I Got Your Back

If the electrical power went out, don’t worry! You may have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system to back up your power. One and half years into my time at Summer, I was given the UPS project at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Maryland. Of course, this facility was huge and had many electrical loads including antennas. This facility also had three UPS modules that had reached the end of their model life and were due for replacement.

First of all, I had to calculate the run time on each UPS with different types of batteries based on how much loads consume power. To ensure continuity of normal operations with sufficient backup UPS capacity, the project consisted of three phases (each phase was for removing the existing UPS system and installing a new system). Each UPS system was connected to many existing loads, therefore there were crazy amount of conduits that I had to worry about.

Thanks to Revit software, I was able to design each phase smoothly. I also made a model in 3D so that I could put conduits in a new location easily. This project was challenging and fun. I learned so many things about UPS so call me if you have any questions about UPS or need backup power. I’ve got your back!