Retailing Reliability

The Bluewater Retail Complex at Greenhithe, Kent, United Kingdom, occupies 250 acres, housing three major stores and some 300 retail outlets of varying sizes. Owners of this sprawling retail complex cannot take chances with their main power supply. Electrical services have power backup in the form of a 100-kVA, 400-volt 3-phase standby generator and an uninterruptible power supply.

In the event of a power outage, a 60-kVA UPS can provide up to 10 minutes of unbroken power for the load imposed by the final circuit distribution boards, and effect a smooth transfer from mains to standby generator.

Located in a central plant room adjacent to the control and indication room for the entire complex, the unit is a high-frequency inverter UPS that ensures a low total harmonic distortion when supplying a non-linear load. For the purposes of the Bluewater complex, the UPS as supplied comes complete with a bypass circuit to enable overloads, faults and in-rush currents to be supported by the mains path.

The unit at Bluewater supports front-end equipment to 10 key functions across the entire site, including: fire-alarm panels; communications racks; CCTV racks; public address panel; CCTV monitors; work station and playback station; mechanical ventilation plant; water heaters; and traffic management system. Power protection for all these services reflects the growing recognition among facilities management of the vagaries of the power supply and its effects.

From Pure Power, Winter 2002