Luminus Solutions’ 1600 kVA mobile UPS system recently gained some useful new features. This allows Luminus Solutions to offer even more flexibility and gives their customers a more detailed insight into their power supplies. The installation was also given a new look for the occasion.
Don’t just say ’emergency power generator’ to a UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supply. Because for those who really need a UPS, there is a big difference. Of course, an emergency power generator is extremely handy to keep the lights on when the electricity goes out. But such a diesel generator does take a few seconds to start up. For organisations such as data centres, airports, the pharmaceutical industry or hospitals, even that brief interruption can cause a lot of damage. Often, their operation is also susceptible to poor-quality power, micro power cuts, harmonics or voltage problems.
Luminus Solutions’ dynamic UPS installations consist of a generator, a flywheel and a thermal engine in one system, always providing top-quality power and seamlessly overcoming any hiccups. As of now, you can also see this along the outside on their largest mobile UPS installation. Housed in a 12-metre-long container, it weighs 30 tonnes and has just been given an eye-catching new wrapping.
Patrick Steegmans, business unit director UPS at Luminus Solutions
“We wanted to do more than just add our logo,” says Patrick Steegmans, business unit director UPS at Luminus Solutions. “The wrapping visualises the operation of the UPS. On one side, you see the power coming from the grid with a lot of irregularities. On the other side, pure and continuous power appears: the UPS has balanced everything nicely. With that, we want to pique people’s curiosity. When they see such an installation, they usually think it is an emergency power set, but actually a UPS does much more. It cleans the input voltage, captures short and long interruptions and ensures a good power factor (approx. 1).”
More detailed monitoring
The new look of the mobile UPS comes on the occasion of a control system upgrade. The operation of the system itself does not change, but some particularly useful features are added. Thanks to the latest software, monitoring of the system is now completely digital. This allows Luminus Solutions to monitor the operation of the UPS in more detail.
“We now have access to dozens of parameters that we read out digitally,” says Steegmans. “We could always monitor the system remotely, but limited to a few parameters. Now we can analyze everything: both the power supply from the grid and what happens behind the UPS. When the system captures an interruption, we know exactly where the problem was and how the machine reacted. This way, we can see whether the problem came from the grid or whether something went wrong at the customer’s premises. We prepare a detailed report so we can work with the customer to see if action is needed.”
The new mobile 1600kVA UPS of Luminus Solutions
More placement flexibility
Another advantage of the new software is that it is easier to connect two mobile UPS systems in parallel. “So where that used to be very difficult, we can now double the power without too much preparation,” Patrick Steegmans clarifies. “Moreover, a hardware modification has also been carried out that increases the flexibility of the system. The mobile UPS consists of two trailers: one with a long container for the flywheel and generator and one with a smaller container that contains, among other things, the cooling system. We can now detach that smaller container from the trailer, so there are more options in placement when space is limited.”
“That extra flexibility is nice,” Steegmans says. “Luminus Solutions specializes in the more difficult challenges, for customers where the stakes are really high if something were to go wrong. So there is a lot of engineering involved and it absolutely has to work for sure. It’s rarely just plug and play. But we have a good match between top-quality machinery and a team that has a lot of experience with it.”