What does a data center need a UPS for?

The uninterruptible power supply, UPS for short, is a system that becomes active in the event of a fault in the power supply of critical systems and continues to provide them with reliable power. For this purpose, it is inserted in the power supply line of the devices. When activated, some UPSs tolerate a generally non-critical delay in the millisecond range.

The UPS protects connected devices against power failure, harmonics, undervoltage, overvoltage and frequency changes. These disturbances usually arise in local power grids, for example due to the switching off of large loads, distant lightning strikes, short circuits and large inrush currents. The UPS can compensate for this interference so that sensitive equipment is not affected.

A UPS consists of accumulators, which are constantly recharged from the mains supply, electronic control and power converters. The power, which usually ranges from 300 VA to a few 100 kVA, depends on the load capacity of the power converter. The maximum bridging time, which ranges from a few seconds to several hours, depends on the capacity of the accumulators. For high performance and a long bridging time, additional power generators (e.g. a diesel generator) are used to recharge the accumulators. The UPS bridges the time it takes for the power generator to start up.

The UPS is used, for example, in hospitals and data centers, but also in small offices and at home. In the event of a power failure, the computers in data centers are automatically shut down within the bridging time without any data loss occurring. The UPS and server communicate with each other via Ethernet, SNMP, RS-232 or USB. Such a connection allows access to the firmware to control the UPS.

You can find more information on the need here.

Our centron data center also has an uninterruptible power supply to ensure greater availability than 99.9% on an annual average.