MW and MGE
Galaxy VM UPS, which offers enhanced capital allowances
and is compliant with IEC 62040-3 and Class 1. Both
single and parallel units employ Schneider’s patented
ECOnversion (advanced Eco-Mode technology), which
allow the UPS to run at almost 99 per cent efficiency.
In March 2016 Schneider Electric announced lithiumion battery options for its three-phase UPS solutions. The
batteries significantly reduce UPS footprint to allow for a
more effective use of space whilst extending UPS battery
life and reducing maintenance overhead.
For further information visit: www.apc.com/gb

AEG Power Solutions has announced a new UL
compliant version of its Protect 8 rectifier and
battery charger, which is designed to ensure a
reliable power supply in all types of demanding
industrial app