Kohler Uninterruptible Energy outlines the important elements to think about when specifying a UPS for information centres, from scalability and battery expertise to cooling and modular techniques.
Kohler Uninterruptible Energy outlines the important elements to think about when specifying a UPS for information centres, from scalability and battery expertise to cooling and modular techniques.
Specifying an uninterruptible energy provide (UPS) for an information centre utility is likely one of the most important components of the design and planning course of. Whether or not a stand-alone or co-located information centre, purchasers are reliant on its fixed operation. Any downtime might be catastrophic to organisations each financially and reputationally.
Information centres are a part of the mission-critical infrastructure {industry}. So design groups should work intently with UPS specialists to get this proper from the outset. And ‘getting it proper’ is about greater than ‘Day One’ operation. It’s about scalability, battery reliability, resilience and redundancy in the long run.
Many information centre designers and operators work to the Uptime Institute’s Tier Certification. That is an industry-wide normal for the entire course of, giving buyers, operators and end-clients confidence within the design, construct, operation and ongoing upkeep of the info centre. Uptime’s Tier Certification certifies a web site to one in every of 4 ranges:
Tier 1: Primary Capability
Tier 2: Redundant Capability Parts
Tier 3: Concurrently Maintainable
Tier 4: Fault Tolerant
Sizing a UPS to your information centre
Each information centre is totally different – and each UPS answer must be designed accordingly. Listed here are a very powerful issues to think about:
- The load
The load in your information centre will outline each different choice you make. Step one in sizing a UPS to your design is to know precisely what the load might be at day one and sooner or later. This contains the IT load, which is the servers and different tools within the information centre – however you also needs to embrace the mechanical load for the broader operation of the location. The upper the load, the upper energy you’ll need out of your UPS.
You additionally want to think about that in case your information centre might be supporting AI functions now or sooner or later, you’ll need a better rack density. Your load might be considerably greater, so be sure you construct in each the IT load and the required cooling into your calculations – someplace between 36kW and 50kW [AE1] is the brand new regular. AI functions are driving rack density and energy necessities to new heights.
- Battery expertise
UPS techniques use battery energy. Historically, these batteries have been VRLA – Valve Regulated Lead Acid batteries. Lithium batteries have overtaken VRLA in lots of circumstances as a result of they’ve an extended design lifespan – as much as 20 years in some circumstances – and so they take up much less area in your plant room. Traditionally, lithium batteries have been costlier, however manufacturing processes and their use in lots of different applied sciences have seen the value come down.
Extra just lately, Nickel-Zinc batteries have demonstrated a transparent worth for UPS expertise. They will ship greater energy density, have a smaller footprint, cut back set up time, and are extra sustainable to provide. And, as a result of these batteries are already pre-installed in battery cupboards, the system will be simply assembled and examined off-site, proving reliability and enhancing velocity of set up.
Battery expertise is all the time advancing. New applied sciences embrace move batteries, graphene batteries and sodium-ion batteries. A UPS specialist will work with information centre designers to grasp their wants after which counsel the most secure and most dependable battery alternative to satisfy the necessities.
Alex Emms, Technical Director at Kohler Uninterruptible Energy says, “We often advise information centres to decide on separate batteries slightly than a typical battery. Theoretically, you solely want sufficient UPS battery runtime to hold the important load till such time because the mills begin and the load is transferred to them. That is usually simply 10-20 seconds.
“That mentioned, the battery runtime will range relying on the end-user threat tolerance and the resiliency of the IT functions which might be being supported by the UPS. For instance, hyperscale information centres are being designed with 1-2 minutes of battery runtime. Cloud and colocation information centres are usually designed with 5 minutes of battery runtime. And within the monetary {industry}, you’ll usually see 10-Quarter-hour of battery runtime.
“The quantity of UPS battery runtime is a buyer enterprise choice. Clearly, the extra battery runtime you incorporate into your design, the upper the capital value and the upper the annual upkeep value, however your clear return on funding is the continual clean working of your web site.”
- Cooling elements
Cooling is crucial to information centre operation. It creates the optimum atmosphere for the expertise within the information centre and must be maintained throughout an influence outage or another emergency. It ought to be factored into your load calculations.
Cooling can be essential for UPS batteries, so siting and battery care must be a part of the UPS design. VRLA batteries work finest at a secure temperature of 20°. Above 20°, battery life begins to degrade. As soon as the temperature exceeds 30°, battery lifespan will be diminished by as much as 50%. Extreme warmth additionally has a detrimental impact on Li-Ion battery chemistry, and in addition requires a managed atmosphere at 25° to function at their finest.
- Modular UPS techniques
Information centre designers are more and more selecting modular UPS. There are a number of causes for this:
Effectivity: Trendy UPS items are designed to be as power environment friendly as attainable. The Kohler MF sequence delivers 97.4% power effectivity in VFI mode, giving information centres distinctive worth for cash.
Scalability: You have to take into account the long run operation of your information centre. A modular UPS offers you the power to extend your UPS capability because the IT and mechanical load of your web site will increase.
Smaller footprint: Modular items want much less area to deal with them, and they’re simple to swap out for upkeep or service.
Redundancy: A modular system can simply be designed with redundancy by merely including modules. This ensures that no matter occurs, your operation can proceed to run. The modular method gives N+1 or higher redundancy.
Value management: Your whole value of possession is more likely to be decrease with a modular UPS as you may management power use as your load adjustments. It’s additionally cheaper to switch a single module than a complete monolith UPS system.
- Information centre progress
Future scalability and progress ought to be a part of your UPS sizing standards.
A report from the Uptime Institute in 2021 forecasting information centre tendencies in 2025 said:
“Energy infrastructure necessities in information centres might be formed by a number of elements within the coming years. For a lot of, energy architectures might be pushed by strain to decrease capex with out extra threat, whereas for others, regulatory considerations or altering buyer necessities will play an more and more outstanding function. Extra operators will pursue greater ranges of effectivity, adaptable resilience, and built-in automation. Using new battery applied sciences (and of renewable power sources) will unfold, notably for information centres supporting very massive important masses — of which there might be many extra.” Uninterruptible energy: Adoption tendencies to 2025, UI Intelligence Report 47, April 2021.
This is applicable to information centre design immediately. Balancing capital expenditure and operational expenditure towards shopper demand, technological resilience and steady operation stays a problem.
Designing a power-efficient, cost-effective and simply maintainable and scalable UPS answer allows information centre operators to make strategic progress plans with confidence.
The KOHLER MF modular UPS sequence
Designed particularly to be used in high-powered, co-location and hyper-scale information centres, the modular MF sequence from Kohler Uninterruptible Energy is the following technology of UPS options. Our superior, industry-leading expertise delivers a extremely environment friendly vary of merchandise. The MF sequence is resilient, versatile and scalable and delivers a decrease whole value of possession alongside confirmed reliability.
- On-line double conversion UPS
- DPA 250 kW to 1,500 kW – parallelable to six,000 kW
- DPA-CSB 1,500 kW to 2,000 kW – parallelable to 4,500 kW
- Slide-in vertical modules
- Single feed and twin feed choices.
KUP is an unrivalled single supply for full energy safety, working intently with information centre engineers and designers to produce and keep modular UPS options to information centres throughout the UK, Eire and Singapore. Contact KUP immediately at [email protected] or name on 0800 731 3269 to seek out out extra.
KUP can even be working a sequence of occasions on battery options for information centre UPSs beginning this September. Following the success of their current occasion with nickel-zinc battery companions ZincFive, KUP might be working one other stay hands-on Q&A session with ZincFive on the KUP places of work in Hook on 20 September. Engineers can discover out extra on the free day here.
And on October 16, KUP might be holding a free CPD webinar on battery improvements and applied sciences, taking a look at methods to examine and consider every possibility to assist information centre engineers selected the correct answer for them. You may register to your free space here.
