Battery Power - Winter 2014 - (Page 8)

Feature UPS Goes Green to Save Green David Chetham-Strode, WW Product Manager Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions HP With space and energy conservation key topics among IT and facilities decision makers, UPS manufacturers are continually striving to design smaller products with fewer parts, lower cost, easier recycling and less weight. This delicate balance of innovative engineering combined with supply chain component and materials selection seeks to achieve a green energy solution, facilitating improvements in recycling, energy conservation and heat management. Some UPSs now include energy-saving features such as real-time clocks (RTCs), which allow accurately timed, programmed shutdown and restart of protected devices even in the event of a power outage. Data center managers are discovering additional green advantages through the use of UPS power management software that is compatible in today's energyefficient virtualized environments. Still others are reaping the rewards from new UPS topologies that can contribute significantly to greener data centers. One relatively new engineering design in power protection includes the minimally switched line-interactive (MST) UPS topology. This design abandons the use of voltage regulation transformers used in traditional line interactive topology UPSs to afford numerous advantages for users going green, and saving green. Overall, MST UPSs offer a smaller environmental footprint via: * Maximized power efficiency to use less energy, * Longer battery life that diminishes recycling turns, * Wise use of scarce commodity products, * Better thermal management resulting in less strain on cooling systems. REDUCE Less Is More - No More Heavy Transformers Most line-interactive UPS topology designs rely on a large, low-frequency transformer to briefly buck- and boost-regulate fluctuating utility power to protected devices. Though using a voltage regulating transformer is sufficient for many applications, there are also many drawbacks, including unnecessary weight, use of costly and scarce commodity components (such as copper), jagged voltage regulation and excessive dependence on the UPS battery during the voltage-regulation phase. On the other hand, minimally switched UPSs offer key advantages for IT managers looking to meet today's green demands. This topology abandons the low frequency voltage transformer and its drawbacks and instead implements high-frequency magnetics and pulse-width-modulation switching power designs to maximize power efficiency and enhance battery life. 8 Battery Power * Winter 2014 Figure 1. Block Diagram Typical LI with Transformer Figure 2. Block Diagram MST UPS OPTIMIZE No More Tap Dancing When the utility line input changes above or below nominal levels (120 volts for example), the UPS compensates by either boosting up or bucking down the input voltage to regulate toward the ideal 120 volts. During this process, transformerbased line interactive UPS include several taps on the transformer, which doesn't allow for a smooth resolution of voltage. These taps are similar to rungs on a ladder going up and down. The mechanical relays that switch from one tap (or rung) to another, either buck or boost the voltage. The regulation in this manner is typically +6/-10 percent between transitions, large steps. The drawback is that the number of taps is usually limited to a handful. With only a few taps available, the transition of going up or down is not continuous as these steps are fixed. The ratio from the input to output of this transformer therefore is based on how many of these taps are available making the resolution of this buck and boost somewhat rough. In addition, the mechanical relays included in these UPSs are notorious for their unpredictability. MST topology overcomes these challenges with its high-frequency electronic/high-frequency switching. This advantage creates smooth and continuous, dynamic buck and boost regulation regardless of what the voltage variation is on the input. Digital technology within MST allows processing without mechanical www.BatteryPowerOnline.com http://www.BatteryPowerOnline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Battery Power - Winter 2014

Editor’s Choice
IDT Announces Next-Generation WPC 1.1 Wireless Power Receiver for Portable Applications
NREL to Research Battery Storage Approaches in Support of ARPA-E RANGE Program
Features
UPS Goes Green to Save Green
When Rubber Stamping is Not Enough
Purdue University Project Aims to Mass-Produce ‘Nanopetals’ for Sensors, Batteries
Growth in Battery Industry Sparks the Need for Battery Innovation Center
ORNL-Grown Oxygen ‘Sponge’ Presents Path to Better Catalysts, Energy Materials
New Products
Batteries
ICs & Semiconductors
Charging, Testing & Monitoring
ICs & Semiconductors
Components
Manufacturing
Departments
Industry News
Marketplace

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