Ensuring Our Education Facilities Have The Backup They Need
Students have lost approximately a third of their education this academic year due to the impact of Covid-19 and as schools, colleges and university close for the summer holidays, it will be critical that all measures are taken to ensure that there are no further disruptions in September.
Although some disturbances are far beyond human control, there are some key fundamentals that education estate managers need to consider. In addition to refining health and safety protocols particular attention should be made to power protection strategies.
Secure Power Ltd is doing its part to give back to this essential sector by offering all education facilities free UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) health checks. The company is keen to remind the industry of the importance of these routine service visits, where unfortunately emergency power solutions such as UPS systems are often taken for granted. Once installed it is assumed that they will just operate as and when they are needed. For the most part this is true. However, all UPS systems need regular servicing and maintenance. Without it their performance can be compromised. Due to the critical nature of backup power equipment, it is vital that their components are regularly checked.
Today’s education facilities rely heavily on power for not just their IT infrastructures but also the growing number of electronic learning tools. Though not always front of mind a continuous source of power is absolutely essential to the smooth running of academic establishments.
Secure Power Ltd has been supporting schools, colleges and universities across the country and has years of experience in understanding the changeable demands of each individual facility. The company’s service co-ordination manager, Alicia Hewitt commented: “There is a definite trend of neglected UPS systems out there, particularly within schools. Secure Power has recently attended a number of incidences where the UPS solution has completely failed due to poor battery or component condition. These failures could have been easily prevented with a routine UPS service visit.
“We are therefore urging all education facilities to have a UPS health check and book in a service visit to ensure that UPS systems are in good operating condition and running as efficiently as possible. UPS efficiency surprisingly is rarely discussed as a priority within schools but in fact an efficient running UPS could save quite a significant amount in running costs. In a sector where budgets can be extremely tight, these savings could make a huge difference.
“Recent UPS health checks have also highlighted the significant number of ‘old’ UPS systems. When a backup power solution is identified as ‘old’ it is likely that it has been in operational for over five years, depending on how well maintained the unit has been will determine its operating condition. Typically we have found these systems in desperate need of an upgrade, where replacing UPS batteries and other components such as UPS fans and capacitors would in fact outweigh the value of replacing the UPS system with a new UPS unit.”
There are only 190 days in an academic year and with many educational facilities operational 24/7, a continuous source of power is absolutely critical. The industry and our students cannot afford any more downtime. Alicia concluded: “It has been a tough year for academia and as tempting as it will be to relax and enjoy the summer holiday as quickly as possible, the industry cannot be complacent. Lost time due to a global pandemic would be acceptable, lost time due to a preventative power failure or anomaly would be unforgiveable.”
Secure Power is a leading power protection specialist and as a brand agnostic provider the company has access to one of the largest authorised selections of UPS solutions. These include award winning UPS systems from Riello, Schneider, APC, Eaton, Socomec and Vertiv. Secure Power is also one of the most sought after emergency power service providers. With its own team of engineers across the country, the company offers immediate response times, 24/7 technical support as well as the entire UPS service and maintenance spectrum including UPS install and commissioning.
For more information about the company’s extensive range of UPS solutions and services please get in touch with our team 0800-080-3118