Ask the Experts – Episode 1 featuring Louis McGarry

Keen to hear the views of his team members, Louis McGarry, Sales and Marketing Director, puts them into the hot seat to talk about UPS system right sizing and TCO.

Re-planning, re-sizing, right sizing and introducing ‘pay as you grow’ configurations is the best way to make the most improvements to overall efficiency and reduce the TCO of UPS installations.

When it comes to replacing legacy UPS with a true modular system the efficiency calculations are surprising. We recently replaced a legacy UPS in a financial institution. Two 12-year-old 400kVA monolithic blocks running at 85% efficiency at best, in an N+1 configuration was due for an upgrade. The load had never reached its potential, so we reviewed the load profile over the years and replaced the system with one 300kW modular UPS delivering 240kW N+1. The new configuration offered the same resilience but with a footprint which was five times smaller. Batteries were reduced and the efficiency rating of the CumulusPower which was deployed was >97%.

The running costs for the legacy UPS including cooling were around £70k/year (calculated at 15p/kW hour). Now the client is looking at just £12k/year. The right sized new modular UPS will pay for itself within 18-24 months and at that time it will still be within warranty. The ongoing savings over ten years will be significant. The smaller system will have lower maintenance costs, need less replacement parts and battery replacements will cost less too. It’s what we call a win-win-win.

This is a typical example where in the past, facilities have tended to install large stand-alone monolithic UPS blocks from day one. However, we live in changing times. The challenge with a large stand-alone UPS of say 500kW, is that it is always oversized unless the facility is at capacity. A modular UPS offers much more flexibility and therefore efficiency gains can be made.

When deploying a modular UPS, you have the ability to install the fully rated frame or empty carcass. This gives the option to add the required number of modules to suit the actual load and further UPS modules can be added only when needed. All the individual modules are a UPS in their own right, all containing a rectifier, inverter, and static switch and all operating online in parallel with each other. This offers much more flexibility.

Find out more about system right sizing in the latest edition “Ask the Experts” below.