Is your company’s support power adequate to sustain it through protracted outages? Is your support system, particularly the battery—the heart of the system—expertly maintained? Do your maintenance personnel, whether in-house or contracted, know the subtle signs of impending trouble?

Can you afford to take the chance?

A UPS system is comprised of the electronics and the battery system. According to UPS manufacturers, the battery system is the root cause of failure 9 out of 10 times. Battery maintenance is usually performed on a quarterly, semi-annual or annual schedule that includes voltage checks, impedance testing, specific gravity readings, rewatering, resistance testing, retorquing connections and a cleaning of the battery system is performed.

Maintenance on the UPS systems electronics should also be performed on a regular basis to ensure the integrity of your backup system. A typical maintenance visit consists of:

Semi-Annual Service

Typical tasks performed during a Semi-Annual service visit include:

• Check all breakers. Temperature, connections and associated controls. Repair and/or report all high temperature areas.
• Complete visual inspection of the equipment including subassemblies, wiring harnesses, contact, cables and components.
• Check air filters for cleanliness.
• Check module(s) completely for rectifier and inverter snubber boards for discoloration.
• Check power capacitors for swelling or leaking oil and DC capacitor vent caps that have extruded more than 1/8 inch.
• Record all voltage and current meter readings on the module control cabinet or the system control cabinet.
• Measure and record harmonic trap filter currents.

Annual Service

Typical tasks performed during an annual service call include all the tasks done during a semi-annual visit plus the following:

• Check inverter and rectifier snubbers for burned or broken wires.
• Ensure all nuts, bolts, screws and connectors for tightness and heat discoloration.
• Verify fuses on the DC capacitor deck for continuity (if applicable).
• With customer approval, perform operational test of the system including unit transfer and battery discharge.
• Check and record all electronics and bring to system specifications as needed.
• Install or perform and Engineering Filed Change Notices (FCN) as needed.
• Measure and record all low-voltage power supply levels.
• Measure and record phase-to-phase input voltage and currents.
• Review system performance with customer to address any questions and to schedule repairs.