Amid South Africa’s rising energy uncertainty, industrial power solution provider Master Power Technologies supplies backup power solutions that ensure not only uptime but also good-quality power that will not compromise critical equipment.

The company offers turnkey solutions that include uninterrupted power supply, generator sets, fuel systems, batteries and energy management solutions.

Master Power Technologies sales and marketing manager Rory Reid highlights that businesses and facilities – such as information technology data centres, factories, construction companies, mines, banks and telecoms providers – need alternative power solutions, such as generator sets and uninterrupted power supply, as they cannot afford downtime.

To ensure that generators, fuel systems, uninterruptable power supplies, rectifiers, batteries changeover and distribution boards are running in optimal condition all the time and to detect any damage to the batteries, Master Power Technologies’ in-house research and development team designed and developed the Master Power universal controller.

“The universal controller is a range of application-specific hardware and software that controls and monitors all the components of our backup power solutions,” explains Reid.

It provides real-time hardware and software monitoring, and internal intelligent automatic action to mitigate potentially critical issues that could cripple essential functions.

“Our team of experienced and skilled technical experts monitors client sites from its network operating centre that runs 24/7 all year and deploys site assistance before a situation reaches a critical point. Be it breakdown support or routine maintenance, our response time is excellent, given that we own and operate a service centre that keeps stock of frequently used spares,” explains Reid.

With the universal controller as its foundation, Master Power Technologies developed several software applications to improve and expand all secure power and environmental control remote monitoring capability, he adds.

The first application developed was the triple changeover controller – a standardised source selection tool for power management in data centres and power-critical sites. The triple changeover control consists of multiple devices or boards that are connected to form a system that controls the source selection of an electrical system, such as power-metering, switching breakers with and without interlocks, reading breaker status and generator management.

The main purpose of the triple changeover is to select between utility or one of the two standby generators, start the relevant generator and switch all the relevant breakers to manage the supply. This application saves money for the customer in operating expenses and improves overall reliability of the system.

The universal controller located on site sends site information to the network operating centre software called NewLife. All information available on the NewLife software is also available on a smartphone application in real time. Site reports can be generated from the NewLife software for operators, maintenance teams and management.

The universal controller actively monitors electrical equipment to ensure that it is operating at optimal capacity and pre-empts any problems. It also allows for the remote starting and stopping of equipment. It is used in highly resilient installations where uptime is of critical importance.

The remote management system monitors all alarms and the condition or status of secure power equipment in critical areas such as data centres. This also includes environmental monitoring such as humidity, temperature, intrusion detection and closed-circuit television monitoring.

“Every uninterruptable power supplies and rectifier is only as reliable as the batteries providing the backup power, hence, companies must ensure that their batteries are functioning optimally at all times,” adds Reid.

BattSure is another application that provides customers with surety of site performance according to design specifications. The technology protects a site by monitoring the safe and correct operation of its batteries, which is vital for a site’s safety and reliability.

Designed to continually monitor the status of uninterruptable power supplies batteries, BattSure sounds a warning as soon as one or more batteries show signs of a fault before they can damage other cells connected to the uninterruptable power supplies.

BattSure monitors the string current, voltage and temperature of a battery to determine the state of the charge, the state of the battery’s health and alarm conditions to IEC-62060, which pertains to the monitoring of lead acid stationary batteries.

Reid explains that when the universal controller detects an issue – which can vary from a mains failure to a battery failure in a uninterrupted power supply installation – it raises an alarm on all displays.

In response, the operators at the remote monitoring centre follow standard operating procedures to deal with the issue. As the universal controller monitors the situation in real time, a log is kept of the performance of all electronic equipment under observation, providing clients with a clear understanding of the status and performance of their systems.

In addition to improving availability, reliability and, ultimately, uptime, “our remote monitoring capability helps to maintain optimal operational costs by reporting on any deviations in the efficiency matrixes”, adds Reid.

He says the large number of clients being monitored by Master Power Technologies’ network operating centre is testimony to the value that the remote monitoring system adds to the overall data centre solutions that the company offers.

“At Master Power Technologies, our mission is not only to simply supply our clients with data centre solutions but also walk the journey with them after the sale to ensure they get the best value out of their investment,” Reid concludes.