In the age of big data, data centers and industrial applications always need to be up and running to service the most demanding operations in the country’s growing industries (e.g.telecoms, BPO, semi-conductor, and healthcare sectors). Even one minute of downtime could lead to losses worth hundreds of thousandsof pesos, hence the need for critical power systems support for data centers.
Critical power systems are even more relevant for companies operating in the Philippines, whose operations are vulnerable to power outages and fluctuations. Aside from the country’s problems in energy production and distribution, the Philippines is often struck by supertyphoons and earthquakes that could lead to power interruptions.
Amid all these it is a necessity for data centers to have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to ensure round-the-clock operations and business continuity.
Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, recently unveiled the new Galaxy VM, a new three-phase UPS that provides power protection as well as maximum energy efficiency.
“Data Centers are especially vulnerable here in the Philippines because of the increased possibility of fluctuations and outages,” said Doy Santos, Country IT Business Unit Head of Schneider Electric Philippines. “Schneider Electric’sextensive experience in reliable power protection design is ingrained and culminated in the Galaxy VM. It solves major concerns inthe IT areaby ensuring uninterrupted and efficient power, as well as reducing energy consumption and its related costs,” he enthused.
“Throughout Schneider Electric’s 45 year tenure in the power protection industry, it has continued to develop and evolve its technologies and applied all of that expertise to the Galaxy VM,”Santos continues to say. “Aside from designing and implementing high-tech energy management technologies for the [Galaxy VM], we also made sure that will be easy to install and maintain,” he continued.
The Galaxy VM UPS uses innovative, patent pending power topology that improves reliability by reducing stress on active components. Additionally, the Galaxy VM reduces energy costs through its innovative 99 percent efficiency ECOnversion mode, which comes with input harmonic correction while combining the advantages of double conversion on-line and advanced ECO mode technologies to operate at the greatest efficiency without putting data center and non-data center critical loads at risk.
This is particularly important as data center operators and managers as well as critical facilities managers must balance the need for optimal energy efficiency with maximum uptime and availability.
Additionally, the Galaxy VM offers flexible energy storage solutions with swappable modular battery modules and fans that can be replaced without the need to go through maintenance bypass, thus increasing availability and load protection.
Designed to integrate into existing electrical, physical and monitoring environments, Galaxy VM works with Schneider Electric’s StruxureWare data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software applications, building management systems (BMS) and Modbus protocol.
The Galaxy VM is also designed in full compliance to international seismic standards of the International Building Code of 2012 and the California Building Code of 2013, which means that the UPS will continue to work before and after shocks.
Aside from the technical features of the system, Santos also highlighted the financial advantages that the system can provide to businesses. “We can talk all day about the technical specifications of the product, but we do understand that businesses are more interested about its impact to the bottomline, especially with our country having one of the highest electricity rates in Asia,” Santos said. “With up to 99% efficiency of the Galaxy VM, this translates to bigger savings in electrical and installation costs. It also provides reliable uninterrupted power that ensures your operations will not suffer from outages that will lead to financial and reputational losses,” he concluded.
According to Santos, the system has a projected two-to-three year return on investment if the power rates don’t fluctuate too wildly from the average cost of PhP10 per kilowatt hour.
