Latest News

• ECA approved products from UPSL

  http://www.upspower.co.uk/ups-products/3-phase/eca-listed-products.aspx
• UPSL’S full enterprise product range awarded inclusion to the Energy Technology List

  Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd’s range of highly efficient, modular and scalable UPS systems, designed specifically for data centre applications, has now been recognised by the Government’s Energy Technology List (ETL) for Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECA).

   

  After being awarded inclusion for its PowerWAVE 6000, 8000 and 9000 UPS products, UPSL, a Kohler company, is now uniquely placed to assist customers in finding tailored solution for their specific requirements, whilst also reducing the impact of capital expenditure and on-going operating costs, as well as enabling increased efficiency and a reduced carbon footprint.

   

  UPSL, recognised as a leading provider of power protection product and service solutions, revealed the list of UPS systems that have now been included on the ETL, which is operated and managed by the UK’s Carbon Trust.

   

  The enterprise level solutions included are:

   

  PowerWAVE 6000 (60 – 500kVA)

  PowerWAVE 8000 (10 – 200kVA)

  PowerWAVE 9000 (10 – 250kVA)

   

  The ECA Scheme for Energy Saving Technologies was created to encourage environmentally proactive businesses to invest in approved plant or machinery equipment that has been designed with energy efficiency in mind. In real terms, inclusion in the scheme means businesses investing in the latest PowerWAVE UPS can offset the entire cost of the equipment against taxable profits, therefore potentially reducing the organisation's tax bill by 23% of the equipment cost.
   

  David Renton, Managing Director for UPSL commented:  “The inclusion of all our enterprise level UPS products is a clear demonstration of our continued focus to design the most efficient and flexible UPS systems on the market. Customers now have the chance to dramatically increase the efficiency of their power protection system by purchasing a PowerWAVE UPS. This will not only reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint and opex through higher levels of operating efficiency, but will also enable up to 100 per cent of the ECA-qualifying UPS project cost to be offset against tax within the year of purchase.”

   

  After pioneering the use of transformerless technology, the PowerWAVE range of three-phase true ‘modular’ and standalone transformerless UPS solutions are today recognised for being at the forefront of power protection innovation and technology and are class-leading in terms of system reliability efficiency, availability, scalability and flexibility – using less energy, generating less CO₂, saving valuable floor space and achieving significant total cost of ownership savings - making them ideal for data centre applications.

   

  In addition, UPSL is able to add a comprehensive range of standby diesel generators and other complimentary ancillary products such as batteries, switchgear and power conditioning equipment to provide a complete, fully matched power protection solution for data centre applications to ensure a true, no-break supply in the event of a power failure.

  UPSL also offers the most comprehensive and cost-effective service available - ensuring the UPS, generator, batteries and other complimentary products are expertly maintained on a regular basis and are always ready and able to support the critical load. 

   

  For more information about the Energy Technology List please visit http://www.eca.gov.uk/etl,or for more details relating to UPSL and its range of PowerWAVE UPSs, please visit www.upspower.co.uk or call 0800 171 2320.
• UPSL welcomes a new Area Sales Manager for Scotland: John Walker

  John Walker joined the UPSL team in June 2013, and will be based locally to serve the needs of UPSL's customers in Scotland.

   

  Based near Glasgow, John comes with  wide experience in delivering technology-based sales & support services into the Construction market for major Public and Commercial Building projects. In particular, John has played a central role in providing support to many of the Engineering Consultancy firms in Scotland, ensuring coordination of mechanical and electrical services to the client during construction and delivery of multimillion pound contracts.

   

  With UPSL,  John will look forward to renewing friendships with Consulting Engineers, making new friendships with Electrical Contractors and serving the needs of existing UPSL customers .

   

  Away from work John has two sons who join him in Mountain Biking and Trail cycling around Scotland’s forests.  According to John, this can be a slog going uphill but exciting on the downhill……….. not unlike business today!

   

  If you have a UPS or generator project or requirement and would like to discuss this with John, you can contact him directly on 07964 884009 or email John.Walker@upspower.co.uk.
• Keeping your UPS green and efficient

  As uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) systems became popular and then indispensable for data centres, users’ expectations were simply focused; they wanted guaranteed and clean power. Today’s business climate is changing this, as it exerts pressure on data centre operators to control rising energy costs and preserve their Green credibility.

   

  In this article, Alan Luscombe, director at Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd, a Kohler Company,looks at how developments in UPS technology can help users optimize their energy efficiency while balancing power protection and energy efficiency.

   

  When UPS systems first became commercially available in the 50s, they appeared as rotary or ‘no break’ systems comprising a rectifier, charger, battery, DC motor and AC generator. As the power train relied on the mechanical link between the motor and generator, isolation from mains-borne events such as spikes was excellent, but efficiency was relatively low at typically 84 – 88%. However in those days, energy was relatively cheap and Green strategies were not yet a political or social consideration.

   

  By comparison, today’s users’ expectations of their UPS have become far more stringent. As many organisations depend on online, real-time transactions and communications to remain in existence, the availability of clean, uninterrupted power is business-critical rather than merely highly desirable. Additionally, the pressure felt by UPS vendors to assure this availability is now matched by the pressure to do so efficiently, for both financial and Green reasons.

   

  Financially, any shortfall in UPS efficiency gives rise to costs, both directly through energy losses and indirectly as these losses create a cooling requirement. This adds up to a significant financial burden as energy prices continue to rise, yet other efficiency-related pressures exist as well. If organisations fail to implement an effective Green policy they can fall foul of increasing legislation, and their public reputation can be damaged.

   

  Fortunately, improvements in UPS technology mean that with the right UPS topology and configuration, users today can achieve up to 99% efficiency from their UPS installation. One of the first great advances arose from the development of static, semiconductor inverter-based systems to replace the rotary types. These brought an improvement in efficiency, which however was limited because these systems required a transformer to match the inverter output to the 240 Vac needed by the critical load. This introduced inefficiency as well as adding physical size and weight to the UPS equipment.

   

  However, further advances in semiconductor technology and the introduction of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) have led to UPS designs that eliminate the transformer entirely. Fig. 1 shows the effect this has had on improving UPS efficiency. The graph shows an efficiency gain of around 5%, yielding a substantial reduction in energy running costs and heat loss. The transformerless design also features an input power factor which is less load-dependant and much closer to unity than that of a transformer-based design. Improving a UPS’s input power factor towards unity reduces the magnitude of the input currents, so reducing the size of the associated cabling and switchgear. Electricity running costs can sometimes also be reduced.

   

  

  
  Fig 1: Transformerless and transformer-based UPS efficiency/load curves

   

  The reduction in size and weight achieved by eliminating the transformer is also important. For example a 120 kVA transformerless design weighs less than a third of its transformer-based equivalent, and occupies just over a third of its footprint. These physical reductions have allowed a fundamental new approach to UPS topology, in which flexible UPS systems of all sizes are configured using rack-mounting modules. Ranging in capacity from 10 kVA to 50 kVA, these modules can be incrementally added to the UPS rack, so that the UPS remains ‘right-sized’ to a facility’s changing load. This flexibility maximises efficiency by keeping the UPS fully loaded, while also easing redundancy, availability and scalability.

   

  These factors – transformerless design and modular topology – allow UPS users to achieve up to 96% efficiency. However, a data centre can now achieve further UPS efficiencies, right up to 99%, if its circumstances allow eco-mode operation. In eco-mode the UPS operates off-line during normal utility power availability, with the static switch conducting incoming mains directly through to the critical load. The switch brings the UPS online if a mains fault is detected. The tradeoff for eco-mode’s efficiency is that the load is exposed to any mains disturbances and frequency variations, as well as to complete power failure.

   

  In practice, though, the capabilities of the ICT equipment that typically comprises today’s critical load, together with the power quality available from mature utility networks mean that these external disturbances can be handled safely in many installations. Modern ICT equipment is typically expected to ride through power breaks of up to 20 mS, and UPSs can come on line well within this time. Similarly, ICT equipment’s tolerance of mains frequency variations can exceed those experienced from a good utility. Transient voltage surge suppressor devices can protect against high energy voltage spikes.

   

  As energy costs and Green pressures continue to rise, data centres will continue their drive to improve efficiency. Their choice of UPS will contribute to this if they choose systems with modern transformerless technology and modular topology that allows ongoing rightsizing of UPS to load, and operate these systems in Eco mode whenever it is safe to do so.
• Why transformerless UPS systems are ultimately the most economical choice

  Data centre sites seeking to replace legacy transformer-based UPS systems can be tempted to buy more of the same, on the basis that it is proven technology. However, an investigation of Total Cost of Ownership reveals that transformerless topology offers savings benefits due to improved operating efficiency and other factors. In this article Kenny Green, Technical Support Manager for Uninterruptible Power Supplies, a Kohler company explains the nature and level of savings available.

   

  Many data centres still rely on legacy transformer-based UPS systems to secure their power availability and quality. When their operators have to upgrade or extend their UPS capability, they may be tempted to buy more of the same – after all the technology has worked reliably over many years, and appears to be cost-effective.

   

  However it is essential to dig deeper, because transformerless systems represent a more advanced technology with many extra benefits, including a lower total cost of ownership. This is because their efficiencies of operation and other factors can soon far outweigh their additional initial purchase price. Much of this saving comes from improved power efficiency, as a simple example shows.

   

  Improved operational efficiency

   

  In this example, a 100 kVA load is supplied by two 120 kVA modules in a parallel N+1 redundant configuration. We can compare the results from a transformerless implementation with those from using transformer-based modules. In either case, each module runs at 42% load; at this level, the transformerless solution will operate at 96% efficiency while the transformer-based pair will return just 91%. If their 100 kVA load has a power factor of 0.8, it will draw 80 kW from the UPS. The transformer-based solution will draw 88 kW from the utility mains to service this, while the transformerless UPS will take 83 kW.

   

  Simple arithmetic shows how this 5 kW efficiency improvement accumulates into a worthwhile reduction over a year: 5 kW x 24 x 365 = 43800 kWh savings. Assuming an electricity cost price of 9.0p/kWh, this equates to a direct energy cost saving of £3942 each year. Further savings arise as the improved efficiency reduces heat losses and therefore air conditioning requirements. In this example, this could typically save a further £1000 or more over a year. Accordingly, total savings over five years from going transformerless could amount to as much as £25,000.

   

  Going transformerless also saves costs by improving the power factor imposed on the utility mains from 0.8 to 0.98. This reduces the reactive current drawn by the UPS, therefore the sizing required for its upstream switchgear and cabling, as well as external power utility metering and possibly penalty charges.

   

  Further cost-saving factors

   

  Additionally, the transformerless route can start to offer savings even before installation. In the previous example, we discussed a 100 kVA load supported by two 120 kVA modules, paralleled to provide N+1 redundancy. This configuration means that during normal operation, 140 kVA, or over half of the UPS’s total capacity, is being wasted. Yet with a legacy system where120 kVA is the smallest UPS unit of capacity, the only way of improving UPS utilisation would be a single-module 120 kVA implementation – and most data centres would find this loss of redundant capability unacceptable.

   

  By contrast, a modular, transformerless UPS solution such as UPSL’s PowerWAVE 9000DPA series could support the 100 kVA load in an N+1 configuration comprising three 50 kVA modules operating in inverter mode. This ‘right sizing’ reduces excess capacity from 140 kVA to 50 kVA, with associated savings in capital expenditure and floor space. Capacity can always be incrementally added later if expected growth in the data centre load warrants it. Meanwhile the data centre can start with a smaller, better-utilised configuration than that imposed by the legacy design, while maintaining a consistent level of redundancy.

   

  In the PowerWAVE 9000DPA example, the modularity is achieved with rackmounting units that are slotted into a single 19” floorstanding frame, as shown in Fig. 1. This can accept up to five 50 kVA modules, offering 250 kVA capacity, or 200 kVA with N+1 redundancy. Up to five of these frames can be paralleled to achieve 1 MVA capacity with N+1 redundancy.

   

  

   

  Fig. 1: PowerWAVE 9000DPA with five transformerless rack-mounting modules

   

   

  Apart from ease and flexibility of scaling, Fig. 1 also shows just how compact a modular, transformerless implementation can be. This is firstly because the technology is inherently much smaller than transformer-based topologies, and secondly because right-sizing has significantly reduced waste capacity and hardware. Cost-saving implications of this start with shipping. An 80 kVA 1+1 system implemented with two traditional modules would weigh about 2300 kg, occupying a gross volume of around 2.6 m³. Shipping costs for this would be double or more than those for a 2+1 modular implementation weighing about 379 kg and occupying 1.15 m³. Then, installation costs would be about 86% more for the traditional system, which would have a footprint of 1.44 m² compared with a modular system’s 0.58 m².

   

  During operation, cost savings would accrue not only from the transformerless efficiency improvements as described, but also from reduced spare parts, logistics and training costs, as repairs and exchanges can be managed more easily at a modular rather than component level. Overall, the extra capex should be recovered within a year, freeing the data centre operator to enjoy ongoing efficiency savings plus the further benefits of transformerless technology.