Data Centre

Data Centre Power Continuity eliminates power dips, spikes, brownouts that would otherwise pose a serious risk to data centre servers. Additionally, when a data centre experiences power blips, loss of data occurs.Thereafter a domino effect causes multiple issues down stream.

Power Continuity ltd, designs and planning for data centres always include provision for a power continuity resilient emergency power system.

Power Control Systems for Data Centres bespoke design and installed by Power Continuity Engineers.

Commonly held misapprehensions highlighted below

UPS Only Solution – Data Centre Power Continuity?

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system provides battery backup for a data centre. These are designed for power outages of short duration, from a fraction of a second to several minutes in length. The battery autonomy (length of battery life to support the system) will obviously depend on the number of batteries installed. If it appears that power will not be restored before the UPS batteries are depleted, then data centre staff should have sufficient time to safely power-down the equipment to avoid data-loss.The UPS equipment will also provide a smooth, constant power supply for the equipment, “ironing out” the dips and spikes from the incoming mains supply.

What type of UPS is suitable for Data Centre Protection?

Rack mounted UPS are not up to the task of protecting Data Centres.

A single UPS system again is part of the journey, but not good enough as a standalone.

Resilience required atall levels.

A UPS must be at least N+1 ; two in parallel as an absolute necessity. Although without generator backup,  UPS’s alone aren’t good enough for a power continuity protection system.

UPS & Generator Solution for RobustData Centre Power Continuity

A generator will provide standby power for much longer than a UPS, running forever as long as you never let the fuel tank become empty. Therefore, carefully consider the size of fuel tank required.

This gap between loss of power and generator start-up is bridged by the UPS. Each UPS which will kick in immediately so that your IT equipment will not even notice the loss of power. Once the generator has started the UPS support is no longer needed to hold up the power; only to clean the power. Although we advise that a single UPS combined with one Generator isn’t enough.

Single units can and do fail.

Power Continuity engineers can design your complete UPS systems and Generators systems from scratch.

Simply put, N+1 or N+X refers to a system that has additional backup(s) available should the main backup system fail, where:

N = Number of components required to run the system without any backup.

X = Number of backup components required.

Hence N+1 equals UPS + UPS backed up by Generator+ Generator.

For example, an N+1 generator system would usually comprise a main standby generator along with an additional backup synchronised generator of equal size, that would provide cover in the event of the main generator failing.

An N+1 UPS system would provide similar cover. Therefore, an N+1 UPS system coupled with an N+1 generator system would provide a good level of redundancy. Likewise, an N+2 system would provide an even greater level of cover.

Hence N+2 equals UPS + UPS + UPS backed up by Generator+ Generator + Generator.

N+3, N+4 and so on.

For any N+X system, budget and the level of redundancy required are the main factors in determining the value of X.

Generator Fuel Tanks

In any case we would suggest each generator has its own independent bunded fuel tank and each UPS system has its own set of batteries

Before planning any power protection system, call Power Continuity.

Power Continuity are the specialists when it comes to 100% No Break Power Continuity.