The challenge for today's sophisticated data centers is steep. Many are having trouble even securing enough supply for their vast facilities, before even thinking about power protection. By this year (2008), 50% of presently operational data centers will not have the power and cooling capacity to fulfill demand, according to research firm Gartner. According to Quocirca, 43% of data centers are aware that a power shortage is about to occur, and 14% (19% in the USA) have already reached their limit.
This is partly caused by server sprawl and a lack of consolidation in the areas of purchasing, application administration, and energy utilization. But, despite a thorough management reorganization, data centers still need to move power generation and protection further up the boardroom agenda given how crucial power continuity is to both their businesses and those of their clients. An uninterruptible power supply must be used as the central component of data center power safety and as a link between mains power and standby power, with a focus on availability, redundancy, resilience, and serviceability (whether a diesel generator, fuel cell, or another source).
Sorting loads into critical, necessary, and non-essential categories, as well as sizing those that require UPS protection in terms of energy demand, is the most crucial initial step toward ensuring uninterrupted power. The IT infrastructure, servers, networks, routers, and other critical loads are necessities for the operation of the organization. They will need redundancy and UPS protection, and they might even call for longer runtime. Essential loads are those that may be necessary for health and safety reasons but do not necessarily immediately affect business continuity (such as heating and emergency lights).
They might not need redundancy, but they might need UPS protection to assure their continuity till the generator starts. Printers and cafeteria facilities are not important loads and can be temporarily lost in a power outage without the need for any UPS protection. It can be challenging to size an uninterruptible power supply system. It will operate inefficiently and be more expensive to install if it is much bigger. On the other hand, "undersized" increases the chance of system overload.
Although an online uninterruptible power supply has an automatic bypass built in for emergencies, it is not a good idea to often overload it while operating close to design limits. Understanding the significance of "actual power" is essential for power protection sizing. UPS Size. Whereas kilovolt-amps (kVA) is a measurement of apparent power, kilowatts (kW) is a measure of the real power drawn by the load. The size of the power factor (pf), which differs between the two, makes it difficult to specify uninterruptible power supplies.
