3) Then there is “saving”, which means saving money.
Space Saving: Most small and medium-sized data centers are currently built in buildings where space is extremely limited, and high density has always been a common pursuit for IT equipment, such as blade servers. UPS systems with higher power density and smaller size can save users more space. For companies providing rental services, this means they can deploy more IT equipment for leasing. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, infrastructure convergence has become one of the trends in data center development, and higher power density UPS systems will more easily achieve integrated deployment with service, storage, and other IT equipment. Currently, major manufacturers have launched such integrated products, such as Huawei microDC and APC infraStruXure.
Electricity Cost Savings: High electricity costs also make users prefer high-efficiency UPS systems, as they not only have lower losses but also reduce energy consumption for cooling. It’s important to note that while most manufacturers claim to offer high-efficiency UPS systems, the impact of load rate must still be considered. For most data centers, the actual load rate of a UPS will not exceed 30% (even as low as 10% in newly built data centers). With the implementation of virtualization technology and increased CPU utilization, the actual load rate of a UPS generally will not exceed 40% (taking a 1+1 system as an example). Therefore, only UPS systems that can achieve over 94% efficiency at low load rates (20%~40%) best meet the actual needs of data centers.
In addition, most mainstream servers nowadays use PFC correction circuits, resulting in input power factors generally exceeding 0.9. This necessitates that the UPS powering them also provide an output power factor of 0.9 or even higher; otherwise, users will have to purchase more UPS units to match these servers. For example, theoretically (without considering redundancy or other practical considerations), 10 servers of 500VA/450W (power factor 0.9) would consume a total of 5KVA/4.5KW, requiring only one 5KVA UPS with an output power factor greater than 0.9 (output power greater than 4.5KW). However, if the UPS power factor is 0.8 or even lower, two 5KVA UPS units would be needed.
4) Finally, there is “intelligence”, that is, intelligentization.
Almost all UPS manufacturers claim to offer intelligent equipment. However, current “intelligent” features are mainly focused on the UPS technology itself or network management. Faced with the constant stream of new concepts and products in the IT and CT industries, especially the smart terminals and wearable devices that have emerged with the mobile internet in recent years, the “intelligent” features of the UPS industry are clearly not intelligent enough. So, what breakthroughs will occur in the next decade?