Riello UPS’s Top 12 Most Popular Posts Of 2019

Another year is drawing to a close. But which of our articles have got a surge of interest from you? Here are our top 12 posts of 2019.

It’s been another record-breaking year for the Riello UPS PR website, with average monthly traffic up by a terrific 25% on readership in 2018. Thank you for all your support!

This PR site now contains more than 210 posts, with 50+ new items added in 2019 alone. So there’s certainly plenty of informative articles here to catch your attention and inform you about all things uninterruptible power supplies.

There’s everything from technical videos, event round-ups and opinion-led articles, to news coverage, in-depth white papers and reports on our charity work.

We’ve taken a look at the stats and are counting down your top 12 posts of 2019, our very own version of the 12 Days of Christmas!

12. Free White Paper Highlights Importance Of UPS Battery Maintenance

Let’s kick-off our countdown with this free white paper outlining the importance of battery maintenance.

Best practice recommends that UPS batteries are proactively replaced before the end of their service life (at year 3 or 4 for 5-year design life and at years 7-8 for 10-year design life).

Our informative article explains what factors affect the lifespan of UPS batteries, such as temperature, frequency and depth of discharge, and operating voltage.

The white paper also highlights some of the most common issues with batteries (i.e. sulphation, thermal runaway, dry out) and offers some top tips to prevent premature battery failure.

11. Setting The Agenda In The Parliamentary Review

Next up is our appearance in the influential political publication The Parliamentary Review.

Co-chaired by two former government ministers (Lord David Blunkett and Lord Eric Pickles), it is a series of journals aiming to share best practice amongst policymakers and business leaders.

Each edition focuses on a particular policy area, for example, healthcare or the economy. We feature in the Energy and Environment text, which includes a review of another momentous political year from journalist Andrew Neil.

Read how we offer an insight into the role smart grid-ready UPS systems can have in balancing the nation’s electricity grid through schemes such as demand side response.

We also elaborate on the background of Riello UPS and the wider Riello Elettronica group and some of the secrets to our ongoing success.

10. Prevention Is Better Than Cure: Importance Of UPS Maintenance

In this article for UK Power News magazine, our General Manager Leo Craig offers a timely reminder about the benefits of preventive UPS maintenance.

Rigorous maintenance reduces the risk of downtime, as well as helping to improve a UPS’s performance and efficiency.

Leo also reminds organisations to do their due diligence before signing up with any UPS maintenance provider.

He suggests they seek clarification about emergency response times, access to spare parts, and the competence of field service engineers.

9. Holograms & Flashing Fans: Data Centre World 2019 Review

This year’s Data Centre World (DCW) was the biggest and best yet, so there’s no surprise our round-up features in our top 10.

We made our annual trip to ExCeL London in March to showcase Riello UPS’s range of products and services to the 20,000-plus IT professionals in attendance over the two-day trade show.

Our new event stand – incorporating demo units of our Multi Power, NextEnergy and Sentinel Dual UPS systems – had plenty to catch the eye. So too did the event’s new 6th Generation Data Centres showcase.

We took a starring role in this initiative with an impressive hologram explaining how smart grid UPS fit into a modern energy system.

8. Containerised Data Centres With Secure I.T. Environments Ltd

This joint feature first appeared in the Winter 2018 edition of Data Centre Management (DCM) magazine but secures a spot in our most-read for 2019 too.

The four-page article centres on the rapid rise of edge computing to facilitate the 5G superfast era. Providing the requisite processing power relies on data centres being located closer to where the data is first created to ensure low latency and an instantaneous response.

We team up with regular project partners Secure I.T. Environments Ltd to explain the concept of containerised data centres.

These are basically “data centres in a box” containing everything you’ll find in a hyperscale facility but in a heavily reduced footprint.

The piece goes on to explore several of the two companies’ installations in the healthcare sector.

7. Double Dose Of Energy Storage Inspiration

Lucky number 7 in our run-down is a 2-for-1 special as we head back to March and a pair of pieces focusing on the potential benefits of UPS battery storage.

The first article for Electrical Review centres on smart grids and the opportunities provided by demand side response.

We explain some of the schemes that data centres and other energy-intensive organisations might be able to participate in, such as Reserve Services and Frequency Response.

We follow this with an alternative look for Data Centre Review magazine. Rather than using energy storage to feed back into the electricity network, we investigate whether it might make sense for certain companies to go off grid completely.

This would require onsite generation, perhaps solar, wind or combined heat and power, plus large-scale battery storage systems.

Our feature explains how going behind the meter can reduce the risk of sudden wholesale price increases, as well as cutting electricity bills and carbon emissions in the long-term.

6. Separating Fact From Fiction By Busting Some Myths About UPS

Moving on to another March highlight. This piece for Electrical Contracting News (ECN) magazine tackles six of the best (or worst) misconceptions about uninterruptible power supplies.

For many electrical contractors or IT resellers, a UPS system is often seen as something of a mystery. But this is far from the truth.

One-by-one we refute the biggest myths there are about UPS. First up, that they’re too complicated to choose the right one. In reality, you can go a long way to specifying a UPS by knowing the size of the load and the battery runtime needed.

Next, we rebut the claim that all UPS are big, bulky, energy-intensive black boxes. Technological advances such as transformerless and modular UPS mean this isn’t the case.

We won’t reveal the remaining secrets, but you can get the rest by reading the full feature.

5. When’s The Right Time To Replace A Legacy UPS?

We’re into the top 5 with this front cover feature for Electrical Review.

This article explores the key question all data centre operators or IT managers will face at some point in time: when do they need to invest in a new UPS system?

Basically, there are contrasting options. Firstly, you can squeeze as much life as possible out of a legacy UPS. In all likelihood this will involve a major overhaul of capacitors and fans to extend the unit’s lifespan.

The alternative is to replace the older, inefficient – and possibly transformer-based – systems with new. While this obviously involves a significant upfront capital investment, the performance and efficiency benefits end up paying for itself over time.

Our piece proves the point by taking a legacy 120 kVA N+1 UPS system and comparing to upgrading to a new 126 kVA N+1 modular uninterruptible power supply. The annual savings add up to nearly £5,000.

Check out the cartoon-style cover image too!

4. Tech Talk: UPS Bypass Synchronisation & No Break Power Transfer

Into the final 4 of our countdown and it’s our first video-based entry.

Our ‘Tech Talk’ series sees our Technical Services Manager Jason Yates share his wealth of experience across a range of informative YouTube videos.

This instalment first aired in 2017 but is still one of our most popular posts more than 2 years later. It focuses on the crucial role of bypass synchronisation to ensure a no-break power transfer when a UPS switches to static bypass.

Jason also examines some of the instances where a UPS power supply may transfer to bypass, such as an inverter or rectifier failure, an overload or short-circuit, or during routine UPS maintenance.

Check out the full ‘Tech Talk’ selection to learn about issues such as electrical discrimination, no break power transfer, unbalanced loads, and the difference between centralised and decentralised UPS bypass configurations.

3. The Blackout Report & Lessons To Learn From Data Centres

July saw the launch of the Blackout report, our major investigation into the state of the UK’s power network. We aimed to think the unthinkable and ask some unanswerable questions of the course of 50+ pages.

It explored the possibility of the UK’s electricity network experiencing a complete shutdown. It examined the biggest threats that could cause such a failure. And it estimated the fallout of any such event on both business and society at large.

This online article formed part of our promotion of the report, with digitalisation website the Techerati asking us to evaluate whether data centres were better prepared for a mass power blackout than other industries.

Our analysis highlights some of the steps data centres take to reduce the risk of downtime, such as the guidance outlined in the Uptime Institute’s Tier Classification System.

Depending on the Tier, these precautions can include redundancy, multiple paths for power and cooling, or even complete fault tolerance.

We go on to question whether large-scale energy users, such as data centres, should be required to structure their operations to minimise power usage during a civil emergency like a widespread electricity outage.

2. The Riello UPS & RWE Master+ Model

Just pipped to the coveted top slot is this case study outlining our effort to rethink the role of a UPS system.

We’ve teamed up with energy trading company RWE to pilot an innovative, smart grid-ready UPS that promises data centres reduced costs and additional revenue generating opportunities without undermining system reliability.

The concept uses a Master Plus HE equipped with a special rectifier that enables electricity to flow to and from the grid.

This UPS is backed up by premium batteries and RWE’s sophisticated monitoring software and comms technology.

The batteries are divided into specific roles, the first solely providing emergency backup, with the remaining ‘commercial’ segment available for energy storage to participate in demand side response.

But if there’s a power cut, any energy left in the ‘commercial’ element can top-up the emergency backup to increase autonomy. The case study goes on to explore the possibilities on offer, such as Firm Frequency Response.

It also explains how the mandatory battery monitoring ensures the model offers greater resilience than a UPS fitted with traditional sealed lead-acid batteries.

1. ‘UPS Basics’: UPS Operating Modes Explained

Top of the pops for 2019 is a video post first published in 2017. Our ‘UPS Basics’ series sees cartoon UPS Wizard Steve offer viewers an easy-to-understand introduction to all things uninterruptible power supplies.

This episode – the most-read post on Riello UPS PR in the last 12 months – explains all various operating modes you’ll find on most Riello UPS products.

The 3-minute video covers Online UPS, the highest level of protection, plus ECO mode, which runs the UPS at its most efficient.

Then there’s Smart Active, a combination of Online and ECO, along with Standby Off, which is for loads that don’t require power unless the mains fails, for example, emergency lighting.

The final two operating modes covered include Frequency Converter and Voltage Stabiliser, the latter acts in a similar way to a line-interactive UPS that smooths out sags and surges from the incoming supply.

It also offers advice on when the various modes should – and shouldn’t be used.

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That’s a festive wrap on our best-read blogs of 2019. Are there any posts that you hoped to see in our top 12?

What subjects would you like to see in the coming months? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks for reading in 2019, we’ll return with plenty more power-related punditry and articles in the New Year!

And keep tabs on the countdown over on our social media channels by following the hashtag #RielloUPS2019review