New-Tech Europe Magazine | March 2018

level. Data center operators can then support the grid in frequency regulation, generating additional revenue to offset the total cost of ownership of the UPS or as part of making the data center more competitive on price. Eaton developed the service in close collaboration with Fortum, a leading energy provider in the Nordic and Baltic countries. During extensive trials, we’ve demonstrated that UPS systems and batteries can be safely and effectively used to perform demand-response operations, without any risks to the UPS’s primary function. The data center would work with a commercial energy aggregator to offer its capacity to the ‘national grid’ or Transmission System Operator. Eaton will install the functionality and provide a communication interface to the aggregator’s systems.

Picture 1: Eaton’s UPS-as-a-Reserve (UPSaaR)

likely that we’ll see fluctuating power quality in the grid. That means data centers can play a role in helping energy providers maintain power quality by balancing power generation and consumption. Eaton has just launched a concept – the first of its kind in the data center industry – that lets organisations immediately respond to grid-level power demands to keep frequencies within allowed boundaries, thereby avoiding grid-wide power outages. To put it briefly, data centers can be compensated either for not drawing power, or for offering capacity back to the grid. Eaton’s UPS-as-a-Reserve (UPSaaR) is the first data center solution that lets organisations earn from their UPS investment. The concept puts data centers in control of

their energy, choosing how much capacity to offer, when, and at what price. Typical returns up to €50,000 per MW of power allocated to grid support per year. We like to think of it as seeing money lying on the floor of the data center and just picking it up. So how does it work? The service enables data center operators to put the UPS to work as part of a virtual power plant that enables them to take part in the high-value FCR and demand- side market. The UPS can be used to support the grid by replacing demand with power taken from batteries. The discharge power is seamlessly regulated in parallel with the UPS rectifier to provide an exact response, independent of load

Janne Paananen, Technology Manager, Eaton EMEA

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