Service Express

As data centre operators endeavour to push the boundaries of energy efficiency levels to reduce their carbon footprint and achieve a PUE ratio as near to 1.0 as possible, the focus has turned to upgrade their most power-hungry equipment in the facility.

Despite these challenges, Service Express, a well-established Tier III and Tier IV data centre formed in 1987 prides itself on its green credentials and PUE ratio. By using suppliers who value their carbon reduction goal for their data centre equipment, Service Express has been able to build and operate one of the most efficient data centres in the UK.

The solution and results

Power Control has played an instrumental part in helping Service Express achieve significant energy efficiency gains by presenting a high efficiency, transformerless UPS (uninterruptible power supply) solution to replace its 10-year-old transformer-based UPS infrastructure which required a major service and battery replacement.

Transformer based UPS have their place, but due to their component structure, are less efficient than transformer free and modular technologies, therefore, maximising their efficiency is more challenging. Transformer based UPS can also limit scalability and inherently lead to inefficiencies, in particular in a 2N+1 configuration where the load is often not large enough. Loads within data centres fluctuate and this needs to be accounted for within any power protection strategy.

With UPS systems being a major contributor to PUE ratings, upgrading to new, more efficient technologies must be considered. Advances in transformerless, monolithic UPS technology not only give data centre operators greater max KW output, thanks to their unity power factor, but they have also proven their resilience.

Following a site survey and operational assessment, Power Control confidently presented the Borri Ingenio Max solution as a direct swap out for the legacy transformer-based units.

In total three 400kVA transformer-based UPS systems in a 2N+1 configuration, which were providing a maximum 640kW load due to their 89% efficiency have been replaced with three high-efficiency 400kVA Borri Ingenio Max units in a 2N+1 configuration (the same as the previous) which provides up to 800kW maximum load due to the UPS unity power factor. Not only does this mean they are more efficient, but it also ensures optimal sizing.

Power Control also presented the Borri Ingenio Max UPS system as the best solution because of Borri’s Green Conversion technology, providing continuous savings, high efficiency, and UPS component life extension for the customer.

The direct swap out and upgrade has contributed to reducing the data centres PUE ratio to 1.1. Which is believed to be the lowest in the UK and contributes to their overall goals of running one of the most energy-efficient data centres in the UK.

Thanks to Power Control’s expertise, all preparation was done in the week leading up to the swap out. Meaning that each parallel set of UPS, commission, and changeover, was completed in a single day. Minimising any disruption for the customer.

The new UPS installation also means Service Express benefit from an ROI of under 5 years and at current load levels, the efficiency savings for Blue Chip is approximately £20,000 per annum. The maximum efficiency of the Borri Ingenio Max is 96% so as the data centre grows, and the load increases so will Sevice Express’ annual savings.

Service Express has also benefited from the space-saving and lightweight advantages presented by transformerless technology, meaning their critical infrastructure takes up a smaller footprint in the facility.