ABB’s Latest Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is Built Specifically for Industrial Applications and Harsh Conditions
What is uninterruptible power supply, and how could ABB’s medium-voltage power supply help engineers on the factory floor or in harsh environments?
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is a device that filters incoming voltage, supports short electrical supply outages, and provides a constant fixed voltage.
What are a Medium-Voltage UPS?
A medium-voltage UPS is essentially the same as a standard UPS but is designed for a medium-voltage range, ranging from 1000v - 35kV. The IEC 60038 standard rates voltage ranges as; low 0-1000v, medium 1000v - 35kv, and high as anything over 35kv.
The major difference between a low voltage (LV) UPS and a medium voltage (MV) UPS is the source voltage. Both systems will store power in the event of a power outage. Both systems filter the incoming voltage to provide clean source voltage to the downstream devices. A typical MV UPS is used for data centers or any mission-critical facility requiring clean, constant electrical power. ABB is the latest company to launch a new UPS to meet the needs of medium-voltage systems.
ABB’s Impedance Isolated Static Converter ZISC
ABB’s HiPerGuard is designed with the ability to supply medium-voltage power at an efficiency of 98%. This UPS is capable of this efficiency thanks to ABB’s ZISC, the “Z” coming from the symbol for impedance in electrical formulas.
ABB’s HiPerGuard UPS. Image used courtesy of ABB
The ZISC system consists of an isolating line reactor coupled with high-performance ABB converters. Isolating the line reactor from the power utility allows the system to condition and filter out any disturbances continuously.
The power is split into LV for storage and power converting and MV for isolating and coupling. Dividing the power provides easier maintenance when required.
ABB’s Power Electronics Building Block (PEBB). Image used courtesy of ABB
The HiPerGuard MV comes in four sizes; 7.2kV, 12kV, 15kV, and 24kV. All four units have an efficiency rating of 98% for 50% to 100% loading. The energy storage utilizes Li-Ion batteries and can supply power for 15 seconds to 15 minutes.
The system has a 10” touchscreen display for waveform capturing, event analysis, trending, and a service log. The HiPerGuard MV also comes with Modbus TCP with an Ethernet connection for communication.
Data Centers and Industrial Factories
With cloud storage and remote work becoming so popular, data centers or large office spaces filled with servers are becoming more common. These servers require clean, constant power sources and typically have multiple UPSs in each rack to help multiple servers.
A typical UPS of this size would use a rotary UPS, which is a diesel-powered power backup. While this style of UPS is productive, it also produces harmful CO2 emissions. CO2 emission can be greatly reduced by using a battery-powered backup.
The Graphical Display Module (GDM). Image used courtesy of ABB
Many modern factories are highly automated and look more like an IT company than a factory. This is because of all the data collection and high-tech automation that takes advantage of high-end computing technologies.
All of this technology requires constant power that is conditioned for sensitive equipment. It is not always cost-effective to have a UPS for each piece of equipment on the factory floor. With the HiPerGuard UPS, multiple machines can have access to clean, constant power.
ABB hopes that this added benefit and some of the new unique features of this UPS can help engineers with their UPS systems.
