New Industry Products

APC Launches New Redundant Power Protection For Large Data Centers & Facilities

October 14, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

APC by Schneider Electric announced launch of its new Symmetra® MW II uninterruptible power system (UPS), the second generation of APC’s modular UPS to provide power in the range of 400 to 1600kW, with paralleling capabilities for increased capacity or redundancy. With what the company describes as the industry’s highest operating efficiency, the Symmetra MW II was designed to address the most common issues faced by managers of large data centers and facilities, while eliminating the potential for costly over-sizing.

APC designed the Symmetra MW II as a solution to the most dominant technological and financial issues that plague large data center and facilities managers: the ever-increasing costs of over-sizing, the rising costs of electricity and the downtime and expense associated with human error. The Symmetra MW II delivers efficiencies from over 94% at 25% load to full load efficiency above 97%. According to the company, based on power at $0.12 per kWh, a 1000 kW APC Symmetra MW II can save over $315, 000 in 10 years when compared to a competitive legacy UPS. In addition to the direct savings from the UPS efficiency, the reduced heat rejection due to the high efficiency can bring the total cost savings to $500,000 or more in that same 10 years. This high efficiency is suitable for redundant or 2N applications when customers have a lower load factor and will significantly reduce overall operating expenses, contributing to greening the data center.

"The challenges faced by today’s data center and facility managers are truly apparent and universal. The cost of electricity continues to increase, new technologies are resulting in more complex power problems, and companies are quickly ’growing out’ of their legacy UPS systems and simply need more power," noted Dave Guidette, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Systems and Service, APC. "The Symmetra MW II is the second generation of the world’s first modular UPS system to maintain enough capacity to handle the power-hungry applications of enterprises like universities, research labs and large datacenters, while keeping its total cost of ownership to a minimum. The system is easy to install, operate and service, and allows organizations to grow their data center at the rate that makes the most financial sense for them."

The system’s scalable power capability is said to enable the user to efficiently supply only the load required for that current time, while still leaving room for growth without the hassle and costs of over-sizing by installing another UPS. With its modular design, the company states that the Symmetra MW II enables a power module to be quickly and easily replaced in case of maintenance or repair, rather than go through a time-consuming repair service. In addition, the system maintains the highest availability through internal N+1 redundancy and advanced, self-diagnosing power modules for predictive failure notification.

New features of APC’s new Symmetra MW II include Mega-Tie (the ability to connect two independent power systems in parallel, and with automated intelligent control, transfer all the loads for both systems to either UPS system). This allows operators to perform critical maintenance on either system without any downtime. The new system will also incorporate a re-designed display to provide operators with the ability to use APC’s datacenter management suite, including InfraStruXure® Central, to monitor metering and alarms from the Symmetra MW II itself directly through the network. Additional network and management protocols are available to allow reporting to Building Management Systems and email notification.

The new APC Symmetra MW II will be available in North America in Q4 2008 and globally in Q2 2009.