Power & Cooling

Kohler launches new KD Series industrial generator

Kohler Power Systems, part of Kohler Energy, has expanded its KD Series line of industrial generators with a new model, KD800, designed for 50hz markets. This generator features a new advanced engine (KD18L06) that can also run on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a renewable fuel source. This new model joins a proven series of gensets that continues to provide the highest power density and best fuel consumption at more nodes than competitors between 800-4500 kVa, offering cost savings to users. The new KD unit is designed to power mission-critical applications, including airports, hospitals, and healthcare facilities, water treatment plants and mid-sized data centres. The KD800 joins Kohler’s industrial generators that are engineered to use HVO fuel. HVO provides a more sustainable alternative to conventional diesel and biofuels. No adaptation is needed and both HVO and diesel can be mixed together. HVO is also highly stable, with no sensitivity to oxidation, so it can be stored long-term. It enables to offset carbon emission by up to 90% by using renewable waste products. Kohler’s KD Series is designed to deliver extreme durability and ultimate reliability in a variety of emergency and prime applications. KD Series generators are engineered to last, with better fuel economy and a small footprint. When paired with Kohler’s global sales and support network, the KD Series line-up provides an innovation that secures customers’ critical operations. And when service is needed, Kohler has a global dealer and distribution infrastructure consisting of more than 800 facilities offering 24/7 parts availability. For additional details about the Kohler KD Series range, visit its product catalogue by clicking here. For more from Kohler, click here.

Don’t compromise on power protection

By David Bond, Chairman, Centiel UK When we are ill, we consult a doctor, a trusted expert in the human body, to diagnose and appropriately treat the problem. They will also advise on how to best prevent a recurrence of the problem. Hopefully, we don’t listen to “old wives tales” that guarantee an immediate cure. The same common sense applies with the diagnosis, help and advice for critical power protection. Nobody would knowingly purchase an inferior UPS, but how would they know a good UPS from an inferior one? If you’re not a UPS expert, it’s easy to fall for sales talk and marketing speak, but just like a doctor won’t try and ‘sell’ you unnecessary medication, real UPS experts will act as trusted advisors and will only act in their customers’ best interest. No sales 'spin', just facts and sound advice. While Centiel’s team of UPS experts don’t swear an hypocritic oath like a doctor does, every Centiel employee signs up to a set of core values which keeps the best interests of customers at the heart of everything they do, namely:   We always behave with integrity We are honest and open in our business transactions We treat our customers, suppliers and each other with respect We constantly strive to improve our customer service We never compromise on health, safety or environmental matters Finding the best way to protect critical power is a complex topic. Therefore, Centiel’s expert team act as trusted advisors to all customers, including data centres, hospitals and all IT facilities, to ensure they always have the optimal UPS solution, whilst reducing their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and maximising their system availability. Centiel’s engineers and UPS solutions experts and are not required to 'sell' UPS. Instead they establish long term relationships by offering their wealth of experience and expertise. By taking time to understand the challenges faced, they always provide the best advice in relation to solutions based on best practice. It's this long-term vision and close relationships with Centiel’s clients which led to the development of its industry-leading UPS solutions. For example, Centiel recently launched StratusPower, which shares all the benefits of the award-winning three phase, true modular UPS CumulusPower - including '9 nines' (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime; class leading 97.6% online efficiency to minimise running costs; true 'hot swap' modules to eliminate human error in operation – but now also includes long-life components to improve sustainability. StratusPower minimises TCO because of its class-leading efficiency and low maintenance costs and it is fully scalable, so is unlikely be outgrown.   Centiel’s experts help organisations around the world understand TCO calculations and provide best recommendations to protect power from day one and into the future. Armed with this information, informed decisions can be made about the most appropriate option to protect critical power, reduce carbon footprint and maintain the highest level of availability. So just like you would consult a doctor to maintain your optimal health, when it comes to looking at UPS solutions, don’t compromise. Choose experts who will provide best advice to protect your critical power. To arrange a discussion or for more information, click here.

The role of generator maintenance in ensuring power resilience

Until now, renewable energy plants in Germany have not been set up for emergency power supply in the event of a power outage. That is about to change, thanks to the award-winning LINDA research project and Crestchic’s load bank technology, which is a critical part of the solution.  What is the LINDA project?  Funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the project looks at how renewable energy plants could supply power to a local 'island' grid in a decentralised way in the event of a power failure. The project, Local Island Grid Supply and Accelerated Grid Reconstruction, with Decentralised Generation Plants in the Event of Large-scale Power Outages (or the more simple 'LINDA'), seeks to explore, test and implement ways of making power generation systems use renewable energy sources for emergency power supplies.  In 2018, phase one of the project, which involved partners from across academia and industry, including the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, the Technical University of Munich, LEW Verteilnetz and LEW Wasserkraft, and KIMA automation, won the ISGAN Award (International Smart Grid Action Network) and the Bavarian Energy Prize. The project included the development of a new emergency generator that successfully integrated renewable decentralised power generation systems, including photovoltaic systems, hydroelectric power plants and a biogas plant, into an independent island grid. In the event of a power failure, the system was designed to supply a local grid with electricity power from existing renewable energy sources.  Emergency power - limitations of the current approach  Historically, emergency power generators have been operated in such a way that power failures can result in a temporary lapse in supply while the generator kicks in. As well as causing momentary outages and fluctuations in supply, these backups are usually supplied by diesel generators. With the new approach, the system is designed to provide a continuous supply in the event of a power failure, using power from multiple decentralised systems, and crucially, favouring renewables as a backup power source.  In pilots of the system, LINDA was able to guarantee the uninterrupted power supply of households in the test communities. This was done without costly retrofitting of the current systems, providing an important building block for the energy transition and improved security of supply. LINDA 2.0 - automating backup power  In the second phase of the project, LINDA 2.0, the research team is developing a supply concept with battery storage and a diesel generator to provide an additional backup power supply. As well as providing a backup, the system is being designed to automatically balance the fluctuating power generation from decentralised systems and the energy load itself. As well as ensuring a stable and secure power supply without interruptions, the automation will enable the system to shift into emergency mode remotely, without the need for staff to be on site.  Bespoke loadbank solution helps to balance frequency  In order to automate the system, AVS - a German blackout management specialist that provides generators and grid stabilisation systems to a range of industries - worked with the team at Crestchic Loadbanks to create a fully automatic hybrid frequency-controlled power control for generators up to 1300kVA.  Dubbed AVS Greenomic, the solution allows the system to prioritise drawing on renewable energy, for example, CHP, wind power or photovoltaic systems, in order to provide backup power in a blackout scenario, allowing diesel fuel consumption to be reduced by up to 80%. The load bank itself provides a stability of voltage and frequency when switching between different power sources, and maintains a constant 20% load on the generator. Any oversupply of energy is also consumed in a controlled manner, helping to balance the power generation system and smooth out any frequency imbalances. Mike Derbyshire, European Area Sales Manager at Crestchic, explains, “We’ve worked with AVS for a number of years, so were delighted to collaborate with them on a bespoke solution that would meet the requirements of the LINDA project. Our standard loadbanks and controllers were adapted to allow AVS to add their own control system, and we added additional fuse protection, an interface between the loadbank and the Greenomic assembly and the power connections themselves, all of which enables the system to balance the frequency and ensure and reliable and stable supply. It’s a high-profile project and we’re pleased to have been able to use our technical experience to support and enable the project goals.”

Vertiv launches UPS for edge and mid-sized applications in EMEA

Vertiv has introduced the Vertiv Liebert APM2, a new energy efficient and scalable power solution to its uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems portfolio. The Liebert APM2 is compatible with lithium-ion (Li-ion) and VRLA batteries, and features a compact design that can scale from 30kW to 600kW in a single unit. It offers significant energy savings as compared to less efficient alternatives, and can also parallel with up to four matching units for additional capacity or redundancy. It is a CE certified UPS system available in 400V in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. To satisfy the increasing power needs of edge computing applications, as well as the constrained space typical of these sites, it delivers a greater power output in a smaller footprint than similar capacity solutions, with the models requiring up to 45% less space than the predecessor UPS, Vertiv Liebert APM. The Liebert APM2 operates with high energy efficiency in all modes, up to 97.5% in double-conversion mode; up to 98.8% efficiency when operating in dynamic online mode, which draws power through the bypass line and uses the inverter for balanced output and as an active filter; and up to 99% when operating in ECO mode, which takes advantage of stable grid input conditions to leverage the bypass line. All modes are automated based on user preferences. The intelligent paralleling feature facilitates load sharing among multiple power modules, even across multiple units. This enables balanced unit runtime and offers automatic failover for enhanced system availability. Intelligent paralleling has also been shown to contribute to energy efficiency. “Vertiv has introduced, in Liebert APM2 and other UPS systems, enhancements that improve operational efficiency and can contribute to a reduced data centre PUE, while also maintaining system availability,” says Giovanni Zanei, Senior Director, AC Power Global Offering and EMEA Business Leader at Vertiv. “In particular, the dynamic online feature, built on a robust global platform launched in 2018, enhances the already impressive UPS efficiency and has been adopted by energy and availability conscious customers, including many colocators.”

Centiel supports Sure’s data centres on net zero path

Centiel has completed a project to deploy its award-winning 4th generation, three-phase, modular UPS system CumulusPower in three of Sure’s Tier III data centres on Guernsey. Sure’s data centres on the Channel Islands keep some of Europe’s largest organisations’ critical data safe and secure in a location outside of mainland UK and Europe.  The upgrade to legacy equipment in data halls four, five and eight this year to CumulusPower has seen the whole facility convert to the latest technology, which offers significantly higher resilience and availability (nine-nines 99.9999999% which equates to milliseconds per year) than previously, in addition to achieving significant energy savings, costs and reducing carbon footprint. Due to the true modular nature of CumulusPower, it is highly efficient, meaning it runs at 97% efficiency compared with <80% for the previous UPS.  Simon Roger, Facilities Manager, Sure, comments, “We chose Centiel’s CumulusPower as the leading power protection technology on the market.  “I am pleased to say that the UPS replacements in data centres four and five are now complete with no more switching events required and the change requests are both closed. We have seen the predicted instant power savings equating to an estimated 20-30% approximately with the current IT load. The UPS are also uber reliable and take up less space and we have saved around seven racks on this installation which can be used for clients.” Due to the location of the Channel Islands, trained engineers usually need to fly to the islands to complete necessary maintenance work. CumulusPower’s modules can be ‘hot/safe swapped’ in a running load, therefore, Centiel has also trained Sure’s engineers in first level response. Sure’s team can now complete basic monitoring, diagnostics and maintenance of the UPS.  Simon continues, “CumulusPower is unique in the market because it enables UPS modules to be swapped safely by our trained team without switching the UPS off. This safe-hot-swap functionality means even if we need to replace a module and send it for repair, we do not experience any downtime, ensuring maximum availability for our clients.”

ICS Cool Energy expands with a cold store dedicated team

ICS Cool Energy has announced the expansion of its hire division with a management team dedicated to cold stores. The team of engineering specialists that will manage the UK fleet of low to ultra-low temperature containerised cold store solutions is: Ralph Howes, Cold Store Major Accounts Manager Lisa Townsley, Cold Store Business Development Manager, South Kayla Shaw, Cold Store Business Development Manager, North Mike Elver, Cold Store Senior Sales Engineer The company's cold store container units can be used where raw or finished products require temporary or long-term temperature-controlled storage to preserve or increase shelf life. Cold stores can add storage space and deliver high cooling capacity in combination with precise temperature control from fresh to deep frozen, even in the most severe applications with high ambient temperatures, frequent door openings and long running hours. The units can be also applied in R&D applications, where a temperature-controlled environment is required to enable Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) of critical components. ICS Cool Energy temperature-controlled containers are available in 10ft, 20ft and 40ft length and feature tried and tested refrigeration technology from Thermo King. The units can be plugged in the 360-500V, 50 or 60Hz power supply to ensure cold or frozen temperatures in the container. Designed originally for global, seagoing reefer applications, its containers are equipped with features that make them suitable as static cold stores. They are washable with wash down drains, have man trapped person alarms, lighting inside emergency escape release and conform to BRC audit standards. The units can also be adapted to meet customer needs with options including telematics, remote monitoring, and controlled atmosphere. Customers can also benefit from a modular approach, where multiple cold stores, joined together without connecting walls, can be linked with buildings without time consuming engineering, ground works, or long planning permission process.

Centiel: Protecting power for hypercritical systems

By David Bond, Chairman, Centiel UK Products are cheap for a reason. If you jumped out of an aircraft, would you want to be wearing a cheap parachute? Probably not! The same logic applies to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) protecting hypercritical systems. Selecting the solution which offers the highest level of availability and a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is very important. However, finding the best way to protect critical power is a complex topic and one size doesn’t fit all. For this reason, Centiel’s expert team act as trusted advisors to data centres and facilities across the UK to ensure they always have the optimal UPS solution to reduce their TCO and maximise their uptime, whatever their requirement. Centiel’s sales team are all engineers and UPS solutions experts and are not required to “sell” UPS. They are required to establish long term relationships with clients and consultants by offering their wealth of experience and expertise. They must take time to understand the challenges faced by the client and always provide the best advice in relation to solutions. If, for example, the best solution is “don’t change the current UPS”, then this is the advice given. Centiel wants its customers to be able to pick up the phone and discuss the best options available for them now and in the future, knowing they will always receive excellent advice and recommendations based on best practice. It's this long-term vision and close relationships with Centiel’s clients which led to the development of their industry leading UPS solutions. For example, Centiel recently launched StratusPower, which shares all the benefits of the award-winning three phase, true modular UPS CumulusPower - including “9 nines” (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime; class leading 97.6% on-line efficiency to minimise running costs; true “hot swap” modules to eliminate human error in operation – but now also includes long-life components to improve sustainability. Centiel’s team have long been at the forefront of solving technology challenges. To develop the innovation that is StratusPower, Centiel listened to customers and understood their concerns about sustainability. For the past four years, its design team has been working to ensure their latest UPS is as sustainable as possible. Uniquely, StratusPower has a 30-year design life and is almost 100% recyclable, providing complete peace of mind in relation to power availability, while helping data centres to achieve net zero targets. “StratusPower minimises TCO because of its class leading efficiency and low maintenance costs, it is fully scalable, so is unlikely be outgrown and it provides industry leading power availability. This is just one reason Centiel’s experienced team can now advise on the most appropriate options for organisations looking to improve their approach to sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint, as well as maintaining the highest level of availability for critical power protection." To arrange a discussion about the best UPS to protect your organisation’s critical power or for more information visit Centiel's website. Click here for more latest news.

Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has announced key enhancements to its dedicated offering for channel distributors and resellers. According to Omdia, Vertiv is already ranked at first place in the three-phase UPS market globally, capturing 16% of the market. With these enhancements, its highly efficient and market-leading three-phase uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) from 10 to 60kVA, including the Vertiv Liebert ITA2 and its complementary services, are now available in the Vertiv Solution Designer tool and shipping from stock in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). According to Omdia’s UPS Hardware Market Tracker and Analysis 2022, there is an increased demand for three-phase UPS in EMEA from markets outside of cloud, colocation, and telco. These include retail, wholesale, healthcare, manufacturing and other industries. By 2026, the three-phase UPS market in EMEA is expected to grow from $1.66 billion in 2021 to $2.07 billion, a CAGR of 5.84%. “Digitalisation is being leveraged by companies of all sizes and industries, which leads to an increased need for efficient solutions to protect small and medium sites against power outages,” says Karsten Winther, EMEA President at Vertiv. “The strategic addition of three-phase UPS to our IT channel portfolio allows partners to serve a broader market with industry leading solutions, enabling businesses to leverage the latest technologies and accelerate their digital transformation journey.” “As an official Vertiv partner and system integrator for over 30 years, we are seeing more and more opportunities for three-phase UPS systems,” says Ronald Lagerberg, Team Leader Energy Solutions at Endenburg Elektrotechniek. “The extension of Vertiv’s IT channel portfolio expands our options, enabling us to gain substantial logistical, administrative, and financial advantages while enhancing our ability to serve end-users. We look forward to integrating these cutting edge products into our offerings." The Vertiv Liebert ITA2 features a true online double conversion technology, a unity power factor and an extremely compact rack/tower design. Compared to single-phase systems, three-phase UPS allow higher power capacity and up to 99% efficiency in ECO mode. With the offering, expert support on product selection, set-up and performance optimisation throughout three-phase systems’ entire lifecycle is now available also through the channel market. In fact, the three-phase UPS offering is enhanced with customised on-site and contract services specifically designed for the channel, while also leveraging the company’s top tier service network. Having a large portfolio of UPS solutions dedicated to the channel market means that partners have access to a wide range of power protection options, including medium power solutions that allow businesses to expand their digital footprint while still working with their trusted channel partner. Vertiv provides a comprehensive range of specialised services designed to complement channel partners’ business models. The extensive service expertise offers a smooth experience for all parties involved, providing seamless support across their entire service offering, including on-site services, lifecycle services and digital services such as remote diagnostics and incident management. Moreover, partners can leverage Vertiv software solutions to empower asset management capabilities and offer the best experience to their end users. In addition to UPS systems, the company’s broader critical infrastructure portfolio is designed to operate more efficiently, increase capacity and potentially lower TCO while integrating seamlessly with the customer’s existing infrastructure, enabling partners to expand revenue streams and increase margins. With manufacturing facilities across Europe and the world, Vertiv solutions can be made available when and where they are needed. Partners can also access dedicated configuration tools linked with an ecosystem of technical and commercial support teams. Vertiv’s multi-award winning Partner Program features benefits and incentives to equip, develop and reward partner engagement. The addition of the Liebert ITA2 UPS to its IT channel portfolio also enables EMEA resellers in participating countries to earn more points through the Vertiv Incentive Programme (VIP), which allows partners to easily earn rewards without the need for any reporting. Bonus points are uploaded into the Vertiv Partner Portal monthly, and the partner only needs to log in to redeem them.

i3 Solutions Group secures patents for greater data centre resiliency

i3 Solutions Group has been issued two patents by the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) for its Adaptable Redundant Power (ARP) topology control solution for mission-critical electrical power systems. ARP is a hardware and software control system that overcomes the inflexibility of common data centre electrical designs, solving the service level agreement (SLA) disparity problem whereby power supply chain systems are fixed but IT load demands, and criticality are variable. At the same time, ARP addresses constraints associated with traditional static power topologies which can restrict access to available data centre power, often leaving costly stranded capacity unused and increasing end user costs. This is an acute challenge for the wholesale colocation industry, which does an admirable job securing and deploying grid power capacity, but is often unable to fully or optimally utilise it - causing energy waste and higher costs. Benefits of ARP Ed Ansett, Founder and Chairman of i3 Solutions Group, says, “Every business has low to high levels of application criticality and interdependency. Through developments such as Kubernetes, IT can be orchestrated to reflect this. However, when it comes to electricity, the power chain is fixed, wasteful and difficult to change. ARP is a way to flex the power SLA to match the IT workload SLA without the considerable expense of rewiring the entire topology design.” By enabling power service levels to be aligned with that of the IT load, ARP provides a range of benefits to both data centre operators and their IT customers. ARP enables applications and the hardware they sit on to be provisioned with varying levels of electrical power resilience. Today, it is obvious that not all IT workloads are equal - for example, a dev ops project for a marketing campaign versus live financial transactions workloads in retail or merchant bank, or a network rack compared with a super compute cluster. However, the way power is delivered using a fixed topology does not differentiate in terms of criticality, treating all workload destinations equally. ARP is different because it can automatically provide power resilience across the topology that is dynamically matched to the criticality of the IT load. ARP solves inherent redundant power challenges too Traditionally power chain designs for data centres are based on a chosen level of capacity, resilience and redundancy of N, N+1, N+2 and less commonly 2N, 2N+1 and 2(N+1). But once the topology is decided and deployed it is fixed. It is then expensive, time consuming and extremely difficult to change. ARP addresses this. ARP can also provide Inherent Redundant Power (IRP). Where some electrical designs leave ‘power pockets’ (assigned power that is unused) - IRP accesses previously trapped or stranded power and prevents it going to waste by utilising it to provide additional levels of redundancy. Power-as-a-Service offers from colocation data centres one step closer ARP offers colocation data centres the opportunity to create new business models based on their power infrastructure. One of the advantages, for example, is that ARP enables a staggered approach to infrastructure roll out which responds to end-user load and not design criteria. By treating power as a service right from the construction phase, ARP addresses many flexibility issues which have surfaced for modern data centre operators. While data centres will continue to be designed as physical buildings which are broken down into halls, ARP modules are flexible enough to provide power across multiple halls. ARP therefore enables developers to move away from traditional and capitally intense methods of infrastructure deployment - up-front design, source, pay for and roll-out the full site requirement for genset, switchgear, UPS, PDU and ancillary equipment, and then wait for the demand to arrive.

The new Schneider Electric Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular

Schneider Electric has introduced the Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular. This robust uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is designed to protect critical loads while offering third-party verified Live Swap functionality. Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular is available in 50-250kW capacity with N+1 scalable configuration and supports the EcoStruxure architecture, which offers remote monitoring services. With scalability top of mind, Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular enables you to pay as you grow, allowing you to optimise capital investment. It is a part of Schneider Electric’s Green Premium portfolio, which ensures energy efficiency, durability, recyclability, and transparency to help reduce environmental footprint. In addition, this system features advanced technology such as a high-efficiency design, intelligent battery management, real-time monitoring, and control capabilities, making it one of the most cost-effective and energy-efficient UPS solutions available in the market. “We are excited to introduce Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular to the market,” says Mustafa Demirkol, VP of Offer Management and Marketing for Data Centre Solutions. “This product provides customers with third-party certified Live Swap, modular design, and unwavering reliability in an optimised investment package. Its connectivity provides peace of mind, making it the easy choice for data centres and commercial and industrial applications.” Business continuity made easy Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular enables customers to lower their capital expenditures through an optimised capex model. In addition, scheduled downtime is significantly reduced through self-diagnosing third-party certified Live Swappable power modules and static switch, thereby increasing reliability and availability in a compact footprint. Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular is easy to select, configure, install, and maintain, which makes the deployment process seamless. Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular is part of Schneider Electric’s Easy UPS three-phase product portfolio, which focuses on core features to meet the needs of customers at a value price point. "Our new Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular provides a sustainable, scalable and best-in-class power protection solution for data centres, commercial buildings, process automation and industrial manufacturing environments," says Mark Yeeles, VP, Secure Power Division, UK and Ireland. "By leveraging its Green Premium and circular capabilities, customers can reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability objectives without compromise.”