It’s interesting that people assume the electricity that comes out of the mains power supply is as pure as distilled water. It isn’t. It is contaminated by all sorts of ‘nasties’ that can lead to sags, surges, brownouts, harmonics, flicker, frequency deviations, interference, interruptions, distortion as well as complete blackouts. In turn, these problems can have dire consequences. Firstly, they will shorten the life of equipment by causing wear-and-tear and they can also cause complete breakdown.  

With computer systems, these problems are magnified as equipment tends to be sensitive to fluctuations in voltage current. They can result in data corruption or loss, which for many companies may be devastating in terms of business continuity, reputation and customer service. In extreme cases, harmonics for example, has been known to cause fires.  

What can be done?  

UPS is the answer. Not only does it protect equipment from complete mains power failures, it also contains filters and conditioners that keep the voltage current to within an acceptable level and cushion against many of these problems. This can be helped with a little insight and research into which power problems are most prevalent at your site, their magnitude and frequency. This information will enable you to choose the right solution for you. Large sites may benefit from power monitoring, a service offered by specialist (like Riello UPS) to record disturbances over a specific time period.  

For more information about power problems visit Riello’s website.

I was reading the cover story of December’s InformationAge at the weekend: Crossed Wires – Myths and Misconceptions of IT’s Energy Crisis, and I was horrified by some of the controversial views and opinions expressed therein. In my mind the article fell short of addressing the so called ‘Myths and Misconceptions’ but rather replaced them with even more perilous and unproven ones.  

Basically, it focuses on data centres and how they are wasting vast amounts of energy. There are some companies out there ripping up the rule book, apparently, in terms of cooling requirements, power protection, conversion, and ambient temperature!  

I agree that there is a pressing need to address the problem of excessive power consumption in data centres but to do it by such radical measures as fresh-air cooling, the elimination of UPS and running at temperatures from five to 50 degrees centigrade is going to create more chaos and cost far more, replacing damaged equipment and compensating for down time, in the long run than sensible energy-efficiency measures.  Fresh air cooling, for example, may introduce contamination and even humidity that has the potential to damage sensitive data centre equipment or lead to expensive wear-and-tear.  The argument raised in the article around UPS suggests that it adds to energy wastage as a result of the necessary power conversion back and forth from AC to DC. Some experts believe that data centres can be run completely on DC power to avoid this.  This is not true: firstly, today’s UPS are designed to be hugely efficient and help project the life of computer equipment through conditioning of the voltage current as well as providing essential power protection and continuity of critical systems. Running only on DC power would require unfeasible amounts of copper wiring. The argument about temperature is also flawed: computer equipment can withstand fluctuations outside of the recommended 20-24 degrees centigrade but anything that contains consumables, fans and batteries, will be severely compromised by such practices. Fans will be continually over exerted in high ambient temperatures and batteries will need replacing more frequently at anything above or below this recommendation.  

It doesn’t take much downtime to cripple a business these days. Energy efficiency and intelligent power management should go hand-in-hand with power protection not instead of. See Riello UPS for more information on power protection and energy efficiency.

Riello UPS has had a busy week - picking up two awards from Frost and Sullivan for Product Line Leadership and Customer Value Enhancement. These are significant ‘wins’ for Riello UPS who has been pursusing a differentiation-based strategy based on innovation and customer service for several years now. Pictured receiving the award are Robin Koffler, Riello UPS Ltd General Manager and Leo Craig Sales Manager. The award was made by Mr. Brett Gascoine, EIA Director, Best Practices Group, Frost & Sullivan. After another highly succesful year in the power protection industry awards such as these show that we are succeeding with more than the financial numbers. We are succeeding with customers and that is the ultimate measure for any business.

Increasingly more of the UK’s electricity is being generated from natural gas. Okay, so it would seem we can all breath again now that agreement for gas supplies to Ukraine in 2008 has been signed. Most of Russia’s gas exports to the European Union (EU) are piped through Ukraine so it is important that there is agreement between the two nations. Russian gas currently accounts for one quarter of the EU’s supplies but that could rise in view of the fact that the UK, for example, is expecting to import gas to meet up to 80% of demand by 2020. The agreement on both price and terms of gas supplies to Ukraine will ensure a more stable supply of Russian gas to European consumers. The Department for Business (BERR) wants to allow private firms into gas supply projects to ‘help maintain reliable supplies’ and I think this is a good idea; the less politically motivated suppliers are the more we as consumers are able to extend our influence and thus secure supplies. As I see it, the problem with importing gas is that we have little control over security of supply. If the infrastructure is allowed to break down or an international dispute results in the supply being cut off (as happened in January 2006 to Ukraine), we are powerless to react. We can’t change international politics but we can advise on secure power protection, which is becoming ever more critical in these uncertain times in which we live.

I read in the press that the South Gare lighthouse, at the mouth of the River Tees in North East England, is now being powered solely by a hydrogen fuel cell. The technology was developed by the Centre for Process Innovation at Wilton. The lighthouse is 120 years old and is regularly lashed by high winds and rough seas. The fuel cell has been developed to withstand such conditions. Another development comes from USA-based Protonex Technology who, in partnership with AeroVironment, have developed a fuel cell system that has kept an unmanned aerial vehicle in the air for several hours – a significant improvement on the two hours so far achieved by earlier technologies. 

Fossil fuels are running low, we know that, so alternatives have to be sourced but are fuel cells really in the running?  First invented by Sir William Robert Grove in 1839, in recent years their development has centred primarily on military applications, although the last few years has seen a rash of activity in the leisure industry with companies, such as Voller Energy, developing fuel cells that run on natural gas, which can then be used by caravan and boat enthusiasts.  Replacing generators as an alternative source of back-up power still seems a long way off. Fuel cells are expensive to manufacture and run plus their environmental credentials are questionable. They run on hydrogen, hydrocarbons, alcohol and chlorine or chlorine dioxide, which are pretty potent chemicals that have to be sourced, stored and disposed of.  Conversely, a fuel cell can be compact, lightweight and, as it has no major moving parts, extremely reliable.  

Where the normal mains power supply is unreliable and there is a suitable supply of natural gas, fuel cells can be advantageous as an alternative source of ac power although a battery set will still be required. It will be a while before they enter the mainstream UPS market. For more information on fuel cells and alternative power sources, see The Power Protection Guide

‘Tis the season to be jolly – and why not?  You’ve worked hard all year; you deserve to ease off the peddle in December. Trouble is, that’s when people often become less vigilant and succumb to the distractions of the season; parties, shopping, planning the holiday, tying up loose ends and so on. It takes the focus away from power continuity and power protection and it is then that Murphy’s Law dictates something is bound to go wrong. So, here are a few simple steps to ensure your season goes with a bang but that you don’t end up powerless:  

• Now is a good time to test your UPS system under load conditions to ensure it is working and can provide the capacity you need to keep critical systems up and running.
• Check cables and connectors for wear-and-tear and replace any that are worn or loose.
• Check that all critical equipment is connected into the UPS feed and that non-essential kit is not (remember: printers should not be plugged directly into any UPS as they can cause a surge on start-up and are usually categorised as non-essential).
• Check and test UPS batteries and battery strings and if necessary refresh with new ones.
• Check all other consumables such as fans and filters.
• If an alternative power supply (Diesel generator, fuel cell of flywheel) is on-site, include it in a test scenario, check fuel supplies and replenish if necessary ensuring there is plenty in store (fuel prices sometimes increase in winter and it may be difficult to source supplies particularly over the holiday period).
• If you have remote monitoring software installed, make sure it is the latest version and test communications equipment and cables. Check messages can be sent and received. 

 The Power Protection Guide covers all aspects of operating UPS systems including testing and maintenance.  Merry Christmas!

I’ve been reading about Energy Star, a joint labeling initiative by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy and I wondered if such a system would catch on in the UK?  Energy Star is a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products. In 1992, the EPA introduced it and computers and monitors were the first products to be labeled. Over the past decade, it has been a driving force behind the more widespread use of such technological innovations as LED traffic lights, efficient fluorescent lighting, power management systems for office equipment, and low standby energy use.  Is energy-efficiency enough of an initiative to influence purchasing decisions on computer equipment? To date it would seem not with processing power more likely to be the top criterion and energy-efficiency somewhere near the bottom. However, experts are now saying that the lifetime cost of running high-end computer equipment may equate to as much as five times its capital cost. With our UPS products, we ensure energy-efficiency is top of the list. The Energy Saving Trust (funded by the UK Government) developed a scheme for household white goods, which has been embraced by manufacturers as a marketing and sales tool. But what really makes consumers and business managers take notice, it would seem, is money.  The reason why the Energy Star initiative is so successful is because it enables purchasers to apply for rebates on their capital purchases and energy bills. Results are already adding up. Americans, with the help of Energy Star, saved enough energy in 2006 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 25 million cars — all while saving $14 billion on their utility bills.

In terms of securing power supplies, the growing need for basic housekeeping in the data centre is becoming ever more urgent. If I were to ask any data centre manager what their most compelling reason for making changes would be, I bet they’d rank cost reduction way before power continuity. Why?

Firstly because cost reduction is an established boardroom issue and secondly, electricity, as with most other utilities in the developed world, is still taken for granted.  

The Carbon Trust estimates that businesses in the UK waste some 10-20% of the energy they buy through poor control. The prospect of energy rationing has already been tabled in Parliament in the UK and in 2006, hosting companies in the centre of
London were vying with the Underground to secure enough power to feed their huge data centres beneath the city’s streets.  

According to Sun Microsystems, between eight and ten percent of servers in data centres have no identifiable function. The company announced in August that it had cut the number of racks of its own servers from 95 to five. It also recently consolidated multiple European data centres into one facility in Hampshire, thus reducing server and storage space by 80%.  

Data centre association AFCOM worryingly predicts that over the next five years, power failures and limits on power availability will halt data centre operations at more than 90% of all companies. Research organisation Gartner echoes this by predicting that 50% of current data centres, by 2008, will have insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet the demands of high-density equipment. 

So, what can be done? Here are some tips:  

1. Optimise existing equipment before adding in new server hardware.
2. Archive outdated legacy applications.
3. Turn applications off when they are no longer needed.
4 Reduce storage capacity by outsourcing storage needs.
5. Calculate how much power you actually do consume (it’s astonishing how many businesses don’t know this!).
6. Categorise loads as critical, essential and non-essential to decide what sort of UPS protection each one requires.
7. See if it is possible for separate business units to share servers.
8. Explore initiatives such as Grid Computing and Virtualization: www.grid.globalwatchonline.com and Virtualization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
9. If you do have to purchase new UPS or server equipment, insist that energy efficiency is a leading criterion.

Energy management and control will continue to grow into the ‘hot topic’ within data centre power management and is a key aspect covered in the Riello UPS Power Protection Guide.

The price of lead has continued to soar this year and recently hit almost US$3,500 a tonne - almost double that of one year ago. Faced with an impossible situation, every lead-acid battery manufacturer has had to come running to its customers with dramatic price increases. Increasing raw material price rises, taxation and movement from a surplus to deficit in supply left them with little option if they wanted their business to survive.

So what can a UPS company do ? Well very little given the long supply chains involved. Most will have to enforce a price increase over the forthcoming period and this may either be to specific ranges or en masse. Large UPS manufacturers like Riello UPS generally have batteries on bought forward contracts and these will help to buffer the impact of the price increases. Eventually though everyone will see batteries at higher prices in the market place.

However, if this was not bad enough, the price of lead has not stabilised and continues to fluctuate. Battery manufacturers are therefore only giving 30 days validity on price lists and quotes. This makes quoting for some UPS jobs, as an example, somewhat precarious, unless the same validity restrictions are quoted.

So what has driven these massive increases. Two factors really - exports from China have been falling rapidly since the impossing of a 10% export tax and their mines have been producing less output. The world economy has moved from one of surplus to deficit and if this continues into 2008 we can all expect to pay higher prices for any of our lead-acid battery-based power systems.

You also have to wonder if certain battery manufacturers have taken the opportunity to cover price rises in other raw materials and optimise pricing across their distribution channels…mmmmh.

I was at The Tenth Fuel Cell Symposium last week and during a follow-up meeting was asked what I thought of the event. This was a difficult one. On the one hand you had a Morgan car prototype showing how they may use a fuel-cell engine in the future. At the other you had boffins - a very English term - showing that they could get a propellor to spin when connected to a small beaker of methanol. When you take three generic forms of power generation - wind turbines, fuel cells and solar power - it is only really solar power that has offered products for installation within fairly easy reach of most individuals and organisations - should they be so inclined. Domestic wind power and fuel cells have yet to find their killer leverage I feel and are held back by natural early life cycle inhibitors such as cost, references, standards and perhaps, too many corporate giants trying to turn these mass markets to their particular solution.