Protection of the main server at the technical university (TU) in Vienna
Performance limit reached: New safety for the heart of the IT faculty
The dedicated main server at the IT faculty at the Technical University of Vienna is a central instrument all of its research, tuition and administration. It will come as no surprise to learn that the faculty needs very particular requirements to be satisfied for these technical service providers – and the previous UPS system was no longer able to accomplish this. As early as 2015, it became apparent that the 80 kVA unit installed in 2010 (calculated at the time to have a power reserve of 50%) would soon become insufficiently powerful to meet growing levels of need.
Of course, for obvious reasons, the faculty had no wish to purchase a much larger system than they actually needed. Nonetheless, they did wish for a level of UPS performance that could be expanded to meet the further growth in requirements that the faculty anticipates.
A modular system makes this possible: Peace of mind for much more than 5 years
For EFFEKTA it was clear: A modular UPS system for the IT faculty is needed. The initial performance rating of 160 kVA – 120 kVA was the basic level of backup with a further 40 kVA of redundancy – was sufficient to meet the forecast needs of the next 5 years. It therefore provided plenty of cover for initial needs. It will be no problem to continue expanding this modular UPS system up to 320 kVA.
To ensure that this not insubstantial size of system would not exceed the limits of available space in the faculty building, the first step in this project involved a preliminary visit, during which the existing electrical installations were also examined in detail. Based on this, a quotation was produced that also took account of the experiences of this customer with the previous UPS system.
In previous operations, it became apparent that, although an automatic server shutdown facility was provided, a few residual consumers remained operational, making demands on the system and therefore further discharging the batteries, even after the server had been shut down. The customer also wanted to resolve this problem during renovation of the UPS system. All of these requirements were satisfied in full. Since March 2018, the new UPS system has been performing satisfactorily in the IT faculty in the 4th district of Vienna.
kVA basic capacity
kVA maximum performance expansion
pallets of material
tons of gross weight
Very practical at the same time: Bypass and programmable power circuit disengagement
An external bypass is incorporated in the concept for problem-free maintenance of the new UPS unit with a nominal power rating of 630 A to disconnect the EFFEKTA UPS fully from the system whenever service is required, or a malfunction needs to be remedied and without having to switch off the consumers connected to it.
To avoid any repeat of the experience made with the hold system in respect of the superfluous strain imposed on the batteries by residual consumers, potential-free contacts are provided. Their switching action is dependent on battery capacity. This switching thresholds can be programmed freely, enabling the potential-free contacts on individual power switches to be activated separately and to enable the affected load circuits to be switched off after a server shutdown.