The concept of “green” data centers is garnering much attention
these days. Yet there has been limited discussion about the role
of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems in making data
centers more environmentally friendly. As data center loads
increase, so do the power losses of double-conversion UPS
systems—and those losses are extremely costly. But UPS systems
with very high efficiency ratings can boost a facility’s overall
energy efficiency dramatically, reducing power losses and their
associated costs and carbon emissions. With the proliferation of
business-critical data centers certain to continue into the
future, integrating high-efficiency UPS systems is essential.
Typical data centers contain more than 100 racks and consume
megawatts of power. According to the U.S. EPA’s Report to
Congress, data centers and servers accounted for 1.5% of total
U.S. electric power consumption and 0.5% of greenhouse gas
emissions in 2007. While the economy held 2011 growth of U.S.
data center power consumption to 2