Waitrose Standardises On MINIpower Plus For EPOS Support

Download in PDF format

Back to case studies

Waitrose has chosen MINIpower Plus UPS from Uninterruptible Power Supplies Limited to provide flexible, easy-maintenance support for its EPOS systems. MINIpower Plus is specified for all store new-builds and refurbishments, and will gradually replace existing UPS installations in an ongoing swap-out programme, ultimately providing power protection in the 167 stores of the Waitrose group.

MINIpower Plus systems are part of a PowerWAVE range from Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd. It is a compact, sophisticated modular UPS in which the required output is built up using 1.25kVA boards. These can be mounted in rack or tower cabinets, covering UPS requirements up to 10kVA. PowerWAVE technology not only allows cost-efficient output expansion and redundancy within a small footprint, but also reduces running costs through high operating efficiency and near-unity power factor. The units specified by Waitrose have four board slots, and are currently populated with two boards.

"When we embarked on upgrading our EPOS systems in 2002, we were unsure of the future power requirement, so a solution with flexibility for simple expansion was essential", comments Waitrose's electrical services manager, Andy Lowe. "In addition, MINIpower Plus has attractive features for maintenance and repair which ensures that these functions can be carried out with no break in the power supply to the load and minimum impact on costs."

MINIpower Plus features the unique PowerWAVE paralleling architecture, which means that the boards can be connected for capacity or, as at Waitrose, to provide n+1 redundancy. If output needs to be upgraded, Waitrose can expand within the same footprint to 5kVA with redundancy, simply by adding extra boards. Autonomy is similarly flexible. A further innovative feature is MINIpower Plus's maintenance bypass switch, which plugs into the back of the unit and allows the UPS to be isolated for maintenance purpose or removed for repair, both without interruption of supply to the load.

"Clearly, any break in power to our EPOS systems is unacceptable", Andy Lowe continues. "Not only does MINIpower Plus give us excellent inherent reliability, but continues to support the load even if one board goes down. With this facility, we will never experience an emergency requirement for UPS maintenance, so that we can call out an engineer during normal working hours without incurring 'out-of-hours' costs, and with confidence that there will be no interruption to our ability to trade during maintenance operations."

Uninterruptible Power Supplies' contract to support Waitrose covers preventive maintenance and battery care, alongside UPS installations from Harrogate to Dorchester and Abergavenny to Ramsgate.