Whether it’s offices, warehouses, or data centres, business sectors across the country rely on a stable and consistent supply of electrical power from the grid to operate. But what if this service, one that is taken for granted by so many, was to be taken away?
On the 29th of May 2022 the government released a reasonable worst-case scenario as the effects of geo-political tensions, rocketing energy prices, Norway’s plans to ration supplies and now extreme heatwaves create the “perfect storm” exposing the fragility of the current state of UK fuel supplies.
The effects of which are expected to be seen for several days over the winter months when cold weather and gas shortages may combine to cause blackouts and are expected to have significant impacts on all industry sectors.
In June 2022, the Times reported that “Businesses could see energy blackouts starting from December and lasting for three months with blackouts both on weekdays and weekends”.
The government would be forced to in effect ration electricity, suggesting it would be turned off on weekdays at peak times, in the mornings between 7am and 10am, and in the evenings between 4pm and 9pm.
Bloomberg also reported that “Britain could face an electricity capacity shortfall totalling about a sixth of peak demand, even after emergency coal plants have been fired up”, and that there will be “four days in January when the UK may need to trigger emergency measures to conserve gas”.
With winter upon us, businesses must start preparing their critical infrastructure for regular power outages.
Backup power systems
Those who already have backup power supplies such as UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and/or generators should organise a health check to be carried out on the equipment to ensure it is still fit for purpose.
Those without any backup power provisions should look to implement UPS and bolster their backup power strategy for what is likely to be turbulent times in the very near future.
So, why install an UPS? When the mains power supply is cut off to premises, a UPS provides instantaneous power to electrical devices. It will keep the devices fully operational either until the mains power is restored, a generator kicks in or until a safe shutdown procedure has been performed.
The size of UPS will depend on the electrical load and runtime required; the type of UPS required will depend on the criticality of the electrical infrastructure.
If a utility power failure or power anomaly is detected a line interactive UPS will switch on, transferring the load to run off its internal battery. This switchover is dependent on a surge protection switch (SPS) which may take up to 25 milliseconds to activate. Although this is not long enough for an objectionable dip or a brownout to a personal computer, it may not be suitable for more sensitive loads such as hospital equipment.
The batteries within an online UPS system provide the highest level of utility power protection. These are always connected to the inverter so there is no power interruption. The online topology is often referred to as ‘double conversion’ because the internal rectifier converts incoming power from AC to DC, for the UPS battery, and then back to AC before reaching the load.
Finally, UPS monitoring gives the operator complete peace of mind that if anything was to happen to the UPS systems. For example, it goes into fault mode or to monitor the battery capacity when in battery mode, they would be instantaneously notified.
UPS monitoring has come a long way of late with IoT monitoring being the most intuitive type of software on the market. IoT UPS monitoring gives the operator the ability to monitor multiple UPS (of all makes and models) across multiple sites from a smartphone app.
Maintaining existing UPS
Many facilities and premises will likely already have a critical power infrastructure in place with some level of power resilience. Whilst this may tick a box, it is important to ensure the UPS are still in good working order and will support the electrical load during a mains blackout.
All these considerations are key to ensuring the UPS and backup power infrastructure is working at its optimum and will support the critical architecture during a mains failure. The energy crisis is one that remains at the top of the government’s agenda and with no end in sight for the near future, it is important to have peace of mind that the backup power infrastructure will work when needed.