UPS

The changing face of The world of uninterruptible power supplies is changing. New features of the industry range from a gradual replacement of lead batteries for lithium ones, a different relationship with utilities and an increasing reliance on the internet for monitoring and related cyber-security

A

t 11pm on Friday August 25, the strongest hurricane to hit Texas since 1961 made landfall. By the next morning the US Department of Energy reported that the category 4 Hurricane Harvey had caused 258,137 customer power outages, and by Monday around 280,000 households were still without electricity, as utilities curtailed restoration work until conditions became safe to do so. But it was not all doom and gloom. During the disaster more than a dozen HEB Grocery supermarkets kept their lights on, and by the Monday 63 of their stores in the Houston area were open for business. Of those, eight were working in islanding mode, drawing natural-gas generated power from Houston-based microgrid company Enchanted Rock. It brought the importance of microgrids to the foreground. In an era when the whole world wants to be connected — to both electricity and cloud-based information — the need for not only power, but an uninterrupted supply, has become a critical requirement to daily lives.

88 • Batteries International • Autumn 2017

“The field will not be the same 10 to 15 years from now because remote management is a stepping stone to automation, and just like almost every other industry, automation is coming.” — Chris Mangum, Servato

www.batteriesinternational.com