Could the trend be spreading here?

An article on climaterocks.com earlier this month stated that despite American homes being cluttered with electronic consumer gadgets (Smartphones, tablets, wireless routers that run all the time, and TVs that light up in high definition), demand for electricity is levelling off.

Over the next ten years, experts are predicting residential energy use in the USA will actually fall, the first time it has happened since Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric light bulb.

Edison’s light bulb has now been replaced by more efficient types of lighting and electrical devices of all kinds are much more energy efficient than they used to be. Manufacturers have focused on that aspect as part of their research and development of new products for the past ten years. There are other factors too: new homes are more energy efficient and old ones are being made so by home energy savings programmes. Plus, utility companies say it is symptomatic of the economic slow down and not something to worry about for the future.

As energy costs continue to rise and users become more educated about their use of electricity, there is every indication that this will happen in the UK and Europe too. This may lead to the big six energy utility companies having to reinvent themselves and their business models, and perhaps even for the first time in years, reducing their tariff charges to encourage us to use more.

It’s a nice thought but I wouldn’t bet the house on it just yet.

If you would like more information on UPS and selecting energy efficient power protection, visit Riello AROS UPS’s website.

A report published by the Energy Saving Trust last month claims that our love of electronic gadgets, such as flat screen TVs, tablet PCs, Smartphones, electronic toothbrushes and big fridges is leading us away from reaching our emissions targets and that we should be weaned off them.

The government has set down a target to reduce domestic electricity emissions by 34% by 2020 but the Energy Saving Trust says that we will fall far short of this is we don’t cool our love affair with gadgets.

The number of domestic devices and appliances in the average UK household increased by three and a half times between 1990 and 2009, according to the report, and overall energy consumption from consumer electronic goods rose by more than 600% between 1970 and 2009.

Reported in The Guardian last month, a spokesperson for the Trust pointed out that consumers would never buy a car without checking out its fuel-efficiency first and yet we are happy to fill our houses with electronic consumer good without sparing one thought for their electricity consumption and how much it will cost. “People need to be educated about these things.” She said.

It’s not just consumers either. In business many people now work from home or use equipment at home and in their personal time that is provided for business use, such as laptops, smartphones, GPS navigation systems (that require home charging), tablet PCs and so forth. Between 2000 and 2009, electricity use from home computing more than doubled and the number of devices in Britain’s homes rose from 30,000 to 65,000.

Five years ago, the Energy Saving Trust issued a report The Rise of the Machine, which found that the number of electrical appliances, products and gadgets people typically own had trebled since the 1970s. Although such appliances are more efficient now, electricity consumption has doubled between 1970 and 2002.

The Energy Saving Trust does good work, no doubt about that, but trying to get we -the people – to give up our love of gadgets is akin to King Canute trying to hold back the tide. As we move ever deeper into the technological age, our love of (and use of) devices will continue to rise and unfortunately gadgets these days are mostly electronic. It’s up to the electronics industry and technology inventors to ensure they are the most energy efficient they can be, but I agree, users should be more aware of the implications of using such implements on electricity consumption and educated as to responsible energy use.

If you would like to know more about energy efficient UPS, or any of our comprehensive range of power protection products and services, visit Riello AROS UPs’s website.

With low PuE scores the aim of many data centre operators, they are always on the look out for greener alternatives to UPS batteries. There are a number of different technologies receiving attention right now but so far none has risen up as a real commercial competitor to traditional UPS batteries or flywheels.

When you’re talking about components of an electrical back-up system – the cornerstone of a data centre’s livelihood – any alternative has to be the real deal and proven, not just a pretender. Some of the technologies being talked about now include: Ultracapacitors (or Ultracaps as they are colloquially known), flow batteries, superconducting magnetic energy storage and lithium-ion batteries but none has yet managed to gain a foothold in the UPS market place.

Here at Riello we are keen market watchers of new and alternative technologies so we keep a constant eye on developments. Here’s an overview of where some of these up-and-coming technologies are:

Ultracapacitors

Ultracaps are electric double layer capacitors, a promising technology that at some point may give orthodox energy storage a run for its money. The way they work is that they store energy at the surface of two carbon plates with opposite charges, separated by a sheet of paper dipped in a liquid electrolyte.

The advantages for the data centre environment are that they require less floor space than their UPS battery equivalents; their maintenance needs are low; they can operate in higher temperatures (and therefore need less cooling) and they use more environmentally-friendly materials in their manufacture.

However, the disadvantages are that the capital cost of buying an Ultracap at today’s prices means that they are not a cost-effective alternative. They also have a short ride-through time (less than 10 seconds), which is not enough for critical data centre environments. Also, as they are a new technology, they may require specialist engineering and not many engineers will be familiar (or experienced) at working on Ultracaps.

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage

Or SME as they are known; is only just in research and development so is nowhere near ready for the open market but it uses a coil made of superconducting material, which is cryogenically cooled below its critical temperature, thus giving it zero resistance. A dc current is applied to the coil, which creates a magnetic field. The coil’s lack of resistance prevents the energy from dissipating as heat and allows for energy to be stored in magnetic form until required.

The advantages of SMEs include an absence of harmful materials and mechanical simplicity, which makes it more reliable. However, as with Ultracaps they currently carry a high capital cost and short back up time (again, only around 10 seconds). Also, their requirement for a cryogenic cooling system to keep them at below critical temperature would render their lifetime costs hugely expensive.

Sodium Nickel Chloride Batteries

There are a few companies planning to launch such batteries on to the market within the next few years, such as GE, for example, which is planning to bring to the data centre UPS market an energy storage solution with zero cooling requirements. As you know, UPS batteries do not respond well to temperatures outside of a constant 21-25 degrees centigrade and so the ambient temperature around them has to be controlled.

GE’s battery (it claims) will also offer a design life of 20 years, long discharge rates and will serve both ac and dc loads.

It has always been hard to compete with standard VRLA or Sealed Lead Acid batteries but then flywheel UPS started offering a real, commercial alternative some years ago and has gained real ground in the data centre market. Compared with the alternatives outlined above, flywheel UPS offers low initial and lifetime costs, a long lifecycle, high storage density, wide operating energy range, and environmental advantages. Flywheel UPS is also highly efficient and offers a compact footprint.

In July 2011, Riello AROS UPS unveiled details of a new range of flywheel UPS. Master MHF series is a modular, scalable, power protection system incorporating flywheel UPS technology. It is ideal for eco-targeted data centres looking to get the most out of their UPS investment.

The new Master MHF series offers 99% efficiency and is Smart-grid ready. It also boasts a 20-year design life. More details can be found on our website.

I read an interesting article in the trade press last week about the potential of Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries for UPS applications. It seems Li-ion battery manufacturers have done much to improve the design and manufacture of these batteries and addressed some of the design flaws that have so far struck them off as a serious contender in UPS applications. Could it be that they are at last taking the potential growth in the UPS market seriously?

Reports so far focussed on the USA market suggests the market for Li-ion batteries will grow 23% per annum until 2016.

Li-ion batteries have been slow to penetrate the UPS market. They are more readily employed in portable consumer electronics, primarily because of safety concerns. Lithium is highly flammable so if the batteries are exposed to over charging or over currents, it can present a fire hazard. Cost has also been an issue (they can be 5-8 times more expensive than VRLA equivalents). Many countries do not allow Li-ion batteries to be transported by air, only overland or by sea. They are more expensive to produce than Sealed Lead Acid batteries, more commonly found in UPS systems. Due to their chemical make up and design, Li-ion batteries can present a significant fire hazard if not carefully monitored.

On the plus side, however, Li-ion batteries display rather better ‘green’ credentials than their VRLA counterparts. They are also lighter in weight and take up less space than comparably-rated VRLA battery sets (some reports suggest by as much as 50%). Li-ion batteries can offer longer back up times at higher discharge currents and are said to be less temperature sensitive (VRLA batteries require a constant ambient temperature to preserve battery life). Li-ion batteries can tolerate more and faster discharge cycles. They have no gas emissions and can operate in a totally sealed environment.

Some Lithium Ion manufacturers are now designing batteries with charging and monitoring circuits built in, which control battery charging and protect against hazardous situations from developing.

I can see the potential of Li-ion batteries and will be watching with interest how the market develops. However, VRLA batteries have been in use in UPS systems for a long time, the technology is stable and they are cost-effective. There are battery alternatives (such as flywheels and fuel cells) that are much more exciting and in my view offer a more significant alternative to batteries but a I cannot see VRLAs being replaced in UPS installations by any other battery technology anytime soon.

A couple of weeks ago, a bomb disposal team safely exploded a World War II mine, which was on-site at the Greater Gabbard Wind Farm off the coast of Suffolk. It turned out to be a 680 kilo German ground mine and an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) was brought in by ex-Royal Navy explosives experts to blow it up.

There are many areas around the British coast were unexploded ground mines from World War II are known to exist. Unlike other types of mine, or floating mines, ground mines are not designed to explode on impact, instead they employ magnetic sensors to detect the presence of an enemy submarine or ship overhead, which makes them exceptionally difficult to detect.  Areas of heavy shipping traffic, such as ports and marinas have been cleared but old mines are becoming a problem now in the light of the off-shore wind sector’s rapid expansion.

Ex-Navy and/or privately-owned bomb disposal teams are now busier than ever clearing sites for the development and expansion of new wind farms.

This article got me thinking about how important it is before any major power protection installation project to prepare the ground first with a thorough site survey. It’s extremely unlikely that land-based businesses on industrial parks or in office blocks will stumble upon unexploded bombs but you’d be amazed at how much material and information, relevant to the installation, surveys unearth.

In a tight economy, the temptation may be to either not carry out a survey at all or to massively scale it down. The installation time and costs saved as a result of the information contained within a site survey almost always far outweigh the time and costs associated with carrying it out.

A site survey will reveal all sorts to do with the complexity of the project and installation, such as logistics, environment and location and electrical installation. It covers a set of standard criterion that identify site-specific actions and information and areas requiring further investigation, all of which is documented in a formal report (a copy of which will be given to the customer for their files).

There is a long list but some of the issues a site survey can reveal are:

• The final positioning of the UPS and requirement for cranes or specialist lifting gear (stair climbers, for example).
• The existence of a low bridge on route to site and requirement to find an alternative route.
• The need for local authority and law enforcement permissions to close roads for equipment unload.
• The existence of floor loading weight restrictions (which can occur in computer rooms with raised floors) and need for reinforcement.

Nothing should ever be assumed or taken for granted when surveying a site. Wherever possible it should be completed with a site representative present, whose local and site knowledge will be invaluable. Visit our website for more details.

The importance of power conditioning within a power system cannot be underestimated and it is a little-known but very important feature of a UPS system.

At its source, mains power is ‘unclean’ and generally badly behaved and this can cause all sorts of problems within an internal power distribution system and for any equipment attached to it. It can ultimately lead to costly and disruptive breakdown or system crashes.

Power Problems

Alongside total blackouts and power failures, power problems manifest in several different ways:

• sags – short duration voltage reductions in mains power supply, which can cause computer equipment to malfunction and lead to data loss.
• Brownouts – longer duration reduction in mains power supply voltage, which can also result in equipment failure.
• Surges – these are short duration voltage increases, which can lead to system crashes from activated automatic cut-out protection within the equipment. Surges can also cause wear and tear and general equipment degradation over time.
• Spikes and transients – are fast-moving, high energy bursts (in excess of 6kVA in some instances). They last only a few milliseconds but can cause widespread and costly damage to equipment and motherboards.
• Electrical Noise – electrical noise exists in all electrical systems and if not filtered out can disrupt the operation of circuits and equipment and cause damage.
• Harmonics – harmonic pollution is a problem associated with proliferation of SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supplies) being connected to electrical distribution networks. Harmonics can cause distortion of the mains power supply voltage, overheating of building wiring circuits and nuisance tripping of breakers.

Power conditioners within a UPS system are designed to attenuate spikes, transients and electrical noise. But in environments where these problems are most severe, such as in industrial settings, for example, other types of power conditioner and/or filter may also be employed. Constant Voltage Transformers (CVTs) can be used to stabilise voltage over a wide input voltage window. This is a type of Ferro resonant design.

Other types of protection include AVS (automatic voltage stabilisers), which can protect from sags, brownouts and surges. TVSS (transient voltage surge suppressors) can be employed to guard against transient voltages and high-energy spikes. Some also have filters that protect from spikes, transients and electrical noise. Standard filters and filter strips may be employed in some installations to protect against spikes, transients and electrical noise but rather than attenuating performance, they ‘clamp’ peak voltages to predefined, acceptable levels.

A power quality review, prior to embarking on a power protection project, upgrade or change to your power protection plans, is recommended as it will reveal essential information pertinent to the design and configuration of your new system. For more information, visit our website.

There’s been a lot written in the press recently about Ofgem’s move towards cleaning up and radically reforming the energy industry. The regulator launched a retail market review earlier this year. In early August came the announcement that it was paving the way towards an enforceable standard format for utility bills and ensuring transparency for consumers.

The energy watchdog set about undertaking market research to identify best practices, language and formats to support enhanced clarity and engagement, which will form the new rules for billing and identify those key words or phrases that either help or hinder consumers in understanding their bills, annual statements and price rises.

It is often the case that energy users (business and consumer) fail to get the best deal because they are confused by what’s on the bill and are ‘bamboozled’ by the technical detail presented. Many energy users are resigned into a state of acceptance of what they are getting – whether or not it is the cheapest and best tariff for them. The number of tariffs being offered by energy companies has increased from 180 in 2008 to around 400 in 2011.

The ‘big six’ (British Gas, Npower, E.on, EDF, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy) energy companies are being blamed for monopolising the market through complex billing and tariff practices, not allowing consumers to make more informed decisions and allowing smaller companies to be competitive in the market. Ofgem is pushing for a market overhaul in 2012.

Accountants BDO have been brought in to examine how the profits of the big six are calculated to find out if retail profits have been deliberately underestimated to justify higher energy bills. Ofgem claims it has evidence that the big six have increased prices in response to rising commodity costs more quickly than they reduced them when those costs fell. Five of the big six have recently announced price increases equivalent to 15% for the year.

Given the amount of money businesses spend on electricity, can they really afford to wait until next year to reduce their bills?

At Riello, we employ a team of UPS Technical Energy Consultant (TEC). These are experts in the role power protection plays in business continuity planning and they can help customers design, install and manage the most energy efficient power solution that will save on energy bills from a wide range of Uninterruptible Power Supplies and Standby Power Systems, generators and automatic transfer switches. We can also carry out energy surveys and advise you on how to reduce your energy use. For more detail, visit our website or follow the links above.

It has come to my attention, lately, that there are a number of data centres in operation running UPS ten years old or more. While UPS can have long design lives in excess of this figure, installing high-end servers, such as Blade servers, which offer greater efficiency, lower PuE and smaller footprints can pose a serious problem for older UPS.

I understand the need to get more from less and high-end servers offer that, but without reviewing the entire power protection system before installing such equipment, data centres are opening themselves up to being vulnerable to the incompatibilities between the power handling features of their old UPS system and new server equipment.

Power factor (pf) is one issue. Older UPS may be designed to work with equipment with a lagging pf, whereas new Blade servers offer a leading pf load. In some instances this incompatibility may not be obvious (as the UPS will continue to power the load) until there is a power cut and the UPS load increases, at which point it may fail. It could also affect the UPS’s control loop stability and cause unstable operation and load transients. The UPS’s ability to detect and isolate a failed UPS in a parallel-redundant system may also be compromised and battery life decreased. Also, the measuring and monitoring of power data may be affected and thus any information supplied unreliable.

Over the last decade manufacturers have made huge advances in designing UPS systems and equipment specifically for these dynamic and high-end environments that offer well-matched power handling capability and much higher power efficiencies.

It is important to stress that whenever new equipment is brought into a data centre, its effect on upstream and downstream equipment, including UPS, should be considered.

Riello has recently extended our range of energy saving data centre power systems by introducing a 60kVA and an 80kVA into our Multi Sentry range. The range has been designed for high-density demands and high-pressure environments, such as data centres and telecommunications applications. It offers unbeatable energy efficiency in online mode, which could save up to 50% in energy use per annum when compared with a ten-year-old UPS. It has been designed for environments with limited power capacity, generators and problems associated with harmonics. It has no impact on upstream power supply and acts as a power filter and phase-shift protection device.

Multi Sentry is rated Level 6 on our unique Eco Energy Level Scale and has a small footprint of just 0.4m2. Advanced battery optimisation features extend the average working life of the battery set, thus reducing lifetime management costs. For more details, visit out website.

SMEs should implement efficient UPS to achieve cost savings and reliable power protection

It’s been reported in an article on ELN (www.energylivenews.com) that Energy Minister Charles Hendry has been forced by his Shadow counterpart (Huw Irranca Davies) to concede that the Government’s energy policies could add as much as 43% to the average electricity price paid by small to medium businesses by 2020.

His revelation coincides with a predication by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that SMEs will be lumbered with nearly a quarter increase (24%) on gas prices.

Just how far will the Government allow these prices hikes to go?

A month ago, Scottish Power became the first to inflict horrendous, double-digit price hikes on its customers and last week British Gas followed suit. It’s only a matter of time before the other four of the big six (E.ON, EDF, Scottish and Southern Energy) do the same. It will mean the average dual fuel bill will have risen by 50% since 2007 to nearly £1,500 per annum.

For business energy users, now is the time to fix a price with energy suppliers and/or switch to another, more competitive tariff. Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne is fighting to open up the energy market to smaller players and make it more competitive. Quoted in an article in the Telegraph earlier this week, he said: “The energy market has been too cosy for too long and it is madness that 99% of people get their energy from large firms.”

But what does this mean for UPS (uninterruptible power supply) customers?

Older UPS equipment is not as energy efficient as newer models. Any system between 5-10 years should be considered old in terms of energy efficiency.

Since 2007, UPS manufacturers have been introducing new products designed around energy efficiency and reducing TCO (total cost of ownership). Older UPS could be responsible for consuming 18% of the total energy used in a typical data centre. And when you consider the average data centre can consume as much as 2MW of energy per hour, it’s a considerable amount.

Modern UPS waste less energy in the conversion process and can be as much as 40% more efficient than their older counterparts (depending upon various load and operating criteria). Many UPS are as much as 96% efficient in online mode, a rating that can rise to 99% when running in certain other economy modes.

Efficiency is not just about energy use it takes into account maintenance, floor space, scalability, flexibility and TCO. Modern UPS incorporate microprocessor technology that enables smarter, intuitive management and allows remote interrogation by users giving them more control over operation, and thus, the ability to proactively manage and influence efficiency.

Today’s UPS are smaller in size and lighter in weight, which reduces building and installation costs. They leave room for easy serviceability and maintenance – key to reducing lifetime costs. How a UPS draws energy from the mains (termed Input Power Factor) can influence energy efficiency. It should be rated high (0.99). The higher the input power factor, the lower the reactive power (wasted energy). How a UPS utilises energy while protecting loads also influences efficiency, as does how they deal with Total Harmonic Distortion (THDi) to produce a pure sinewave input current that reduces energy wastage. The management of consumables (such as batteries, fans and capacitors) so that they are replaced less often serves to reduce operating costs overall.

Return on investment on new UPS can be as low as 2-3 years. Upgrading to new UPS models equates to an investment in equipment designed for more reliability, that meets the latest regulations and standards, offers more features, better performance, increased power protection, higher efficiency and lowest TCO. For sure, the best antidote to the dilemma of rising energy costs coupled with the need for greater power protection.

Smart meters are the UK Government’s first step towards a smart grid for all homes and businesses by 2020.

Declining natural reserves and increases in energy use have made it necessary to fully understand energy requirements, manage power demands, increase energy efficiency and reduce waste. Smart meters will enable a host of information to be collected by users and energy suppliers in order to streamline supply.

But a smart grid will also give energy suppliers more control and there are growing fears for how this will affect the vulnerable. If users are late paying their bill, in effect, the supplier could cut off their supply with the flick of a switch (or more likely, click on a computer screen) at central control. This could happen to businesses suffering a temporary cashflow crisis too. But it could also happen by mistake or deliberately if a hacker manages to crack the system and bring down supply.

Mistakes can happen. But currently users (vulnerable or not) have at least some control over supply. Outside of a disaster or unforeseen circumstances, energy supplies cannot be cut off that easily. What if the survival of the business depended upon it? Most businesses would suffer greatly without a continuous supply of clean electricity.

The smart grid will come, not doubt about that, and it is a necessary and good thing in delivering a more optimised and efficient energy supply but how rules of supply (whether suppliers will be able to cut you off by mistake or not and the consequences of doing so) and security issues (how systems will be protected against hacking) are currently up in the air.

At the beginning of July 2011, the National Audit Office was reported in Computer Weekly as having said it expected the cost of implementing smart meters across the UK to exceed the current budget (estimated at £11.3bn). To date, the Government has a poor track record with infrastructure and computer systems. The office also questioned how a significant change in consumer behaviour, demanded by the new system, would be stimulated.

In May, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) issued a notice to IT suppliers telling them to be ready to bid for work under the GB Smart Metering Implementation Programme (SMIP). SMIP is the system that will manage all of the smart meter data, allow users to manage their energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions.

A recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit revealed antipathy amongst energy consumers to the Government’s smart meter plans. Consumers fear energy price rises as a result and are unconvinced they will save financially through it. There are also mounting security fears in the light of recent high-profile breaches. The Energy Networks Association is calling for a more coherent and joined up approach to securing the smart grid than is currently in place.

The issue around smart meters for businesses galvanises the point about ensuring security of supply by installing UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and on-site power generation. By so doing, they give themselves complete control over energy security, while still being able to enjoy the benefits of a more optimised and ‘smarter’ national grid system.