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Emerson Network Power Helps Top 10 Investment Bank Operate A Power Chain 900 Miles Away With ASCO PowerQuest
Florham Park, N.J. — Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and a global leader in maximizing availability, capacity, and efficiency of critical infrastructure, reports that its ASCO PowerQuest 5900 Critical Power Management System (CPMS) is enabling a top 10 global investment banking firm to remotely operate an on-site power system at a trading and data center nearly 900 miles from the firm's facilities' control center in New Jersey.
The web client enabled ASCO PowerQuest 5900 makes it possible for a facility management team at the control center to monitor and operate the entire power chain at the firm's Nashville, Tenn., office 24/7. The team complements a skeleton, day-time crew at the Nashville office and assumes total, continuous control when no one is on site overnight.
"It's essentially 'round-the-clock 'remote staffing,' " said Justin Strafer, director of specialty solutions for Emerson's ASCO Power business. "ASCO PowerQuest simplifies their lives by facilitating power system monitoring and control as though the equipment was in the same building. It also optimizes staff productivity and minimizes the risk of costly disruptions."
Simplifying remote staffing was critical as the team also is responsible for the power chain at the New Jersey office. The power chain at the firm's U.S. headquarters in New York will be added to their responsibilities later this year. Eventually, power chains in other U.S. markets, Mexico. and Brazil will be monitored and managed from a single site. Having a single monitoring and control system also helps simplify team member's lives and training.
ASCO PowerQuest manages the velocity and volume of information available from complex and sophisticated power chains and makes it easy to assimilate for system operators through dynamic visualization. Dynamic visualization of the electrical one-line shows power flow, facilitating identification, diagnosis, and resolution of issues. Software and device interfaces are turnkey engineered for a specific power chain, facility, and network, and actually analyze and help diagnose power chain events.
Top-to-bottom monitoring of the Nashville facility's power chain encompasses a range of operational parameters as well as data center load density (kWh/sq. ft.), PUE (power usage efficiency), power quality, energy management systems, alarms, uninterruptible power systems (UPS), and a battery monitoring and prognostic interface.
The Nashville office's power chain, for example, begins from a single 480V utility feed that's split with distribution breakers to A and B circuits by an ASCO 7000 Series Power Control System. Each circuit is chained with a 500 kVA Liebert NXL UPS with Alber Prognostics, a 500 kVA Liebert STS-2 static transfer switch, a 500 kVA Liebert PPC power distribution unit that steps down voltage to 208V, and a 500 kVA Liebert RDC remote distribution cabinet. The system also includes a 1500 kW Avtron load bank tied into the ASCO Power Control System for monthly testing. The power distribution units feed remote distribution panels on the data center floor which in turn feed servers and other critical equipment. When the utility source is unavailable, three 1500 kW gen-sets are paralleled and controlled by the ASCO Power Control System to provide emergency power.
A virtual private network (VPN) with 256-bit encryption connects the control center in New Jersey and the Nashville power chain. The VPN provides protection from hacking and other recently exposed vulnerabilities, such as the Open SSL Heartbleed exploit, while enhancing overall data security. For its part, ASCO PowerQuest uses AES 128-bit encryption between the server and devices to protect against unauthorized data access and control.
For more information on the ASCO PowerQuest 5900 Critical Power Management System, call (800) 800 ASCO (2726), email CustomerCare@Asco.com, or visit Emerson's website.
Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson, delivers software, hardware, and services that maximize availability, capacity, and efficiency for data centers, healthcare, and industrial facilities. A trusted industry leader in smart infrastructure technologies, Emerson Network Power provides innovative data center infrastructure management solutions that bridge the gap between IT and facility management and deliver efficiency and uncompromised availability regardless of capacity demands. Our solutions are supported globally by local Emerson Network Power service technicians. Learn more about Emerson Network Power products and services here.
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