AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In its most recent white paper “High Efficiency UPS Systems for a Power Hungry World,” Active Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACPW), inventor and manufacturer of the most energy-efficient uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems in the world1, discusses energy efficiency variances among different UPS systems available in the market today. The white paper also explores system efficiencies in lab tests and actual field evaluations, drawing upon independent studies by multiple research organizations.
Key points from the white paper include:
* Energy consumed by a UPS system represents energy lost or inefficiency. This inefficiency can waste 10 percentage points or more of utility input within the UPS system itself. UPS energy losses contribute to hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours per year wasted in the process of power conditioning and protection for a mission critical facility. In its August 2007 report to Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) called out the adoption of high efficiency UPS systems as a means to reducing energy consumption by data center facilities.
* In a lab setting, integrated flywheel UPS systems demonstrated the highest efficiencies of 95 percent at 33 percent load, increasing to 98 percent for loads above 50 percent. Conversely, conventional battery based UPS systems exhibited 80 to 90 percent efficiencies at 33 percent load and 85 to 94 percent at 50 percent load. As a result of these lab tests, leading researchers and utilities support flywheel UPS technology to improve data center energy efficiencies.
* In actual field testing at four large scale data centers – two with conventional battery based UPS systems; one with Active Power’s flywheel UPS technology; and one with mechanically coupled rotary UPS systems – the flywheel UPS deployment demonstrated the highest overall efficiency at more than 95 percent efficiency at 45.5 percent load. The two battery based UPS deployments showed 91 percent efficiency at 58 percent load and 77 percent efficiency at 44 percent load, respectively.
* Many conventional battery based UPS systems have the ability to operate in “eco mode” or “soft mode” which improves the system’s energy efficiency. However, this higher energy efficiency sacrifices the system’s power conditioning and protection capabilities. As a result, the system only protects mission critical loads against full power outages, not typical electrical disturbances as defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
“The energy efficiency we were striving for at our Broomfield, Colo. data center facility made deploying Active Power’s flywheel UPS equipment a pragmatic move,” said Mark Monroe, director, Sustainable Computing at Sun Microsystems. “These systems run much more efficiently than conventional battery based systems, meaning our energy losses are less. As a result, we are able to reduce our energy costs without sacrificing reliability.”
“The EPA estimated data centers consumed 1.5 percent of all electricity generated in the United States in 2006, amounting to more than $4.5 billion,” said Jim Clishem, president and CEO, Active Power. “With a forecast that shows this number doubling by 2011, organizations are forced to look at ways to drive efficiencies within their facility. At up to 98 percent energy efficient, we determined the entire U.S. data center industry could save approximately $180 million in electricity costs per year if Active Power’s flywheel UPS technology was deployed in all installations.”
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Active Power Releases White Paper Comparing Energy Efficiencies Across Different UPS Topologies
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