UPSs provide high availability at low cost

First Quarter 2008 Electrical switching & drive systems & components

The quality of the uninterruptible power supply is essential for continuity of service of critical installations such as data centres, industrial processes and telecommunications.

“Four basic factors must be taken into account when selecting a UPS: the quality of the power, flexibility, ease of use and total cost of ownership,” explains Didier Guglielminetti, product manager at APC-MGE. “For mission-critical applications, the stakes are such that it is absolutely essential to offer operations managers systems that provide the most effective combination of these factors, regardless of the complexity of the environments and conditions. This is the reasoning behind the features incorporated into the Galaxy 5000 and 6000.”

The highest quality power is required to ensure that IT and industrial equipment functions at maximum efficiency. The Galaxy 5000 is an on-line double-conversion architecture with a variable switching frequency SixPack IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) inverter offering THDU (total harmonic voltage distortion at UPS output) of less than 2%.

SixPack IGBTs are also used at the UPS input stage to provide a clean input current waveform to ensure that they can be built into any electrical installation without interference.

It is essential that the power is uninterrupted during any upgrade. The Galaxy 5000 is highly modular and can be upgraded to meet the changing requirements of sites and critical applications. The basic rating can be increased six-fold and it can be used in conjunction with static transfer switches (STS) to provide redundant electrical power supplies. Backup times from five minutes to eight hours are available as standard to meet various requirements.

From installation to operation, Galaxy 5000 provides the best return on investment. It is compact (built-in batteries of up to 80 kVA), easy and quick to connect (all operations are carried out from the front). The clean input current waveform provided by the SixPack technology means that the mains supply does not need to be oversized, which can result in considerable savings and its operating efficiency can be up to 94%.

Mistakes operating one or more UPSs protecting mission-critical services can have extremely serious consequences. Ease of learning and decision-making aids are aspects that are important for ensuring the availability of the power to equipment protected by UPS systems.

The Galaxy 6000 features the high availability power, flexibility and low cost of ownership of the Galaxy 5000 with a novel interface for exceptionally easy operation. Its icon-based graphical user interface with large tactile colour display provides access to all the information essential for managing the high availability power supply: metering, alarms, statistics and event log.

For more information contact Jacqui Gradwell, APC, +27 (0)11 465 5414, [email protected], www.apc-mge.com

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