Western Power signs UPS contract with Eaton

Eaton Corporation has been awarded a three-year preferred supplier contract with Western Power for the supply of uninterruptible power systems (UPSs) across 25 of the organisation’s remote locations where Western Power is currently conducting major IT upgrades to ensure business continuity during disaster or crisis situations. The rollout will be completed by the end of the 2010.

The UPSs are designed to provide instantaneous backup power to mitigate loss of data and connectivity.

Western Power is also implementing a VoIP network for which it required the support of a new generation of UPS infrastructure.

“We are committed to operating the electricity network safely, reliably and efficiently, and Eaton has a great record in this regard,” said Frank Alvaro, IT Strategy & Architecture Manager - IT Branch, Western Power. “The Eaton UPS fleet will enable our team in Perth to have continuous visibility of our remote sites from one management console plus a facility for automated alerts straight to the help desk.

“As the UPS architecture enables us to reap the benefits of intelligent monitoring of devices, locally based staff will be able to rapidly perform hot-swap battery replacements on site rather than requesting the fly-in of technical expertise from Perth headquarters itself. This will minimise response times, reduce time to repair and substantially increase uptime.”

The UPS software presents a consolidated view of main operating parameters of all UPS systems, which can be configured according to the type of UPS, location, operating status and other user-defined parameters. Administrators can activate functions such as automatic shutdown of unattended servers, automatic reboot and system operation scheduling of multiple devices over multiple locations.

The software can also organise devices by several different criteria, including by IP address, application type or owner. Users can assign automatic actions such as email notification of power or environmental events, centralise alarms and maintain event logs for preventive maintenance of the entire installed equipment base.

Western Power is responsible for the transmission and distribution of electricity in the south-west of Western Australia, including Perth. It operates one of the largest isolated electricity networks in the world, with nearly 88,000 km of power lines supporting over 965,000 homes and businesses and 150,000 street lights.