The Power Protection Blog

September 3, 2010

Dale Power Solutions are celebrating 75 years of trading with record sales and growth for the first 6 months of 2010

 Secure power specialists Dale Power Solutions has begun its 75th anniversary year with 75% order intake growth in the first six months of 2010.

As it looks back on a history which has taken it from humble beginnings to a global brand, renowned for its technical expertise and engineering excellence, Dale’s range of new and existing products is seizing a bigger share of the market. In all sectors – generator sets, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS Systems) products and in service and maintenance – Dale is enjoying international success. As part of the Secure Power Division of TT electronics, 600 people are employed worldwide with circa $120 million per annum.

The excellent start to 2010 has delighted Managing Director Tim Wilkins. He puts it down to a positive, proactive workforce working very hard to meet customers’ demands together with a strong product line-up and the development of new sales and service outlets, most recently in Swindon, Aberdeen and Sharjah.

“We have seen a very strong order intake for the first six months of 2010 and are pleased with the success of new and existing products,” he said. “We have strengthened our sales department and thanks to our new range of products and the strength of our existing generator, UPS and sales and maintenance products, we have captured a greater share of the market, both in the UK and export.” He puts the longevity and success of the brand down to excellent technical expertise, design capability, project management, installation and ongoing servicing.

“It continues to be our ability to discuss a customer’s requirements with them and supply a tailored power solution that meets their needs exactly,” he said. “We operate lean enterprise 6 Sigma working practices and the Dale brand has become synonymous in the power industry with providing customers with an immediate, pro-active response and a perfect technical solution to their requirements. Whether it is off-shore oil and gas platforms, the stock exchange or a hospital operating theatre, our products and expertise are now an integral part of many large, blue-chip companies’ risk and disaster recovery management plans.”

Dale enters its 75th year in great shape, continuing to provide clients with tailored secure power solutions backed by a rich history and a wealth of technical excellence. The late Leonard Dale began Dale Electric in 1935 with 11s 8d (58.5p) from his Yorkshire Penny Bank book, convinced there was a need for his electrical wiring services in his local area. That ethos remains and it is a commitment to providing the customer with exactly what they need that has helped Dale develop into a globally-respected brand. There is little time to pause and reflect on those 75 years, which saw Dale grow from a man and his van, toiling away on the Yorkshire coast, to the international player it is today.
And as we launch new products apace, to meet ever-changing demand, we know it is those years of experience and unmatched technical know-how that benefit our customers and stand us in excellent stead for what lies ahead.
New products that raise the bar in terms of flexibility and capability, matched by investment in our people are twin commitments that we trust to take us into the next 75 years.

One stop shop for secure power solutions
Dale continues to expand on a global scale with an exciting range of new products aimed at consolidating our position as leading provider of secure power solutions and related services, both in the UK and overseas. We are driven by the energy, integrity, technical excellence, teamwork and innovation of our employees.
Our “one stop shop” approach offers a complete secure power solution tailored to clients’ requirements. Products include diesel generating sets, gas turbine, industrial UPS, standard UPS, DC systems, batteries, along with worldwide service, commissioning and maintenance and a range of ancillary products and services.

Raising the bar in containerised generating sets – winning great acclaim
Our Secure Series of containerised generators was launched at the end of 2009 and due to its immediate success the range has now been expanded. New for 2010, the Secure Series now features three concepts: the SecureE, the SecureC and the Secure+.

The new SecureE is fully configurable with a range of options and is available in either a 20ft or 40ft HC shipping container. Suitable for a wide range of applications globally, with a noise level of 85dbA at 1m and high ambient radiators for operation in 50oC ambient, the SecureE offers a cost-effective, modular design for maximum flexibility.
The original SecureC offers more power and flexibility at 1600kVA, and sets new parameters for flexible, off-the-shelf containerised generator sets in a 20ft unit. Extra power offers greater variety of application and use, breaking the mould for units of this size. Step loads of up to 800kW provide total flexibility. The SecureC offers up to 25% more step load capability than other leading competitors to handle the most demanding of situations and applications.
The Secure+ is super quiet at 75dbA at 1m and has a large capacity, 48-hour fuel tank. The robust design offers synchronising capabilities generator-generator or generator-mains. The Secure+ is designed for mobility on UK roads at <44 tonnes gvw in a 40ft HC shipping container.

Reliable power when you need it
We pride ourselves on providing guaranteed power back-up against that moment when an interruption to the power supply could have dire operational or financial consequences. The world-renowned Erskine brand power solution provides continuous clean power, with our products protecting critical loads in the most demanding and at times harshest of global environments – from hospital operating theatres to oil platforms in the desert.

Dale is continuously seeking new markets across the world and expects continuing strong demand to come from the petrochemical industry, already a key sector for UPS and DC products. Dale has developed a new product range of standard UPS systems alongside its Erskine branded industrial UPS products. Designed specifically to work with its range of generator sets to provide an integrated solution and guarantee continuous power to its customers is the E Series UPS. Available with single phase ups with an output range of 1kVA–20kVA, rackmount ups systems and three phase ups output range of 10kVA–400kVA. Features include internal failsafe bypass, extended run times, and high input power factor. With maximum reliability and power availability you can connect several units in parallel. The E Series has multi-language touch screen displays, remote monitoring, an advanced IGBT rectifier, back-feed protection and is configurable for redundancy. A modular approach to system design includes hot-swappable modules ensuring maximum up time. Your power solution lifecycle is totally flexible with ease of maintenance and expandability.
Our role as one of the leading and largest industrial battery providers in the UK completes the picture. Whether you are looking for a battery for your generator or secure power equipment, a service and maintenance package or battery disposal and recycling services your requirements will be met and guaranteed by our technical excellence.

Downtime prevention
Our integrated UPS and generator solutions provide “no-break” power, saving you from costly outages and downtime. Our systems are carefully designed to ensure dynamic instability does not occur due to differing speeds of control loops used for engine speed, alternator automatic voltage regulator and UPS rectifier/charger.

Your power, in safe hands
A new range of service products is also in the pipeline, an area of the marketplace where Dale’s vast technical background and expertise has already made it a global name. Comprehensive service and maintenance, drawing on a team of more than 80 service personnel, helps key clients worldwide protect and prolong the life of their products.

Keeping your power secure for that crucial moment means providing 24 hour, seven days a week, 365 days per year cover. From your first call to Dale Power Solutions your power is in safe hands. Service and maintenance support is tailored to your needs for the lifetime of your equipment. Whether you require planned, preventative maintenance cover, a one off service visit, a breakdown call out, or our total power solution management service, we meet your needs.

The future
Where will the next 75 years take us? Looking ahead, the company’s business plan is to achieve continued growth, driven through increasing sales in existing and new markets, on a worldwide basis. It is also keeping an eye on the future and where the next generation of “green” products will emerge from.

“We are constantly looking for opportunities to develop new products, to increase our offering to our customer base and develop new markets,” Mr Wilkins added.

Now part of the Secure Power Division of the TT electronics group of companies, each year we supply more than 3,000 generator and UPS systems worldwide and service more than 4,000 generator sets and UPS systems. The company has sales and service offices in Aberdeen, London and Swindon and in Brazil, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

Not a bad return on an investment of 11s 8d in 1935!

July 15, 2010

Which Uninterruptible Power Supply technology do I require?

All Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS Systems consist of a rectifier which converts your normal mains AC power into DC power, an inverter that converts DC power into AC power, and an energy storage medium which is usually lead acid batteries.

There are 3 main UPS technologies – Offline, Line Interactive and Online Double Conversion – and two different types of inverter – square wave (also called pseudo-sine wave or modified sine wave) and sine-wave.

An Offline UPS provides basic levels of power protection. There is usually a degree of surge suppression incorporated and when the input mains voltage goes out of tolerance (that is too high/low or fails) the UPS inverter starts up and provides power to your equipment. There is a break in the mains supply when this occurs in the region of 10-20 thousands of a second which will generally go unnoticed by the majority of equipment. The inverter in offline UPS is nearly almost always a square wave.

A line interactive UPS is similar to an offline UPS but has the added benefit of voltage regulation. This means that it will reduce the mains voltage if it goes too high (called “buck”) or raise the mains voltage when it goes too low (called “boost”). It will do this without reverting to battery and hence conserve battery life. Since a line interactive UPS has an inline transformer, it also provides in-built filtering and hence a higher degree of power protection. Like the offline types, there is also a break during the transition from mains power to battery power. In higher quality line interactive units, this break may be as low as only 2 to 4 thousandths of a second. Line Interactive UPS Systems come with square wave as well as sine wave inverters.

The online double conversion UPS System is considered by many to provide the highest levels of power protection. The inverter is always on, and provides power to the load. This means that there is no deviation in output voltage and no break if the UPS reverts to battery power. The output waveform in an online UPS System will almost always be a sine-wave, generally of very high quality and can enhance the operation of certain equipment. An online double conversion UPS also has a bypass circuit, which allows power to be continually fed to your load even if the UPS develops a fault or is overloaded.

In choosing your technology you need to consider:

  1. The power consumption of your load
  2. The type of load you have
  3. How critical your load is
  4. The environment in which the UPS will sit
  5. The required runtime
  6. Your budget

Your normal UK socket outlet is rated at 13Amps which means the most power you can draw from a UK outlet is 3KVA, or 3KW. (Power Measurement will be covered in a separate paper). Above this level (for specialist equipment, or hardwired installations) most UPS will be online double conversion technology as the economies of scale start making other technologies non cost effective. Below this level, however all technologies are available, although above around 2KVA, line interactive systems start to become heavy and unwieldy due to the size of transformer that is required.

If your load is made up of computer type power supplies, then both square wave and sine wave products will power this equipment adequately. If your load contains motors, transformers, pumps or other inductive components (on the input power supply) then square wave systems are not suitable and you must opt for a sine-wave system.

Any load that is susceptible to mains disturbances such as in analytical equipment or audio applications should also choose a sine-wave system. Where mains distortions affect equipment performance then you need to opt for online double conversion where a pure sine-wave is always present.

If your load is critical for operation then the increased benefit of online double conversion technology should be used. This provides additional security against all power disturbances as well as the comfort of a fall-back bypass in case a fault develops with the UPS. You may wish to parallel together UPS and again, this can only be achieved with online double conversion UPS. (We’ll cover parallel systems and redundancy in a separate paper). If you have a PC where you are looking for simple battery backup to stop annoyance rebooting or tripping then an offline or line interactive unit would suffice.

Offline and line interactive UPS Systems are generally quiet in operation and do not utilise cooling fans in normal operation (usually). This means they are suitable to be placed in an office or home environment. Online Double Conversion UPS systems require forced cooling and can be quite noisy and therefore tend not to be suitable for use in an office environment.

If you are running your UPS in conjunction with an emergency backup generator then the benefits of online double conversion technology come to the fore, as the UPS will cover for any transition to generator operation and also provide a constant unchanging power source during generator start up and any shifts that may occur in frequency and or voltage during load switching.

Offline UPS tend to be the smallest of all technologies so can be useful to provide emergency ride through for areas where space is at a premium.

Long runtimes on UPS are better handled with online UPS Systems. This is because they are designed to operate continually from the inverter. In which case it does not matter if the input power is from the rectifier or the battery – the operation is the same. Offline and Line Interactive units tend not to be designed for this continuous operation. (Battery selection and runtime will be covered in a separate paper.) It is also unwise to power any equipment with a square wave inverter for any prolonged period of time as you could cause degradation to electronic components. Square wave systems are designed to allow basic computer systems to ride through brief power outages or time to shut down a system in the event of a prolonged power cut.

You may have already made up your mind which technology you need, but let’s take a look at relative costs. Offline UPS systems used to be by far the cheapest. However nowadays an offline UPS and a line interactive square wave unit are typically similar prices. Online Double Conversion used to be far more expensive than other technologies, but now is comparable to a high quality sine-wave line interactive UPS.

With regard to running costs, the offline UPS is the most efficient as in normal operation the input power goes straight through to the load, so the only power loss is to keep the battery float charged and power the UPS logic. Line Interactive units are similar in efficiency but experience more losses due to the transformer required for the buck and boost facility. Online Double Conversion however, has the drawback of being the least efficient of the technologies.

In summary, for simple low cost battery backup then the offline or line interactive square wave systems are suitable. For high grade protection in a quiet environment, or where your load type demands it, opt for a sine-wave line interactive unit. However, if you want the best power solution, then we recommend online double conversion technology as it is compatible with all load types and provides the highest degrees of power protection.

December 8, 2009

Retailer? Don’t lose business this Xmas due to poor power.

Filed under: Shop — Tags: , , , , — toneus @ 2:39 pm

If you’re a retailer, then Christmas is probably your busiest time of the year. The tills are (hopefully) in constant use taking cash, processing credit cards and printing receipts. What would happen if you were to experience a power glitch during your peak trading times and you lost your tills, lost the data, and customers decided to go elsewhere whilst they were waiting for you to reboot (hopefully) and get the systems up and running again. I bet the cost of such problems could run into far more than the £45 or so it costs to buy an ideal system to protect against such problems.

We’ve got the IP-PRO-Evolution at under £45 delivered. This will provide you with quality surge protection as well as battery backup allowing you to continue to trade even if the lights go off for a while.

If you’re short of space then what about the OPTI VS575C for £50 delivered? This is an ideal system for a EPOS terminal.

When money’s tight it’s easy to skimp on the power protection and not spend the money, but at these low prices it’s crazy not to.

July 13, 2009

Overvoltage Protection

Here’s a neat article written by our friends at APC: Powercuts during summer months may damage data, albeit a confusing title for what the article is about.

They bring up a valid point about overvoltage leading to damage of equipment. Your normal mains supply is designed to operate at 230V±10%, which means a maximum voltage entering your building of 253V. However, the substation providing this voltage has to be able to do so during full power loading. Let’s say you’re on an industrial park and the substation is providing power to all the buildings – the IT infrastructure, the telecom systems, the lighting, the air conditioning, elevators, escalators etc. The load can be quite substantial, but let us take a figure of say, 1000Amps (equivalent to 10 houses). If the impedance on that line was half of one tenth of an Ohm – 0.05Ω the voltage drop across the cable using good old Ohm’s law would be 50V. This means that the substation needs to set its output voltage to around 280V so that when the power reaches your building it is 230V and within limits. However, if the load is suddenly removed – all the air conditioners are switched off, the buildings are empty and nobody is at home, all of a sudden you are hit with 280V, as the lower current causes less voltage to be dropped across the supply cables.

Some people call this a surge and think that surge suppression devices will protect them against it. In fact, this is not a surge but rather a voltage swell or overvoltage condition. (A surge is an overvoltage condition too, but of short duration -usually µseconds), and in order to safeguard your equipment you need to have some form of overvoltage protection. The only way to achieve this is by the use of either voltage regulators or by the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

A voltage regulator is a (usually mechanical) device that incorporates a tap changing, or continually variable transformer to keep the output voltage to a tight tolerance.

The Uninterruptible Power Supply, however will also provide overvoltage protection by keeping the voltage within limits. How well it does this depends upon the type of technology used:

  • The Offline Uninterruptible Power Supply will provide overvoltage protection by dropping to battery as soon as the mains voltage is out of limits. This will protect your equipment but if this happens regularly or for prolonged periods, the UPS battery will drain and you will lose power.
  • The Line Interactive Uninterruptible Power Supply will provide overvoltage protection by incorporating some voltage regulation. When the mains goes to high, the UPS System will “buck” the voltage downward by changing taps on a transformer. This has the benefit over the Offline UPS System in that there is no dropping to battery for marginal overvoltage conditions.
  • The Online Uninterruptible Power Supply, (aka Online Double Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply) provides the best possible overvoltage protection. It has a very wide input voltage window, which means it can take very high voltages (as well as very low voltages) without reverting to battery. What’s more the voltage supplied to your system is constant and unchanging regardless of what is happening to the input voltage.

It’s another string to the Uninterruptible Power Supply bow, as not all power problems are as obvious as the power cut. Give your equipment overvoltage protection with a Uninterruptible Power Supply from UPSMart.

December 1, 2008

Power Problems and How to Eradicate Them

Filed under: Help Guides — Tags: , — ups_guru @ 7:06 pm

It is generally accepted there are 10 forms of power disturbance (IEC62040-3):

# Problem Definition Duration Causes Effects
1 Mains Failure A complete drop in the power
supply.
>10msec Numerous, including weather,
system faults, human error, circuit breaker tripping, accidental disconnection
etc.
Equipment fails to operate
2 Voltage Fluctuations Momentary drop or raise in supply
voltage
<16msec Large loads starting up, high
source impedance, overload of supply network
Equipment resets, crashes, hardware
damage
3 Voltage Transients Momentary rise (or fall) in
supply voltage. Can be catastrophic
<16msec Two fold, by equipment switching
off, especially inductive machines, or by lightning strikes
Equipment damage
4 Undervoltage or Brown-Out Prolonged undervoltage Potentially Continuous High loading or overload on
network, intentional supply reduction
Equipment malfunction, failure
to operate, crashes, hardware damage
5 Overvoltage or White-Out Prolonged overvoltage Potentially Continuous Low loading on network, faulty
supply regulation
Hardware damage
6 Lightning Effects Effects due to lightning <1ms, Sporadic Nearby Lightning Strikes, Strikes
to power lines.
Hardware damage, equipment malfunction
7 Voltage Surges/Spike Large Magnitude Over or Under
Voltage
<4ms Inductive machinery switching,
lightning
Hardware damage, equipment malfunction.
8 Frequency Fluctuation Variation from the supply frequency Periodic Generator loading. Hardware damage, equipment malfunction
9 Voltage Bursts Repetitive High Frequency Transients Periodic Electronic Equipment, machinery Hardware damage, equipment malfunction
10 Harmonic Distortion Distortion of the power waveform
from pure sinewave
Potentially Continuous Non linear loads, eg computer
power supplies, rectifiers, variable speed drives, etc.
Equipment Damage, overheating
in equipment and supply cables. Nuisance breaker tripping.

So depending upon what level of problem you are experiencing, or what your risk analysis tells you what you should protect against determines the choice of product used:

# Problem Method used to eradicate
1 Mains Failure A UPS system – VFD, VI, or VFI
2 Voltage Fluctuations A Voltage Regulator, or VI/VFI
UPS
3 Voltage Transients A Surge Supressor and Filter
4 Undervoltage A Voltage Regulator or VI/VFI
UPS
5 Overvoltage A Voltage Regulator or VI/VFI
UPS
6 Lightning Effects A Surge Suppressor with filter
or power conditioner
7 Voltage Surges/Spike A Surge Supressor and Filter
8 Frequency Variation A VFI UPS system
9 Voltage Bursts A filter, surge supressor (with
filter) or power conditioner
10 Harmonic Distortion A VFI UPS system (protects load)

Since most UPS systems will contain a surge supressor and filter, a UPS is the ideal power protection solution, however consider a power conditioner if you do not require any form of battery backup. The choice of system will be made according to the following table:

#
Problem
PC
VFD
VI
VFI
1 Mains Failure
N
Y
Y
Y
2 Voltage
Fluctuations
N
Y
Y
Y
3 Voltage
Transients
Y
?
?
Y
4 Undervoltage
N
N
Y
Y
5 Overvoltage
N
N
Y
Y
6 Lightning
Effects
Y
?
?
Y
7 Voltage
Surges/Spike
Y
N
N
Y
8 Frequency
Variation
N
N
N
Y
9 Voltage
Bursts
Y
?
?
Y
10 Harmonic
Distortion
N
N
N
Y

Note that 3, 6 and 9 are grey areas, VFD and VI may provide protection against these, dependent upon type of UPS and level of protection employed.

Other Considerations
Once you have decided on the minimum level of technology needed you will need to look at the options you require, and if there are any special requirements. For example, you may need the unit to be situated in a rack server, or the UPS may need to be used in a patient vicinity environment and therefore have special certification requirements. You may have long run time requirements, and need to choose a UPS that can deal with this.

©2008 UPSMart

October 29, 2008

OPTI – Surge Buster added to Shop

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — upsmart @ 5:05 pm

OPTI Surge Buster To complement our power protection range we’ve added the OPTI UPS Surge Buster to our portfolio. This device, provides not only surge protection, but includes an EMI filter to eliminate low level transients that would otherwise get through the surge suppressor. With coaxial and telephone line protection included, and 7 output sockets, this is a great choice for protecting home cinema / hi-fi from those devastating surges.

For more information see OPTI Surge Buster

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