As the "final barrier" for data center power supply systems, new battery technologies are sparking a huge new energy revolution. According to Uptime's global data center research data in 2017, 10% of data centers have now chosen lithium-ion batteries (hereinafter referred to as lithium batteries) as energy storage devices for UPS power supplies. Schneider Electric, a global leader in digital transformation in energy efficiency and automation, estimates that the average annual growth rate of lithium batteries for UPS will exceed 100% in the next three years.
Compared with lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries have unbeatable skills: several times the energy density of lead-acid batteries, so that the lithium battery space cut by more than 60%; weight cut by more than 70%; more adaptable to high temperatures; after discharge can be quickly recharged, the cycle times four times than lead-acid batteries; 10-15 years of long life planning and high cycle times, so that lithium batteries in the UPS 10 years This reduces the cost of protection and replacement, and ultimately helps users to reduce TCO and obtain maximum business value.
Schneider Electric: Considering the safety of lithium batteries from four viewpoints
In China, the trend of switching to lithium batteries for UPS will become more rapid. As a global leader in data center infrastructure solutions and services, Schneider Electric has found, through accurate positioning and investigation of the market, that in addition to the acquisition price factor, the focus of customers in China in selecting UPS lithium batteries is mainly on safety. As the largest energy storage component in a data center, the safety of lithium batteries depends largely on the following four points, which Schneider Electric prompts broad users to pay attention to when selecting models.
1. High-quality cell production and quality control
Now the world's top lithium battery manufacturers have all chosen advanced automated production lines, and only through high-quality production process control can we ensure the high quality and high consistency of the battery cells. After the production of lithium cells, multiple cells need to be connected in series and parallel to form a battery module (commonly known as Module), the process requires the battery's positive and negative terminals to be connected, large manufacturers usually use laser welding machine for terminal welding to reduce the contact resistance, to ensure the terminal connection reliability. Small manufacturers are used throughout the manual bolt and nut crimping method, it is difficult to ensure that the terminals are securely connected, may bring hidden problems to the future long-term operation.
Because of the strict quality control of lithium batteries, coupled with their own cycle life compared to lead-acid batteries have greatly improved, so in the data center category, many large brands of lithium batteries can do 10-year warranty.
2. Perfect BMS planning
BMS (battery handling system) is the core skill of the entire lithium battery system safety. When any fault occurs in the battery, such as over-voltage charging, over-current discharge, or battery short-circuit, the BMS can quickly block the fault current and prevent the battery from the danger of thermal runaway. Schneider Electric thinks that the BMS of Li-ion battery should not only monitor the voltage and current temperature and other conditions of each battery cell in real time and supply the analysis of battery health trend, but more importantly, it can actively balance the charging and discharging of the battery cells and finally improve the consistency of each battery cell to prevent the failure of the whole group of batteries due to the barrel short board effect. Now the international first-tier brand lithium battery manufacturers are planning and producing their own BMS to ensure the performance matching and charge/discharge safety of their own cells and BMS.
3. Li-ion battery chemical information
For data center UPS, because of its short time high current discharge, discharge power, long time backup floating charge and other characteristics of use, more appropriate is lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganate, NCM ternary lithium skills.
The primary market in China is ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate, although the two in the energy density and safety of the endless debate, but it is undeniable that these debates are limited to only one aspect of the theoretical performance of lithium battery cathode material. Schneider Electric thinks that the safety of lithium battery system needs to take into account many factors such as negative electrode material, electrolyte, diaphragm material, cell shell packaging, battery module grouping, BMS, fuse protection, DC circuit breaker, production and manufacturing process level, quality control and so on. The problems that occur because of the positive electrode material of lithium batteries are less than 10% of all lithium battery system problems. Schneider Electric suggests that users should weigh the safety, energy density and cost of UPS lithium batteries and select lithium battery systems from big brand companies to get reliable quality assurance.
4. lithium battery and UPS compatibility test
Unlike lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries are self-contained BMS, is an intelligent battery, with self-control, and UPS host communication. When the lithium battery is fully charged it will automatically disconnect from the UPS charger, the traditional UPS software planning may think that this is a battery failure and send an alarm. What's more, the charge and discharge voltage, current and cut-off voltage of lithium batteries of different raw materials are different, for example, the extra voltage of lithium iron phosphate cells is 3.2 V, while ternary lithium is 3.8 V. Therefore, before using lithium batteries, the UPS needs to be matched with a severe test before it can be enough, and the UPS needs to update the firmware for this lithium battery.
It is worth mentioning that the UPS listed by Schneider Electric in recent years are now compatible with Li-ion batteries, and the high rate Li-ion batteries selected by the UPS can be charged and discharged at high currents for a short period of time, which corresponds to the UPS charger planning also needs to adapt to this change. Schneider Electric's new Galaxy V series UPS charging power can reach 40% of the UPS output extra power (traditional only 10-15%), such a strong charger can theoretically fill the lithium battery quickly within 30 minutes to 1 hour.
With the maturity of lithium battery technology and cost optimization, data center UPS will quickly complete the conversion from lead-acid batteries to lithium batteries. Since the world's first lithium battery data center was put into use in 2012, Schneider Electric has always been a leader in promoting the use of lithium battery technology in data centers, and has always been at the forefront of this new energy technology reform in data centers, leading the whole industry to move forward with its strong brand and skill innovation power.
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