Electrical assets are important to the everyday functioning of an organisation, none more so than at waste or clean water treatment works where many processes are reliant on equipment powered by AC mains; failure comes at a high cost in terms of process disruption, pumping station failure and the impact on customer service along with fines that have recently reached more the £100m.
A reliable backup power system can safeguard an organisation from the potentially devastating consequences of a power failure and WIMES Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and Generators, are widely used in the water industry to provide backup power and resilience to mitigate such events.
The advantage of Remote Monitoring of Critical Backup Power Equipment
A UPS reacts to a power outage by providing seamless transition to battery backup power for short duration interruptions, with longer-term backup power being supplied by use of a generator. In addition, there is a strong argument for investing in technology to detect anomalies and take preventative action to ensure the UPS and generator provide high availability protection.
UPS performance can be tracked by monitoring key system alarms such as battery failure. Generator failures can be predicted by key parameters such as generator oil pressure and engine temperature. Overall performance measurements such as power output can be accessed, and alarms and other indicators warn of potential issues which can be resolved before they become a problem. Utilising the data gathered, preventative maintenance plans can be developed to add a further level of protection.
Remote monitoring is also resource efficient for organisations with UPS systems and generators situated on multiple sites as all sites can be managed without requiring personnel at every location.
Should an issue occur, time is of the essence. The speed in which an issue is flagged and resolved is crucial to maintaining reliable power. Some organisations choose to monitor assets locally whilst others reduce the fix time further by assigning the role to their service partner.
Technology
A Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) enables the performance of the UPS or Generator system to be monitored 24/7 and analysed remotely by expert personnel, such as Dale Power Solutions.
Network cards and specific management software transmit high secure encrypted data to the network, which can provide levels of basic information, such as load, voltages, battery voltage and equipment temperatures or more detailed analytics depending on the level of remote monitoring required.
If a fault or failure occurs, a trained engineer can remotely diagnose the equipment and arrange for appropriate action to be taken, such as an urgent site visit. This ensures the equipment is monitored 24/7/365 and any issues can be dealt with quickly and efficiently.
The challenges
Despite high levels of data encryption, some organisations prefer to manage and monitor their analytics locally, worrying that providing access to an external partner will reduce their security.
Outsourcing the monitoring of a critical power asset to a third-party partner requires trust; the partner must have the expertise, resources, and process in place to provide a comprehensive solution and act in the best interests of the organisation at all times.
It is therefore important to choose a partner with the technical expertise and the depth of infrastructure to be able to provide secure and protected access to the clients’ equipment via their intranet.
Summary
The technology to monitor backup power assets remotely has been available for many years now and access to preventative analytics presents a great opportunity for water companies wanting to minimise operational downtime and increase organisational resilience.
Some water companies are however still wary of allowing third-party access to data analytics; the onus is therefore on the critical power provider to demonstrate complete security and absolute reliability at all times.
Phillip Smith, from Dale Power Solutions, has over 15 years of experience in critical power and helps water and wastewater organisations by advising and providing reliable, fit for purpose backup power solutions.
