Mitigating power disruption risks with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) infrastructure

Introduction

Developing and building a brand new, multi-million pound integrated retirement community in Solihull, ExtraCare charitable trust appointed TIS to design and install a converged, fibre-based life safety, security and communications system.

The infrastructure would allow disparate technologies to work reliably together through one common communication platform, creating a single unified solution across Solihull’s 12-storey site that houses 261 private apartments, plus communal areas and multiple shared facilities.

With the planned system featuring hundreds of individual edge devices, all integral to the seamless delivery of vital 24/7 care services such as assisted living, well-being support and dementia care, we identified it would be necessary to ensure every security and safety eventuality was accounted for. This included guaranteeing service delivery could be maintained in the event of power disruption, either locally on site due to a local area power cut, or even during potential planned outages such as those announced by the UK Government in 2022.

The Challenge

Most integrated retirement community operators will likely recognise that a power outage could be disruptive to their operations and residents, but many don’t fully appreciate the implications for care delivery, safety and security.

It’s necessary to consider battery backup at several key areas to ensure fault-free operation during a power cut:

- Call units in apartment / communal areas
- Control equipment (central control unit, server, comms rack, etc.)
- Infrastructure (network switches if IP based system, routers, etc.)
- Telephony (PBX) system (routing the calls, staff handsets, etc.)
- Wireless system (DECT or Wi-Fi handsets)
- Connection to the outside world (telephone, broadband, fibre, etc.)

Some developments may have battery backup installed by the builder during the construction phase, which might keep the devices in the main equipment room operating, but most are unaware of the exact requirements for keeping all of their critical systems from failing - the level of backup power required, which systems have battery backup and which don’t, how long the batteries will last, what happens if one system goes down and the knock on effect to other critical systems and so on.

Accurately calculating the size, quantity and location of the batteries, chargers and control units is a technically challenging job requiring expert knowledge of all the equipment requiring autonomy and their resultant load (power consumption) on the system. Too little capacity and the UPS will fail, along with the critical systems, before the specified time, too much capacity and extra space will be required, and costs will be increased.

The next consideration was the amount of space required to physically house all of the batteries (each one on par with a car battery) needed to keep the UPS running. With hundreds of devices and systems requiring backup power, the floor space required was not insignificant (the total weight of all those batteries ruled out wall or rack-mounted installation). Fortunately, as Solihull was a new-build development this could be built into the design specification and allowed for within the building layout. This was one of the key advantages of TIS being part of the overall development design phase as we were able to specify the requirement early enough in the process for the space to be reserved.

Knowing the status and health of the UPS system was also an important consideration so we added a monitoring system. This not only alerts relevant staff when there is a power outage (not always clear when a backup system kicks in), it’s also important for understanding the load on the system and how much resilience remains should there be multiple power failures in a short period of time. For example, batteries will need time to recharge following an incident and over time the system will need maintenance and servicing to ensure it operates at peak performance. Finally, we stress-tested the UPS system and implemented a maintenance schedule that would ensure batteries are regularly inspected, charged and tested. With a full report and compliance certificate issued for each UPS following every maintenance visit.