ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
By David Bond, Chairman,
Centiel UK Ltd
www.centiel.co.uk
13
When purchasing a UPS there’s much more to
consider than simply specs, price and reputation. An
UPS’s green credentials are just as important…
In October last year, the UN issued a landmark report which
stated Greenhouse gas emissions must be cut almost in
half by 2030 to avert global environmental catastrophe,
including the total loss of every coral reef, the disappearance
of Arctic ice and the destruction of island communities;
scientists stated that we need to keep temperature increases
below 1.5C to avoid the worst effects of global warming.
Unless we see a significant move away from fossil fuels to
renewable energy and introduce new technology to reverse
global warming by removing C02 from the atmosphere,
scientists believe this figure will be exceeded within around
20 years.
This report paints a bleak picture of our future if rapid
action isn't taken on both an individual and a corporate
level. Organisations have a responsibility to shareholders to
look after them both financially and from an environmental
perspective, so they need to start taking a long-term view
and base purchasing decisions on reducing environmental
impact. In this way, we can all play a part in contributing to
change. So, from an environmental perspective what needs
to be considered when purchasing a UPS?
Operational efficiency
If we consider a 100kW UPS operating 24 hours per day/365
days per year, every 1% of efficiency loss wastes 1kW every
hour. At only 10p/kW hour this equates to £8,760 over a
10-year period and doesn’t include the energy wasted by
additional air conditioning. Currently in the UK, more than
60% of this wasted energy comes from the burning of
fossil fuels, which is why selecting the most efficient UPS is
essential to minimise the carbon footprint.
Beware, operational efficiencies are often stated by
manufacturers as being greater than 99%, however, this
99% efficiency is related to offline operation or eco mode.
No data centre ever operates on this mode as they would
be operating on raw mains and only transferring (with a
short break in power) to full UPS operation when there’s a
problem. True online efficiency is the important percentage
to compare UPS solutions as this indicates the real UPS
operating efficiency.
Rightsizing for now and the future
From an efficiency perspective, the big challenge is that the
IT power requirement in most organisations will change
over time. Six years ago, a comms room server rack typically
required 6kW, today it’s likely to require 30kW. So, how
can the infrastructure be built to meet these dramatically
changing demands?
Put simply, a UPS needs to be easily scalable and must
always operate at the optimum point on its efficiency
curve. A system which is too small will be overloaded,
compromising availability, while a system that’s too large
will be inefficient, waste energy and be costly to run. It
will also cost more than necessary to maintain due to
its size. Scalability and flexibility are therefore essential
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