IPS and UPS stronger together
The principle role of an Isolated Power Supply (IPS) is to protect electrical loads from high voltage exposure. This is achieved by transferring power from one circuit to another without directly linking the two. The IPS identifies any ground faults at their earliest point enabling vital equipment to remain online.
IPS solutions form part of many critical power protection policies especially in healthcare facilities where they are a prerequisite for medical life-support systems, wet procedure settings and for equipment that falls in the ‘clinical 4 or 5 category’ or within ‘group 2’.
In order to meet industry standards, where power is required to be available within 0.5 seconds of a mains failure, as set out in HTM 06-01 and IEC60364-7-710, further resilience is provided with an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system. A combined N+1 UPS with an IPS is regarded as the most resilient configuration that can be adopted.
The added layer of reliability that is provided by a UPS solution, is essential for healthcare facilities and can be supplied just as a standalone solution. However, an N+1 configuration is recommended within HTM 06-01 to ensure that a secondary and tertiary power source is always available.
Both IPS and UPS systems play a crucial role in the safe deployment of continuous power. That being said, very careful attention must be paid to their internal components. HTM 06-01 advises that UPS batteries need to have 10 year design life expectancy, which means that regular servicing of these is vital to ensure they are operating under optimum conditions and have not been damaged in any way. Other key components such as bypass switches, transformers and alarm monitors require routine maintenance checks. Identifying any potential failures of components will save avoidable system failures.
Power Control has provided emergency power for the healthcare market for nearly 30 years and is trusted by leading institutions across the country. The company’s nationwide team of engineers deliver all regular servicing and maintenance works, following strict site restrictions and out of hours protocols.
At present, Power Control understands that in some circumstances postponing routine service is unavoidable but the company has taken all the necessary safety precautions and is strictly following Government guidelines to be able to continue to carry out these essential IPS and UPS works.
Power Control Ltd works with businesses across the country and supplies, installs, commissions and maintains backup power solutions for all applications. For more information please visit www.powercontrol.co.uk, email info@powercontrol.co.uk or call the office on 01246 431431
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