UPS is a key facility to ensure the stable and efficient operation of data centers. As the scale of data centers becomes larger and larger, and the demand for electrical energy continues to grow, the importance of UPS is becoming more and more prominent. Especially in the case that the design PUE of the new data center is generally between 1.2-1.3, every little improvement of the UPS becomes very important.
01
"Three-level" system builds ultimate energy efficiency
"UPS has been exploring energy efficiency all the time."
Data center energy efficiency is an enduring topic. The industry has made great efforts to optimize the energy efficiency of UPS, and has made no small progress. The efficiency of UPS has been generally around 90% in previous years, and has gradually developed to the level of more than 95% of mainstream products, and there is still room for further improvement.
UPS improvements are manifold. From the perspective of design architecture, the high-performance multi-level topology is replacing the traditional two-level structure, which can reduce the size and loss of the filter inductor. In terms of details, every detail from the selection of core components, to the introduction of new materials such as semiconductor silicon carbide, to the fine adjustment of the fan speed according to the UPS load rate, is constantly being optimized.
Modular UPS is a good solution to the problem of load changes during application. The optimal load range of UPS is between 50% and 70%. Modular UPS can solve the problem of low initial load rate, and has the characteristics of on-demand capacity expansion, module redundancy design, and intelligent sleep. When the quality of mains power is good, the UPS can run in the super ECO mode, and the efficiency of the whole machine can reach the level of 99%.
Equipment-level energy-saving solutions are mainly realized by products. For example, high-efficiency modular lithium-ion UPS, fluorine pump air conditioner, etc., tap the energy-saving potential from the product itself, thereby improving the energy-saving effect of the entire system; the solution level starts from the engineering dimension, focusing on the modular data center with closed hot and cold aisles, from the engineering point of view Reasonable optimization of cold airflow organization, precise cooling, and improved utilization efficiency of cooling equipment; at the architecture level, energy storage is integrated into the power supply architecture of the data center, especially for large data centers, which can not only effectively utilize green energy, but also fill in through peak shifting. Valley brings certain economic value to customers.
"The application of lithium battery UPS in large data centers will be an effective way to save energy and reduce carbon. It has made useful exploration and practice for the realization of carbon neutrality in the data center industry. Among them, lithium battery UPS is in the "three-level" plan of KSTAR played an indispensable role.
02
Innovation and Practice of Lithium Battery UPS
From the perspective of battery characteristics, lithium batteries have the characteristics of small size, light weight, high energy density, and great advantages in fast charging and longevity. Whether it is a supporting modular UPS or as an energy storage product, lithium batteries have their own unique advantages.
From the perspective of battery management, the traditional lead-acid battery management is not intelligent enough to accurately detect the battery running status. It can accurately monitor the voltage, current, temperature and other parameters of the system to achieve refined management.
From a system point of view, for cloud data centers or ultra-large data centers, construction costs can be significantly reduced. Moreover, lithium batteries are more environmentally friendly than lead-acid batteries, and the low-carbon characteristics of lithium battery UPS are even better.
In large-scale IDC scenarios, ultra-high-power UPS systems are widely used. The high energy density and high rate of lithium batteries can meet the backup power requirements of super-large data centers and provide sufficient switching time for mains and diesel generators. At the same time, its small size also optimizes the power distribution space, reduces the space cost for customers, and improves the cabinet acquisition rate of the data room.
03
The future can be expected
When it comes to the popularity of lithium battery UPS, it is impossible not to talk about the safety of lithium battery. Due to its business characteristics, data centers also have higher requirements for the safety of lithium batteries.
"I believe that with the improvement of lithium battery materials and processes, the safety of lithium battery UPS will be further improved." Users' doubts about the safety of lithium batteries are only temporary issues. Through various efforts, the safety of lithium batteries in data centers will be ensured in use.
First of all, in terms of battery type, high-quality lithium iron phosphate cells have excellent thermal runaway characteristics; secondly, in terms of management, when the cell voltage drops to the cut-off voltage, or the cell temperature rises to the protection temperature, or a single cluster When the voltage difference reaches the set value, the battery will stop discharging. In addition, the lithium battery cabinet is also designed with two-level fire protection units at the module level and the cabinet level. When the ambient temperature in the rack reaches the set value, the fire protection system will be triggered to act. Full immersion fire extinguishing in the rack, the whole process can be completed in seconds.
In addition, the high CAPEX cost of lithium battery systems is also one of the reasons why the popularization of lithium battery UPS is currently hindered. However, with the popularity of lithium battery applications and the continuous cost reduction and efficiency improvement of upstream and downstream related industries, the cost of lithium battery UPS has a lot of room for optimization. Moreover, the cycle life of lithium batteries can reach 10-15 years, which is basically consistent with the life cycle of UPS, while the traditional lead-acid battery solution may have been replaced 2-3 times, which weakens the cost problem.
In addition, under the background of "East and West", there are more and more super-large and high-density data centers. The high energy density characteristics of lithium batteries can meet the long-term backup power requirements of large data centers, and the high-rate characteristics can fully cope with Large-scale high-density cabinet scenarios, high cycle times are fully suitable for the use of clean energy. With the development of data center scale, the advantages of lithium battery UPS will gradually expand.
