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NEWS IN BRIEF
Eaton UPS-as-a-Reserve proven in data centre pilot
Eaton has announced the successful pilot of the first live data
centre to use its UPS-as-a-Reserve (UPSaaR) solution for Fast
Frequency Response. Basefarm, a Norwegian data centre
company, trialled the service as part of a project led by Statnett,
a Norwegian transmission system operator, and Fortum, a leading
energy provider in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The project
showed how power consumers can also help ensure a stable power
grid and was completed in summer (Q3) 2018.
As part of the project, Basefarm data centre’s Eaton 93PM
and Power Xpert 9395P UPSs were upgraded with UPSaaR
functionality. This enables data centre operators to work with
energy providers to momentarily reduce the power demands
of the data centre and even return power to the grid. This is a
major step forward in enabling energy providers to deliver more
robust power systems based on greener energy, which is harder
to predict and ensure a consistent supply. Alongside performing
their primary functions to protect critical loads, the UPSs were
now capable of providing 1.5 MW of capacity. A data centre
could potentially earn €50,000 per MW of power allocated to grid
support per year, depending on the local market.
During the pilot, the UPSs were tested for real during a power
plant failure that caused instability in the grid. The data centre
reserves were the quickest to activate, providing the desired power
impact in far less than the required two seconds, and faster than
other reserves connected to the grid, such as pumps, industrial
consumption and electric vehicles.
The pilot has proved that energy storage in data centres is a
viable and fast-acting means of reserve to balance power grids
and does not impact the UPS’s primary function of securing data
centre loads. Eaton has now completed successful UPSaaR pilot
projects in grids in the UK and Scandinavia. Consequently, the
UPSaaR is ready to be offered to demand response markets as a
retrofit solution or as inbuilt functionality in new data centres. n
Schneider Electric
strengthens data
centre infrastructure
management
Siemon enhances singlemode fibre
offering
Siemon has enhanced its
comprehensive line of LightHouse
advanced fibre cabling solutions
with a new APC BladePatch Uni-boot
duplex singlemode fibre jumper. The
new jumper has been developed in
response to increasing fibre densities
and the growing demand for APC
(angled physical contact) connectivity
that offers improved return loss
performance for high-speed fibre links.
The new LC APC BladePatch Uni-
boot duplex jumper features the
company’s patented revolutionary
BladePatch low-profile push-pull
boot design for easy access and
removal in tight-fitting areas such
as high-density fibre patching for
switches, blade servers and storage
equipment. Utilising ITU-T G.657.
A1 bend-insensitive singlemode fibre
and a smaller diameter uni-tube cable
design, the LC APC BladePatch reduces
cable pathway congestion, improving
airflow and increasing energy
efficiency while simplifying overall
cable management.
“In recent years, we have seen a
growing need for better return loss
performance and APC singlemode
connectivity for connecting carrier
services and supporting higher-speed
protocols in the data centre, long haul
and FTTX environments,” explains
Kevin Stronkowsky, product manager
for Siemon. “The fibre endface of an
APC connector features an 8-degree
angle that provides better reflection
performance versus UPC (ultra
physical contact) connectors. We are
extremely pleased to expand our APC
singlemode offering with the patented
push-pull design of our already
popular LC BladePatch.”
Siemon’s LightHouse APC
singlemode offering also includes
fibre patch cords, fibre pigtails,
pre-terminated fibre trunks and
connectivity. For more information
on the new LC APC BladePatch, visit:
go.siemon.com/lc-apc-bladepatch,
or visit www.siemon.com/lighthouse
to access all of Siemon’s LightHouse
advanced fibre cabling solutions. n
Schneider Electric has announced the continued
rollout of EcoStruxure IT Expert, its cloud-based
data centre infrastructure management solution,
with its release in Europe. With IT Expert,
Schneider Electric brings secure, vendor agnostic,
wherever-you-go monitoring and visibility of all
IoT-enabled physical infrastructure assets
As part of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure
architecture, IT Expert operates with all IoT-
enabled physical infrastructure assets like secure
power and cooling – including the new, cloud-
enabled Smart-UPS with APC SmartConnect. IT
Expert addresses the data centre industry’s need
to simplify how data centres, distributed IT and
local edge environments are managed. Providing
proactive recommendations and consolidated
performance and alarming data, IT Expert can
significantly reduce alarm noise and improve
overall site resiliency.
“EcoStruxure IT Expert harnesses the data
generated from any environment – from
distributed IT to the data centres – and uses
it to deliver intelligent benchmarking and
increased visibility to all of your connected
devices,” said Kim Povlsen, Vice President
& General Manager of Digital Services &
Data Center Software, Schneider Electric.
“In our increasingly cloud-based world, IT
Expert delivers a remote monitoring service
empowered with real-time data and proactive
recommendations to repair and improve system
availability.” n
www.networkseuropemagazine.com