Power management for any weather conditions

Until recently, the increasingly widespread use of digital technology — including the emergence of the Internet of Things — means that well-regulated and reliable power is required in a wide variety of environments. Previously, the requirement for clean power supplies with protection from outages was largely limited to data centres and offices.

The growing impact of the Internet of Things and the more general use of digital and communications technologies to automate processes and ensure business continuity means it is increasingly important to maintain the integrity of the entire system to ensure that a key component is not knocked offline by a brief power fluctuation.

Data centres are generally clean places, with temperature and humidity carefully controlled to suit the computing and communications equipment they house. Consequently, the environmental requirements of the power management equipment used in such premises are similarly narrow.

By contrast, industrial equipment operates under a much wider range of conditions than experienced in a data centre, and that is reflected in the design of IT and communications equipment intended for deployment in such situations. But there is little point installing sensors designed and manufactured for use in a mine or under other demanding conditions if the power management equipment that keeps them supplied with electricity is unable to cope in that environment.

The upshot of unreliability

Unreliable power supplies can result in lost revenue (eg, if a toll point cannot capture vehicle details, the road operator cannot collect tolls) or lost work in progress (eg, crops can be lost if the environmental control system in a commercial greenhouse fails and temperatures rise too high, or fish may die in an aquaculture facility if the chemical balance of the water is not correctly maintained), or there may be risks to human safety (eg, if a CCTV system goes down, or a gas detection system fails in a hazardous area).

Power management systems play a key role in keeping these smart industrial systems running, but they must be able to withstand the same environmental conditions as the devices they are intended to protect.

Key environmental considerations include temperature, humidity and dust.

Power management should match the environment it demands

The effects of temperature on electronics — including devices used to deliver a clean and reliable supply of power — are well known. But outdoors and in non-air-conditioned premises, temperature and humidity combine to cause condensation. Even if the degree of condensation is not be enough to cause short circuits or corrosion, it may be sufficient to encourage the growth of mould which, over time, can degrade printed circuit boards and the electronic components they carry.

If dust gets inside equipment, it tends to act as a blanket, and higher temperatures reduce the lifespan of electronics. Dust can also trap moisture, boosting the problems mentioned above. A further issue is that some dusts are corrosive, and the resulting chemical reaction may eat away the metals used in electronic devices.

Other environmental factors that should be taken into account include the stability of the mains supply in the area, vibration, vermin, public accessibility with the consequent risk of vandalism and the need to operate within audible noise limits (eg, fibre to the node cabinets in residential streets).

It is also important to ensure that the selected UPS has adequate battery capacity and can meet the peak load, and that the installation complies with applicable building codes. There may also be a need to provide redundancy so that if one UPS fails the remainder can cope with the load.

Different industries operate in different conditions, and these factors should be considered when selecting power management equipment.

Categorising industries into the heavy, medium and light categories is a convenient starting point, but requirements vary even within those groups. To give one example of each:

• Oil and gas operations have indoor and outdoor components, exposure to explosive gases and salty air, and may be subject to high ambient temperatures. They also tend to be in areas where the electricity supply is unstable.
• Railway operations face similar issues in terms of indoor and outdoor equipment and high temperatures, with the added problem of being located in publicly accessible areas so there is a possibility of vandalism.
• Rural industries such as farms and market gardens also need equipment that can operate reliably in damp and dusty conditions.

One system, many conditions

Don’t overlook the possibility that different parts of a system operate in very different conditions. One example is that while an air traffic control centre has office-like conditions, it may rely on radar feeds from remote locations that provide much greater environmental challenges to electronic equipment.

A UPS designed for office/data centre use is likely to fail prematurely if used in a more adverse environment, so buying a more rugged unit from the outset will cost less over time as well as increase the reliability of the systems it supports.

As a power management specialist, Eaton offers multiple product ranges to cope with different conditions, from standard commercial units designed for traditional office and server room environments through industrial models intended for outdoor deployment to customised units that can tolerate dust and water splashed from any direction, and are rustproof and vandalproof.

Giving proper consideration to power supplies will have a very real effect on the ongoing success of an Industrial Internet or Internet of Things deployment.

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/MEL STOUTSENBERGER