New impetus for Uninterruptible Power Supplies

Hot on the heels of the EU’s Code of Conduct on Energy Efficiency and Quality of AC Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS), under the Energy Star programme the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) is now developing its own standards.

Originally established in 2006, the Code of Conduct was established with the aim to minimise energy consumption (kWh) in Europe, by limiting the energy losses caused through UPS operation, therefore maximising the energy efficiency of UPS. It has been signed up to by most of the main suppliers in Europe including APC-MGE, EATON Corporation, Emerson Network Power, Chloride S.p.a, META SYSTEM S.p.A, RPS S.P.A. (Riello UPS) and SOCOMEC UPS.

The Code of Conduct is quite limited in it’s approach aiming at UPSs that deliver 3-phase uninterruptible power above 10kVA at 400/230 V. The Energy Star programme is far from being a ‘me-too’ response and is being developed collaboratively with the EU, who are in process of revising the Code of Conduct. The new programme is expected to cover a wider remit than the original EU scope and include UPS devices used in the data centre, office environments and for domestic use.

A clear intention of the new standard is to encourage data centres to run their UPSs at or close to 100 percent. This will have a considerable effect on operational energy efficiency but may require a reliance on the inherent overload capacity of the deployed UPS. IEC standards already include the need for overload testing, consequently, the standard is expected to include the requirement for clear indication and of overload capacity and reporting in each product’s power and performance datasheets.

With the EPA estimating a saving, through voluntary participation alone, of 710 mkWH/year just in the US, the energy efficiency benefits of this programme are considerable and although suffering some delays in the release schedule the EPA are considering that the new programme will be announced in mid 2011.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  and carbon reduction training in the data centre; You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.