Keeping UPS Up and Running

Part 1: UPS: Preventive Maintenance Ensures Power Supply

Part 2: UPS Testing: Identify Potential Power Interruptions

Part 3: UPS Maintenance Checklist

Part 4: Top Tools for UPS Maintenance

Part 5: Adhere to NFPA Requirements During UPS Testing

UPS: Preventive Maintenance Ensures Power Supply

By Michael Newbury
August 2008

Keeping UPS Up and Running

Simply providing an uninterruptible power system (UPS) does not necessarily ensure an institutional or commercial facility’s equipment is protected from power-supply fluctuations and distortions. Maintenance and engineering managers must factor in regular testing and maintenance of a facility’s UPS to ensure it remains in peak operating condition, protects critical systems, and keeps them reliably operating as designed.

By fully understanding the role of a UPS, required maintenance procedures, and the diagnostic tools to keep a UPS running, managers will be better able to develop a preventive maintenance (PM) strategy that meets an organization’s needs.

A Growing Role

A UPS is essentially a series of batteries that maintains power to critical pieces of equipment that cannot withstand a power interruption. A UPS protects equipment from such elements as power interruptions, voltage variations, frequency variations and transient disturbances.

As technology advances, more pieces of equipment require uninterruptible power, making a reliable UPS increasingly crucial in any facility. Upon losing utility power to a facility, it often can take 10 seconds or more for the generators to start and power to transfer to the emergency source. Most electronic equipment will not tolerate more than a few cycles of power disruption without shutting down.

Minimizing disruptions to the power source starts during the power system’s design phase. A reliable power system depends on quality equipment and reliable design. A facility’s UPS should be designed to protect critical and high-tech equipment and to facilitate planned power outages so technicians can perform maintenance.

Perhaps the key factor in keeping a facility up and running is a thorough preventive maintenance program and a risk management approach to ensure critical services are available when needed.

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