EmersonNetworkPower.com What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure Liebert Services eBook Series Chapter Four Battery Life Executive Summary Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS Battery Life Expectancy What Causes Premature Battery Failure? How to Optimize Battery Performance Battery Maintenance Best Practices Battery Monitoring Remote Monitoring When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite Conclusion EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Executive Summary Executive Summary In our last chapter, we addressed preventive maintenance for power and cooling, discussed Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS why it is critically important to a data center, and offered a preventive maintenance checklist for Battery Life Expectancy power and cooling systems. In this chapter, we hone in on batteries – a critical piece of every data center – and discuss how they should be monitored and maintained. What Causes Premature Battery Failure? Batteries are Critical to Your UPS How to Optimize Battery Performance In our previous chapters, we talked about how Battery Maintenance Best Practices a UPS system is critical to a data center. Tests and assessments and preventive maintenance Battery Monitoring programs are often implemented in a data center Remote Monitoring to maintain and protect these systems, but in When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? reality, a UPS is only as reliable as the batteries that support it. In fact, it has been reported Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite that nearly 37 percent of down units are due to battery failure. Your UPS is only as reliable as its batteries. Conclusion If a power outage occurs, even a single bad cell in a string of batteries could compromise a facility’s entire backup system, leaving an organization without protection. In order to fully protect a UPS system – and ultimately the entire data center – managers must Continue... educate themselves on batteries. This includes a knowledge of battery life expectancy, battery monitoring, and battery replacement. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 2 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Executive Summary Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS Battery Life Expectancy What Causes Premature Battery Failure? How to Optimize Battery Performance Battery Maintenance Best Practices Battery Monitoring Remote Monitoring When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? Maintenance is the single largest difference between normal battery life and premature failure. Battery Life Expectancy Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite Conclusion Batteries represent a significant part of the cost of the critical power system, but are subject to wear and aging faster than most other components. Batteries have a certain life expectancy and, sooner or later, every battery will reach the end of its life. Misunderstanding battery life expectancy is common and stems from confusing battery Continue... design life with battery service life. Battery design life is specified by the manufacturer and takes into account cell design and battery aging under controlled conditions in the manufacturer’s laboratory. Battery service life considers how application, installation design, real-world operating conditions and maintenance practices impact battery aging — most often lowering life expectancy. Whether the batteries supporting a critical power system will age normally toward their defined life cycle or fail prematurely depends on a variety of factors, including: How batteries are handled The environment they’re housed in The quality of the systems used to maintain the batteries Lack of proactive battery maintenance Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 3 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life What Causes Premature Battery Failure? Executive Summary Other factors that can cause premature battery failure include: Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS High or low charge voltage Battery Life Expectancy Excessive charge current What Causes Premature Battery Failure? Strained battery terminals Manufacturing defects How to Optimize Battery Performance Improper room temperature Overcharging and over cycling Battery Maintenance Best Practices Loose connections Strained battery terminals Battery Monitoring Manufacturing defects Remote Monitoring Poor & improper maintenance Click here to watch battery maintenance and monitoring video. When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite How to Optimize Battery Performance Conclusion Nothing can stop the battery aging process, but there are a few things data center managers can and should do to optimize the performance of batteries in their facility without placing operations in jeopardy due to a potentially failing cell, and that begins with adopting proactive battery management strategies such as: Continue... Follow battery maintenance best practices outlined by IEEE standards and battery manufacturer schedules defining specific battery maintenance checks and how frequently they should be made. Monitor batteries to continually assess the health of your power system’s life support without incurring maintenance downtime. Keep onsite spares at the same life stage to avoid catastrophic loss caused by replacing too many of the cells in a string during normal battery lifetime. Perform capacity testing in accordance with IEEE recommended practices to verify battery integrity. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 4 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Executive Summary Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS Battery Life Expectancy What Causes Premature Battery Failure? How to Optimize Battery Performance Battery Maintenance Best Practices Battery Monitoring Skilled technicians can provide recommendations that will guarantee battery availability. Remote Monitoring Battery Maintenance Best Practices When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? The first line of defense in guarding against battery failure happens before batteries are placed in service. Batteries need to be fully charged, properly installed — physically, electrically Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite Conclusion and environmentally — and their condition verified in order to minimize the likelihood of costly retests and equipment damage. Continue... Properly inspecting the batteries before startup and/or load testing will provide valuable information that can be applied immediately and serve as a baseline for any testing conducted throughout the service life of the batteries. If this basic information is not collected, analyzed and understood, there is no guarantee the batteries will perform as needed and trend analysis becomes more difficult. If an abnormality goes undetected, data center managers may experience schedule delays or extra costs to replace or repair damaged components. Maintenance best practices also depend on the type of battery a facility is using. For example, flooded batteries and VRLA batteries would each require different testing, inspections, and load requirements. The IEEE has documented these best practices and recommends a schedule as it relates to the criticality of any given application. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 5 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Executive Summary Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS Battery Life Expectancy What Causes Premature Battery Failure? How to Optimize Battery Performance Battery Maintenance Best Practices Battery Monitoring Combining on-site visits with trending and diagnostics helps you identify problems before they become serious. Remote Monitoring Battery Monitoring When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? As we previously mentioned, battery failure is the number one cause of UPS system dropped Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite loads. To protect against battery failure – and ultimately expensive downtime – data center managers should implement a dedicated battery monitoring system. Conclusion Battery monitoring can significantly reduce the risk of dropped loads due to battery failure, optimize battery life, and improve safety. A recent Liebert Services study of organizations with service contracts and regular preventive maintenance schedules found that customers who Continue... implemented battery monitoring experienced half as many battery failures as customers that didn’t. The best practice is to implement a monitoring system that connects to and tracks the health of each battery within a string, but the most effective battery monitoring systems continuously track all battery parameters, including internal resistance, using a DC test current to ensure measurement accuracy and repeatability. A battery monitoring system provides a continuous watch of the battery to assess its true state of health. Instead of waiting for an inevitable failure or replacing batteries prematurely to prevent problems, battery monitors allow organizations to continue to utilize their batteries longer and with confidence by knowing the true condition of all critical battery parameters, such as cell voltage, internal resistance, cycle history, overall string voltage, current and temperature. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 6 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Executive Summary Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS Battery Life Expectancy What Causes Premature Battery Failure? How to Optimize Battery Performance Battery Maintenance Best Practices Battery Monitoring Remote monitoring exposes the unknown threat of failing batteries to maximize system availability. Remote Monitoring Remote Monitoring When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? Most data center managers understand the importance of battery monitoring, but as we Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite discussed in our first chapter, rapid changes in the IT industry have given managers a “full plate” Conclusion of responsibilities in terms of running an efficient, available and optimized facility, and battery monitoring either falls to the bottom of the list of priorities, or in some cases, organizations don’t have enough internal personnel to dedicate someone to this task. Continue... In these cases, remote monitoring, managed by an organization with resources devoted to battery monitoring, can be an easy solution. Not only does remote monitoring lift the burden of infrastructure monitoring from internal personnel, but in many cases, it also integrates onsite and remote preventive maintenance activities with predictive analysis to identify problems before they occur – and it can all be done in real-time. A remote monitoring service may also include a team of engineers reviewing the information. This typically includes written algorithms that allow technicians to be proactive rather than reactive so engineers can predict cell failures days in advance and take steps to avoid a malfunction. There’s an inherent benefit in having a centralized expert group that can do that type of detailed analysis and proactively react to it. If a problem occurs, they can immediately alert the situation, dispatch a technician, diagnose the problem, stabilize the situation, and alleviate the problem prior to deterioration or failure, while also gaining availability all at the same time. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 7 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Other benefits of remote monitoring include: Use batteries longer and with confidence – Instead of waiting for an inevitable failure or Executive Summary Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS replacing batteries prematurely to prevent problems, battery monitors allow organizations Battery Life Expectancy to continue to use their batteries longer by knowing the true condition of all critical battery What Causes Premature Battery Failure? parameters such as cell voltage, internal resistance, cycle history, overall string voltage, current and temperature. Stay ahead of the curve – In addition to improved resource utilization, a dedicated monitoring organization can respond more quickly to portfolio issues. For instance, in monitoring data across multiple facilities, they may be alerted to a problem caused by a certain manufacturer’s breaker. Very quickly, the manufacturer can be notified so as to avoid a potential problem occurring across hundreds of sites, many of which contain similar equipment. 24/7 Data – Remote monitoring uses 24/7 technology, providing constant data to a facility. This data is used as a diagnostic tool to look at relationships between different battery readings, providing real-time notification when a problem occurs. How to Optimize Battery Performance Battery Maintenance Best Practices Battery Monitoring Remote Monitoring When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite Conclusion Manage Systems – Remote monitoring enables remote management of systems (where authorized), allowing the monitoring partner to control systems remotely. This is particularly valuable when a facility is undergoing changes and updates. Continue... While there are many battery monitoring services available, the best solution to maximizing battery performance is to utilize an integrated battery monitoring service that combines state-of-the-art battery monitoring technology with proactive maintenance and service response. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 8 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Executive Summary Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS Battery Life Expectancy What Causes Premature Battery Failure? How to Optimize Battery Performance Battery Maintenance Best Practices Battery Monitoring Remote Monitoring When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite If valve regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries have been in service for four or more years, they should be evaluated to ensure that your UPS system will provide the protection you require. Conclusion When Do Batteries Need to Be Replaced? Service life of a battery is limited and depends on many factors, including age, usage, Continue... environment and maintenance. IEEE standards recommend replacing a battery at the time its capacity drops below 80 percent. A typical VRLA battery may start to lose capacity or fail within three to five years. Proactively replacing batteries will help keep a system running up to specifications and minimize the risk of costly downtime to operations. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure PG 9 EmersonNetworkPower.com Chapter Four Battery Life Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite Executive Summary It is recommended that data centers have enough spare Batteries Are Critical to Your UPS batteries to cover five to 10 percent of the batteries Battery Life Expectancy (depending on battery type) in every cabinet, depending What Causes Premature Battery Failure? on the criticality of the facility, plugged in and housed similarly to the batteries in service. The spare batteries will How to Optimize Battery Performance age simultaneously with the main battery string, making replacement faster and more stable. While it’s impossible Battery Maintenance Best Practices to replicate the exact same conditions, replacing a failing battery with one of the same age, even if some variance in the condition of batteries exists, is safer than replacing it with a new battery. Proper storage of spare batteries will also maximize the service life of the individual battery. Other advantages of keeping onsite spare batteries include: Spare batteries will be charged and ready when they are needed most Batteries will age with the original battery string, eliminating the risk of a mismatch The number of visits to repair a battery string is reduced The risk of obsolescence for both VLA or VRLA batteries is minimized Conclusion As business reliance on data center systems increases and more emphasis is placed on availability and reliability of critical power systems, data center managers need to understand that without properly operating batteries, no UPS system can do its job. Strategies to maximize the availability and performance of battery systems include following battery maintenance best practices, monitoring batteries, and keeping spares onsite. Devoting attention proactively to the battery system will help organizations ensure their business critical systems remain up and running. Liebert Services is committed to helping organizations understand their critical infrastructure, identify problems, and incorporate solutions. Stay tuned for chapter five in our eBook “What You Need to Know about Your Critical Infrastructure” to learn more about what data center managers should look for in a service provider, with a specific focus on safety, training and compliance. Emerson Network Power | What You Need to Know About Your Critical Infrastructure Battery Monitoring Remote Monitoring When Do Batteries Need to be Replaced? Always Keep Spare Batteries Onsite Conclusion