Intelligent Data Centres Issue 08 | Page 37

FEATURE challenge, Lithium-ion delivers high levels of resiliency and uptime. “In late 2018, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report forecasted that 40% of data centre battery backup would incorporate lithium-ion by the year 2025,” said Wendy Torell, Senior Research Analyst, Schneider Electric Data Centre Science Centre. “Among hyperscale data centres, this forecast is predicted to be even greater at 55%. Li-ion cells also present many benefits for critical power solutions used by Internet giants, colocation and cloud service providers. Here space is often at a premium and the smaller footprint offers significant revenue advantages as more white space becomes available to accomodate customers.” The Lithium Ion vs VRLA TradeOff Tool is one of a number of digital software tools from Schneider Electric that allow data centre operators to model the cost implications of deploying different power, cooling and infrastructure management solutions. EkkoSense integrates Rentaload load bank technology into SaaS solution EkkoSense, the software-driven thermal optimisation specialist, has added Rentaload load bank functionality into its EkkoSoft Critical M&E SaaS software. are smaller, lighter and have a longer lifecycle than lead-acid alternatives. They can also withstand a greater number of charge/discharge cycles and recharge more quickly. As a result, they require less service maintenance and less frequent replacement, resulting in lower operating costs. Studies conducted by Schneider Electric’s Data Centre Science Centre and detailed in White Paper #229: Battery Technology for Data Centers, found that over a 10-year period, Li-ion www.intelligentdatacentres.com delivered a TCO that is between 10% and 40% lower than equivalent UPS systems based on VRLA batteries. Li-ion is the optimal choice for customers Rentaload is a leading European load bank rental company and customers across Europe will now be able to view real-time load data in EkkoSoft Critical, providing them with immediate insight into the impact of their real or simulated data centre loads on cooling, power and capacity performance. Due to a lower TCO and greater reliability, single phase UPS with Li-ion have become an optimal and popular choice within distributed IT environments for the retail, healthcare and finance sectors. EkkoSense and Rentaload originally announced a partnership in November 2018, and following their collaboration Rentaload’s load bank functionality is now fully integrated with EkkoSoft Critical and available now. The solution is already in place at several data centre sites across Europe. For these smaller, localised Edge Computing solutions, where application availability is critical and management becomes a key Pierre-Luc Barbe, Rentaload’s General Manager, said: “From day one we recognised the power of EkkoSoft Issue 08 37