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MICRO DATA CENTRES
"Some micro data centres, especially those
of larger capacity, will require a three
phase UPS output. This can be delivered by
any number of systems offering power
ratings up to 50kVA per unit"
For a more modular solution, compact tower
configurations are available. They can be populated with
multiple UPS boards, and support N+1 redundancy. There
are also 19in rack-mounted options available through
several suppliers. Either configuration can be scaled,
incrementally and cost-effectively, simply by adding UPS
boards as the critical load increases.
There are also compact, reliable systems for micro data
centres requiring a single-phase supply of higher power.
These types of UPS systems can offer single or three-phase
input from single or dual power sources, with capacities of
up to 20kVA capacity with the option to parallel multiple
units to provide up to 80kVA or 60kVA with N+1 redundancy.
Other options to consider are in your selection process
should include tools such as built-in humidity and
temperature sensors, and network connectivity, which allows
the UPS’s health to be monitored in real-time, and alarms to
be detected immediately.
Some micro data centres, especially those of larger
capacity, will require a three-phase UPS output. This can
be delivered by any number of systems offering power
ratings up to 50kVA per unit, and various cabinet sizes to
accommodate different choices of battery capacity. Up to
20 units can often be paralleled, either to increase capacity
or to add redundancy for minimising downtime. Extended
battery autonomy can be provided by adding stylistically-
matched battery cabinets.
This type of UPS’s transformerless design, together
with Energy Saving Inverter Switching (ESIS), technology,
enable efficiencies of up to 95.5%to be realised by some
suppliers; a level that drastically reduces the UPS’s total cost
of ownership. Today, even higher-capacity UPS can operate
inside the confined space available within micro data
centres and products can be found with a footprint of only
0.4m2 even at 50kVA, and a power density of up to 100kW/
m 2 .
An important option
An article published in IoT Sources in December 2017
highlights the large number of IoT growth projections now
available. While many will be wrong, there’s an underlying
trend of continued growth. The IoT is gaining momentum,
the article says, in spite of the obstacles to implementation
that still exist.
This is a key driver of growth for micro data centres, but
there are others, too. For example, Maurice F. Zetena III,
VP of Data Centre Technology at Leviton, points out that
they aren’t just an option for remote environments; they
can also fulfil roles within mega data centres, acting as data
collection points, for example.
As micro data centres for these different applications can
vary considerably in size, it’s important that their designers
can access an equally varied range of UPS, all with the same
performance, albeit scaled-down, as their traditional data
centre counterparts. This article has endeavoured to show
some possibilities that currently exist. n
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