How FM managers can deliver uninterrupted power that meets their IT department’s requirements

Data centre owners continue to seek ways to reduce energy consumption both to save money and to improve their green credentials. Facilities managers can contribute to this quest by ensuring that they source the most efficient available UPS technology and deploy it as effectively as possible. In this article Mike Elms, Technical Manager at Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd., a Kohler company, explains the possibilities offered by modern UPS technology for maximising energy saving, while also maximising power availability and minimising capital expenditure. Energy consumption remains an important issue for data centre operators. According to a 2014 report from the European Commission Joint Research Centre, electricity consumed in data centres, including enterprise servers, ICT equipment, cooling equipment and power equipment, is expected to contribute substantially to the electricity consumed in the European Union commercial sector in the near future. The report then comments on how this trend makes it imperative for data centres to maximise their energy efficiency to reduce both energy costs and carbon footprint. Owners of data centres – whether they are standalone installations or part of a larger enterprise – are well aware of these issues, and accordingly motivated to mitigate them as far as possible. One approach is to work with their IT department, asking them to ensure that their servers and other equipment are as efficient as possible, whilst being deployed as efficiently as possible. Although IT departments can contribute to improved energy efficiency by carefully matching changing IT loads with the capacity they make available, they need a UPS installation that is equally as flexible and well-managed to reap the full benefits of their flexibility. However, if FM managers are tasked with sourcing the best available UPS technology and deploying it correctly, their efforts can be well-rewarded, paying dividends of elevated availability and more efficient use of UPS capacity in addition to reduced energy and cooling bills.