APC, part of Schneider Electric specialising in integrated critical power and cooling services, has launched a smart charging and remote battery management system for stationary batteries in data centres and facilities. APC Battery Management System is a comprehensive approach that will not only perform the usual monitoring tasks but will also mitigate the potential for problems caused by under- and over-charging of batteries. It will improve availability by ensuring batteries are optimally charged and ready for use...
APC, part of Schneider Electric specialising in integrated critical power and cooling services, has launched a smart charging and remote battery management system for stationary batteries in data centres and facilities. APC Battery Management System is a comprehensive approach that will not only perform the usual monitoring tasks but will also mitigate the potential for problems caused by under- and over-charging of batteries. It will improve availability by ensuring batteries are optimally charged and ready for use.
The APC Battery Management System monitors 2v, 4v, 8v, or 12v VRLA or wet cell or 1.2 or 2.4v Nickel-Cadmium batteries in use in data centre, facility, and industrial applications.
Battery Management System consists of a processor running custom firmware controlling selector circuits, a voltage monitor, a current monitor and an isolated current source. The manager connects to the battery via a battery selector and reads the voltage of the battery. After completing a reading cycle, the manager then determines which, if any, batteries need boosting, sequentially connecting the isolated charger to those individual batteries requiring boosting and applying a boost current to only those batteries requiring it.
During the Response test, the battery manager uses the battery selectors to connect the isolated charger to each battery in the string. After the response test is finished, the individual current characteristics of each battery are compared to an automatically stored baseline, and batteries that show excessive deviation from the baseline are flagged as needing attention.
The individual battery-charging feature is an APC exclusive. It is equivalent to having a charger for each cell that provides exactly the right amount of charge for exactly the right amount of time.
The individual battery charging feature prevents charge related problems, such as over- and under-charging and thermal runaway from developing. The ability to observe the system in operation, acknowledge alarms, download data and upload software makes the system reachable by remote experts or for routine data visits and permits individual replacements.
“APC’s intelligent Battery Management System adds life to your batteries and lowers cost of ownership by identifying and helping replace only the faulty battery instead of the whole string...This sort of customer-centric approach aligns us to our client’s main criteria of significant cost savings while maintaining business resiliency, security, uptime and 24 x7 high availability” said G B Ravichandra, Director-Enterprise Business, APC by Schneider Electric.
* APC by Schneider Electric is part of the Schneider Group which specialises in electricity and automation management with operations in 100 countries and over 114,000 employees. Backed by the experience and wide network of Schneider Electric, APC delivers solutions for industrial, enterprise, small and medium business, as well as home environments. APC solutions include Uninterruptible Power Supplies, precision cooling units, racks, physical security, and design and management software, including APC's InfraStruXure architecture. In 2007, Schneider Electric acquired APC and combined it with MGE UPS Systems to form Schneider Electric’s Critical Power & Cooling Services Business Unit.
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