Leading provider of uninterruptible power supplies, MPower UPS part of the CENTIEL Group, has renewed its Accreditation with the Carbon Trust. The certification supports MPower’s efforts to encourage clients to maximize energy savings with the aim of working towards a low carbon environment.

Michael Brooks, managing director, MPower UPS explains: “The Carbon Trust is focused on helping organizations contribute to and benefit from a more sustainable future. The independent accreditation recognizes our commitment in contributing to sustainability. The key area we can identify improvements relates to energy savings surrounding clients’ UPS systems.

“A ten-year-old UPS will waste energy at a much higher rate than a new system,” confirms Brooks. “We are able to quantify precisely the energy and cost saving of a new installation. A recent example was a transport operator looking at replacing two 30kVA UPS running at 92% efficiency. A new CENTIEL Premium Tower 30kVA UPS would run at 97% efficiency. We were able to calculate – with the cost of a system typically running at £0.12p/KWH of power – an annual energy saving equating to £1,874.32 over both UPS. The energy saved meant the new UPS system could pay for itself within six years.

“However, there are additional benefits of replacing UPS systems and we aim to be transparent with clients to enable them to understand these advantages. For example: older equipment tends to get hot and requires more air conditioning to keep it at a suitable temperature. The calculation above did not include the increased cost of air conditioning to cool older equipment and so in reality, the actual energy and cost savings would be far higher.

“Further, although old UPS systems can be extremely reliable, when a fault eventually does occur, then the system can fail completely and lose load power or transfer to bypass, leaving the critical load vulnerable on raw mains. A simple power cut could then compromise availability leaving the organisation without critical power. Newer modular systems such as CENTIEL CumulusPowerTM UPS (which runs at 97% efficiency), have a single frame, containing a number (N) of power modules, all running together and sharing the load equally between them all. A failure in one module simply results in that module being isolated, leaving the remaining modules supporting the load and maintaining the all-important availability.

“Over the years, our clients have come to trust and rely on us to provide them with transparent information, so they can make informed decisions,” continues Brooks. “We have been delighted to renew our Carbon Trust certification to help companies minimise their energy consumption and maximise their contribution to a future low carbon world.”