ABB NZ 10 years' experience with ultracapacitors in UPS

Abstract

Industrialized countries with a stable electric utility network will typically have 12 to 18 multi-cycle (2 to 3 cycles) power quality events per year which could disrupt production in high-tech manufacturing facilities. The choices of power protection systems are often related to capital cost and operational cost. Capital cost may include the cost of footprint, and operational cost will be dominated by efficiency but include maintenance requirements. Proper consideration of the utility performance and load requirements can yield a solution that saves millions of dollars for a large facility over its life. The solution maybe a single conversion UPS that is 99% efficient, and uses ultracapacitors as energy storage, giving an extremely small footprint and long life. Ultracapacitors promised a lot 10 years ago, but have not become ubiquitous and remain in a niche market sector. ABB can certainly be regarded as a market leader in ultracapacitor based equipment, having supplied over 300MVA of equipment since 2007.