Switzerland ABB has revealed a medium voltage uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with multi-MW ratings and a claimed efficiency of 99.5%.
ABB will initially launch the PCS100 MV UPS series into the Chinese market. “China is a key market for large UPS products where vast electronic systems in factories draw from tens to hundreds of megawatts of power,” said ABB Power Conditioning general manager John Penny and added: “It is now a major research center for much of the world’s high technology industry.”
The PCS100 MV is industrially rated, but is also set to target mega-size data centres, which have similar characteristics to semiconductor fabrication plants, stated ABB. “The trend towards free air cooling and centralized protection makes medium voltage UPS protection with an industrially rated product a very attractive solution”, noted Penny. Factory designers can locate power protection more remotely in a centralised location, away from the production, he adds. The UPS is designed to minimise life cycle costs with low loss and wide temperature range that reduce cooling costs.
The energy storage is kept at low voltage levels and therefore enables storage solutions from lead-acid batteries to supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries, stated the supplier. The system is designed for a service life of at least ten years.