Lights Out!

In today's power-hungry environment, you can never be too sure.

The proliferation and dependency on communications and electronic devices has created the challenge to stay ahead of the increasing demands for uptime. Power fluctuation and outages are occurring with frightening frequency. Without proper infrastructure support, the results can include crashes and glitches to systems and networks that provide the information and services that we depend on every day. The results are more catastrophic than ever before - from disruptions in wireless service to network crashes that cost an average of $4.8 million per hour of downtime. There is a new foe interrupting continuous systems availability: us, or more precisely, the world's increasing reliance on all things electronic.

Today's trillion-dollar global electricity market is enormous, and demands are growing. Our power grids are under siege like never before as expanding power requirements continue to drain a finite power supply. In addition, power plants are aging, and few new ones have been built over the last decade. With the increased demand for power, supply margins are dipping dangerously low nationwide. Another consideration is that the utility systems in the United States were designed for an industrial era. In other words, these were not developed as reliable sources of network-quality power. And the farther away the equipment is from the source of power, the greater the risk of quality problems. Even the shape of a network can affect the amount of damage resulting from a power disturbance.

Reviewing the Options With these growing problems in power quality and quantity, it's more important than ever to choose the proper power-protection configuration for mission-critical systems. Although choices are virtually unlimited, it's often difficult to implement the right level and combination of protection for high availability systems. It's important to consider a combination of the right technology, the right configuration of that technology, and the right staff or contract maintenance to support the system once in place.

A look at the latest technology reveals a wider range of UPS and related power-protection equipment than ever before. Some of the more advanced and intelligent UPS products can provide N+x redundancy and protect from virtually all power aberrations such as spikes, surges and even difficult-to-track harmonics common with the use of standby generators. These more sophisticated UPS systems typically are modular and scaleable in design, which means they are easier to customize and can grow and adapt to changing usage and requirements of the network or telecom equipment. In addition, these systems have modules that are hot-swappable allowing the user to replace batteries and power units without disturbing connected equipment. These UPS solutions often are used with extended battery backup or standby generators so that high availability systems can stay up and running through extended power outages.

Once you have chosen the right technology or combination of technologies, it's important to consider the proper sizing of the UPS. It must have sufficient capacity to provide adequate protection, which for most providers generally means a larger, 3-phase unit that can deliver intelligent power distribution to even the highest density computing and telecommunications equipment.

Power protection now extends beyond power quality to provide management control. UPS devices can play an active part in the power-management process, provided they are equipped with the appropriate connectivity and communications capabilities. Some of the more important functions of site monitoring and communications tools can range from the ability to perform shutdowns in response to alerts of imminent power loss to turning off non-essential applications from a facility-wide UPS to save precious battery time for vital servers.

The bottom-line need, of course, is to alert users to problems before the power aberration or equipment failure. One method is through communications tools available with many sophisticated UPS systems, which offer on-screen messaging. It's now possible to supply event-specific information that provides instant recognition of a power problem. This messaging can be sent directly to certain areas such as facility or network administration, so that a manager or engineer can respond and resolve the problem before any real business disruption occurs. Different types of UPS communications also are available in a "redundant" form - i.e., designed to provide multiple solution paths in the event of a problem. An example of this is the latest in-band/out-band redundant communications strategy. In this strategy, the UPS provides out-of-band communications separate from the network wire, assuring emergency contact with administrators or the equipment manufacturer even in the event of network failure.

Configuring for the Ultimate in Uptime Despite these important device considerations, the way in which the power system is configured remains the critical difference in power availability. In fact, system configuration makes the difference between 99.9999% and total assurance of power in virtually every circumstance. And for protection to be truly without fail, you must move beyond the reliability of any single power-protection device in developing a high availability system.

For ultra-critical loads, the power system needs to be about 10 times more reliable than the load - and redundant. This almost certainly points to the most substantial form of parallel redundancy, or a distributed redundant configuration. In its basic form, distributed redundancy involves creating two (redundant) UPS system busses and redundant power distributed systems. This eliminates almost all singular points of failure up to the load equipment's input terminals. In order to provide "fault tolerance," some method of allowing the load equipment to receive power from both UPS power busses must be provided. To protect against fast power system failures, such as circuit-breaker trips or a power system fault, you need a commensurately fast switching method. Static transfer switches have been applied to accomplish fast break-before-make transfers between two ac power sources. It's important that the two ac power sources be designed as independent as practical to eliminate any common failures. Switching between the two power sources needs to be break-before-make for the same reason. A number of distributed redundancy power distribution configurations can be devised. Keep in mind, however, that redundancy needs to be as close to the load as possible to achieve its goal - namely, keeping power available at the load equipment level.

Complete Infrastructure Support Specifying and maintaining high levels of availability for mission-critical systems require more than complete power protection. It's important to look at the environment in which these systems operate. Besides power protection, you need complete infrastructure support. Many systems need protection to guard against excessive heat, dust and contaminants to assure the continuous operation of vital networks and related equipment.

Services, whether in-house or outsourced, are an integral part of total infrastructure support, which is critical to the long-term effectiveness of a power protection and environmental control program. These services may include checking for proper equipment operation, battery charge levels, replacing filters and checking for sources of contamination such as dirt, dust and overheating.

Contracting support services can help ensure 24/7 oversight as well as provide critical after-sale setup, training and maintenance expertise. A service provider also should be able to respond quickly to any potential problems, particularly for larger or more complex systems for networks that must remain up and running.

With growing power-grid reliability and capacity limitations, providers need to protect a wide range of network and telecommunications equipment with complete infrastructure support. These include leading-edge power protection and environmental control technologies in a strategy that will ensure the ultimate uptime, even with the heightened demands of a brave new e-world.