Electricity + Control October 2016

EARTHING + LIGHTNING PROTECTION

UPS systems: Threats, maintenance,

management and winning designs

Jack Ward, Powermode

Call them what you will …

regular power outages still plague businesses.

D espite Eskom’s pronouncement that ‘load-shedding is a thing of the past’ most electricity users continue to experience regular power outages. Now under the banner of ‘grid main- tenance’, these outages continue to plague businesses. In order for a standby system – such as a battery-powered un- interruptible power supply (UPS) system – to take over the load on demand, the importance of regular inspections, service and mainte- nance regimes cannot be overstated. UPS systems are constantly on standby, powering silently in the background. Imperceptibly, they face a number of threats to their wellbeing on a daily basis. If a UPS system fails it is almost certainly to be at an inopportune moment - when a power outage occurs. In such instances, the com- puter system the malfunctioning UPS supports will shut down and valuable data could be corrupted or lost. The cost to the company in terms of downtime will be significant. Probably the number one cause of UPS malfunctions is battery failure. Battery life is influenced by many factors including storage conditions, ambient temperature, battery chemistry issues and shelf- life. As a rule of thumb, a UPS battery has a life cycle of between three and six years.

Electricity+Control October ‘16

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