The CBI (Confederation of Business and Industry) is up in arms about the Government’s proposed Carbon Tax and claims that energy-intensive manufacturers should be exempt from it, or the Government will risk making the UK an uncompetitive market where heads of heavy industry and manufacturing will no longer wish to base their businesses.

In a report (Protecting the UK’s Foundations: a blueprint for energy-intensive industries) published at the end of August, the CBI stressed that the Government must ensure energy-intensive manufacturers are not undermined by rising costs and climate change energy policies. These companies form a crucial part of the manufacturing and supply chain alongside employing a quarter of a million people and accounting for £15bn of UK GDP. As such, so says the CBI, they need protection from laws like the carbon floor price, which would penalise many of them in their manufacturing processes.

Such companies make a diverse range of products such as steel and chemicals required for wind turbines and low-rolling resistance tyres.

The CBI wants the Government to find a way of moving businesses to a low carbon economy while exempting certain ‘carbon-heavy’ companies from so doing. How can that be possible?

Thanks to our Master Plus Industrial range of rugged and energy efficient UPS, at least energy-intensive manufacturers can enjoy efficient and cost-effective power protection. Based on our leading Master Plus UPS range, the Master Plus Industrial is designed for tough installation environments, such as petrochemical manufacturing sites, where operating conditions (levels of vibration, mechanical stress, ambient temperatures and dust ingress) require a more robust and industrialised UPS design. We’ve incorporated a number of design features to make it applicable to this market, such as:

• HIGH Icc
Master Plus Industrial has a higher short-circuit current (Icc = 3In) making it suitable for loads with high current peaks, during switch-on or a load step-change.
• 220V DC VOLTAGE
- the UPS has a 220Vdc bus bar (from 108 to 114 blocks) – a common standard for industrial applications.
• REDUNDANT VENTILATION
- Master Plus Industrial has 100% redundant ventilation with 50% fan loading at nominal load. Each fan is monitored for failure to ensure optimum temperatures are maintained.
• IP (Ingress Protection) Rating Various IP protection levels are available on request.

For more details visit our website.

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.

It is always nice to see our innovations reviewed. Here is another one by Server Management Magazine on the iDialog UPS. We launched this desktop UPS last year. It is packed with features, ideal for office and small home office applications. The iDialog Plus models have a useful LCD with load and battery charge measurements.

According to this week’s news, it’s doom and gloom for the future of food. We’re running out of wheat, rice, soya – and  curry Chefs!

That last one’s a real problem for me (he says jokingly)! Apparently, changes in the imigration laws in the UK (in particular), are making it difficult for Indian restaurants and Balti houses to source genuine, authentic and experienced cooks! Yikes! 

As far as grains and pulses go, climate change and global warming are being blamed for poor harvests around the world but an even darker threat is lurking just around the corner. Yes, you guessed it – Biofuels!

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which became law in December, mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 and almost half of that will come from grain-based (corn and wheat) ethanol. In North American this is great news for the corn-growing states that will now, I fear, intensify production but not for food for fuel, easier to produce, less regulated and (I imagine) more profitable. My worry, which I have touched on before in this blog, is that food production will suffer at the hands of politics and capital gain from Biofuel production where it is being produced to replace fossil-fuel derived products (Petrol and Diesel) for vehicles.

What has this got to do with power protection? Well, firstly, did you know that the processes currently used to produce ethanol are energy intensive and thus add to, not negate, the issue of increasing demand for energy? Secondly, biofuels are being used in fuel cells, which can replace UPS batteries as an alternative back-up source. The technology is available now and whilst the origins of the fuel may be questionable, they offer a number of key advantages: harmless emissions, longer design life, less maintenance, reduced heat output and in many cases cheaper lifetime running costs.

The Power Protection Guide talks about fuel cells and their use in UPS installation.

I was asked to write an article last week about choosing the right UPS provider and it got me thinking about all the issues  to be considered as well as the all important price. Too many business managers are forced into selecting on price when doing so could actually cost more in the long run if it results in a less than perfect installation. Does the provider understand the mechanics and characteristics of your business, for example? There is a vast difference between protecting the critical systems of a healthcare establishment and a retail operation, for example. Do they add value to the installation by offering consultancy, site surveys, extended warranty, monitoring and maintenance, and so on, which reduce the overall running costs and total cost of ownership of the equipment? Does their culture match yours? Will you find their engineers lounging about reception, smoking and loudly regaling about last night’s football or will they be smartly but appropriately dressed, polite and professional whenever they are onsite?

Price, of course, is important but it should reflect criticality of the installation as well as value for money from the UPS itself and the benefits of the long-term partnership that the provider brings. UPS is critical to continuity of operations in the event of a power failure. It, therefore, needs to be given the same consideration as any other critical equipment in my view and a provider chosen because of their knowledge, sector expertise, ability to add value and product innovation.

For more informaiton on selecting a UPS provider visit: Riello UPS 

With this year’s DataCentreWorld conference and expo approaching, I’m reminded of the difference an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) footprint can make in a data centre where every square metre must earn its keep. Had you noticed how much data centre development is happening in The Channel Islands – well, as much as pressure on building land and the constraints of a few hundred square kilometres of beautiful sea-worn rock allow! As well as the usual resilience and power imperatives, one particular comms multinational was set on the smallest possible UPS footprint. And not just because space was tight either; this particular ‘big ask’ was driven by their awareness of the commercial benefits from a 35% space saving realised by their chosen power protection installation. It’s easy to focus on savings – in this case space. But how much more positive to take a bullish gains perspective instead – and imagine the customer’s delight on realising how many more revenue-earning client racks they could get into space that might otherwise be filled with essential, but bulkier, UPS kit. It’s a salutary tale and one I’m sure I’ll re-tell more than once as I leave my footprint in Barbican Hall 1 next week.

Last week I read with interest that more than half (60%) of UK companies are considering certification on the new British Standard for business continuity – BS 25999, according to a survey by Business Continuity Expo 2008. 

It would seem that UK plc is waking up the fact that downtime, of any description, is no longer excusable – particularly on the world stage where the nearest competitor in many business sectors is merely a click away.

I wonder, however, how much emphasis is being placed on certification rather than development of true business continuity practices and implementation of continuity solutions, like power continuity? Without electricity these days there is no business continuity.

I am all for the British Standards and think it is a good thing that so many organizations are planning to take BS 25999 seriously. My concern is that they do not adopt a ‘shortcut to compliance’ attitude as I fear so many of their competitors will.  Anyway, in terms of power continuity, here are a few tips:

1. Obtain a true measurement of your energy use and power capacity. This will highlight areas where you can implement energy efficiency measures whilst enabling you to size power protection equipment such as UPS and generators.
2. Identify systems that can be affected by power problems and categorise them into critical, essential and non-essential loads.
3. Assess typical power quality problems in your area: sags, brownouts, surges, electrical interference, harmonics, blackouts and possible applicable solutions.
4. Consider UPS power protection and emergency back-up power generation (diesel generator, flywheel). Build in maximum levels of reliability and resilience.
5. Develop monitoring and maintenance plans. Consider remote monitoring of UPS by a reputable provider like Riello UPS as an option. Build in a test schedule whereby equipment can be tested under load conditions to ensure it is working.

For more information on power protection see The Power Protection Guide.