COMMS+DATA
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.
T
he 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.
20 ECD [ELECTRICAL+COMMS+DATA] - SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
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