Will lithium-ion battery storage become the standard for power supply in data center UPS

Data centers have been plagued by such events as power outages and downtime for many years, and this is getting worse. A survey conducted by the research institute Polomon Institute in 2016 showed that the average cost of data center downtime increased from $505,500 in 2010 to $740,000 in 2015, while the highest cost loss was from $1 million. The dollar rose to $2.4 million. The primary cause of power outages in the data center (about one-quarter of all events) is the failure of the uninterruptible power system (UPS).

The poor historical record of traditional lead-acid batteries and UPS backup solutions is often their weakness, and lead-acid batteries need better maintenance and frequent replacement.

Bridging with Super capacitors

Supercapacitors can be combined with traditional UPS configurations to help solve this problem because they respond instantly to power outages or power quality issues without causing initial voltage drops due to battery resistance issues. This bridging feature protects the data center until long-term power solutions (batteries, backup power, and even data and operations are moved to different locations). They also enable data centers to use batteries for peaking more frequently, thereby reducing the monthly cost of electricity demand (in the form of monthly kilowatt-hours, the highest monthly demand) to charge data center users. This hybrid system is also expected to extend the life of lead-acid batteries. The advantages of supercapacitors are their high availability, relatively low maintenance, and long life.

Lithium-ion batteries may be a more long-term cost-effective solution

Another technology, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, is rapidly becoming a potential new way to address the power reliability challenge. It could soon replace lead-acid batteries and super-capacitors, largely because the cost of technology is rapidly falling as it improves.

Some lithium-ion battery suppliers are already offering this product to the market, which uses electric vehicles to power the UPS power supply in the data center. Although this is currently applicable to IT rooms or smaller data centers, the larger lithium battery energy storage arrays combined with intelligent monitoring systems will soon become the norm.

Soon, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems are likely to become standard products in the data center market, especially because costs are falling so fast. It is estimated that the cost of a lithium-ion battery energy storage system is 1.5 to 3 times higher than that of a traditional UPS battery system. But its costs fell 24 cents last year (driven by economies of scale in electric vehicles).

If the cost of lithium-ion batteries continues to fall, they will soon reach levels comparable to those of lead-acid battery systems. Although the upfront cost is higher, its operating cost is lower. In fact, an overall cost analysis of a leading industry supplier has shown that lithium ion solutions can save 10 cents on the dollar over a decade of operation. However, lithium-ion batteries also have other significant advantages: they have a longer cycle life, longer running time, and the ability to operate at higher ambient temperatures, and have higher power density, occupying the same capacity. The space is one-third of lead-acid batteries. More room space can be made available. Lithium-ion batteries also have instantaneous response capabilities, thus avoiding the need for a combination of lead-acid batteries and supercapacitors.

Finally, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems combined with UPS power supplies usually integrate smart systems, making it easier to monitor variables such as voltage, charging state, current, temperature, and other key variables. In this respect, it is far superior to the traditional UPS system using lead-acid batteries.

As the global lithium-ion battery industry continues to expand and cut costs, one may see this solution become the main way to ensure the reliability of data centers and replace lead-acid batteries. In the end, they may also be increasingly used for power peaking and may replace traditional backup generators.

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