UPS test clips newspaper production - Technology Information

Communications News, March, 2001 by Sean Kelly

The presses stopped rolling after a power protection system failed its semi-annual test.

One Sunday afternoon last September, the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, FL, had just finished a semi-annual test--consisting of shutting down its uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system and turning it back on after 10 minutes. The paper, owned by The New York Times, had conducted the test for longer than 10 years with no unusual incidents--until that day.

"They took the UPS off-line, and it couldn't come back online," says Paul Flanagan, executive director of information technology at the New York Times Shared Services Center, which acts as an ASP for Times-owned business units throughout the U.S. Operations shut down for two hours--including the newsroom and the 24-hour TV news station--until the problem was traced to a main breaker.

But greater difficulties would surface on the newspaper's newly installed computer system, with its 170 terminals networked on two servers.

"Since the UPS didn't come over the way it was supposed to--whether it was surges or spikes--the paper had some problems with one of the routers and one of the switches," Flanagan says.

"This happened when very few people were on the system," he recounts. "So, things looked fine. But when more people came in and started to use the system, more of the problems came out." These were traced to three cards in a router--two were dead, and one was intermittent.

The paper would turn out two abbreviated editions because of the emergency. A new router was flown in and the Norfolk, VA-based services center guided Herald-Tribune technicians over the telephone in repairing the system.

Reflecting on the consistent testing of the Herald-Tribune UPS, Flanagan says the paper "never had a problem with it because it worked just fine. They just kept adding equipment until eventually it bit them."

The Herald-Tribune's experience is but one example of the importance of UPS systems to a business--which is often not realized until a major power management interruption hampers or shuts down the network.

LEGACY UPS

The UPS system's age can be one source of major calamity for a network. "When it goes over five or 10 years, you really need to start looking at whether you really got a useful life out of the UPS, and start looking at updating your UPS solution," notes Michael Proffitt, product manager with APC's Enterprise Systems Group. "You may not know there's a problem inside a UPS--it worked fine for years. But the moment you need it is when you typically find that there's something wrong with it."

Proffitt says network managers can look for telltale signs that their UPS system may be ready for replacement. "When you're doing an annual service, more parts are needing to be replaced--similar to what happens to a car that's in the repair shop every other week. You start seeing more errors coming from the system. You may also start seeing interruptions in power, or the system going to bypass more often."

The older systems, particularly double conversion UPSs, tend to have lower efficiency ratings between 70% and 80%--compared with ratings between the mid-80s and mid-90s for today's models. An older UPS with an efficiency of 80%, says Proffitt, is "not a big deal in the 10-kilowatt range." It can, however, cause major problems on a 100-kilowatt system, with 20% of the power "being wasted on heat, noise and other areas."

Legacy double-conversion systems, he adds, are also capable of "throwing out massive amounts of harmonics back to the rest of the electrical power infrastructure. Even though it's protecting the load connected to the UPS, it's damaging or putting harmful waveforms into the rest of the building. You see transformers burning up or breakers tripping or failing." Even newer energy-efficient computers can cause a legacy UPS system failure, because the UPS has to work much harder to maintain power supply, Proffitt says.

He recommends that enterprises analyze cost and availability factors before replacing UPS systems. "If we are going to swap out this UPS, does it make sense? What would it cost if we replaced it? Are we better off replacing it? You also want to make sure the current UPS configuration is still applicable to meet your availability needs."

Enterprises with a legacy UPS system may not want to wait until the end of its expected life to replace it, Proffitt suggests. Those with a 10-year system, he says, should start looking for a replacement in the ninth year.

Lack of maintenance--caused by a false sense of security--can compound UPS malfunctions, especially for older systems.

"Sometimes we see UPS systems that were installed 10 or 15 years ago, or sometimes more recently, that just simply went into disservice or weren't really functional because they weren't properly maintained," notes Dick Walden, Liebert director of marketing for power protection products. "Many users in enterprises think that just because they bought a UPS and installed it, they're protected henceforth and forevermore. In reality, a UPS system is something that does require some periodic maintenance."