BATTERY RELIABILITY:

AN ADVANTAGE OF THE PUREWAVE UPS SYSTEM

Bradford P. Roberts, P.E.

Director of Marketing
S&C Electric Company
Power Quality Products Division

653-T71

Battery Reliability: An Advantage of the PureWave UPS System

Overview
The battery system used in the off-line-design Pure-Wave
UPS System has proven to be the most reliable energy
storage technology of any uninterruptible power supply in
use today. It is the culmination of a thorough design process that began over 10 years ago. The PureWave UPS
design team realized that near-flawless battery performance could be achieved by carefully managing the battery environment, operating parameters, and equalizationcharging technique. The operating conditions in conventional on-line-design three-phase UPSs compromises the
batteries, particularly in the area of periodic equalization.
Traditional lead-acid wet-cell batteries have been reasonably successful in UPS applications. But wet cells take
up significant space and require regular maintenance. And
they are quite expensive. For UPS applications up to 500
kW, wet-cell batteries can represent 30% to 40% of the
total equipment cost . . . and up to 50% of the installed
cost.
About 20 years ago, valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA)
battery technology emerged for UPS applications up to
500 kW. These batteriessometimes referred to as
sealed, maintenance-freequickly became the design of
choice. VRLA batteries can be arranged in smaller
cabinets and mounted adjacent to the UPS equipment
without special ventilation. The term valve-regulated
means the batteries are truly sealed and only vent
hydrogen if overcharged. VRLA batteries also differ from
wet cells in that the electrolyte is suspended in a paste/gel
or gauze material, eliminating the potential for spilling the
liquid, and simplifying installation. With their reduced
volume of electrolyte and thinner plates, VRLA batteries
are considerably smaller than wet cells too. The lowercost VRLA batteries appeared to be ideal for UPS
applications.

But in conventional on-line-design UPS applications,

VRLA batteries are exposed to dc ripple current from the
UPS rectifier. They also receive limited equalization
charging (typically 5% maximum voltage elevation) in
these applications. Over a short period of time, VRLA
batteries begin to experience weak cells, resulting in
premature failure. Since a typical battery-based UPS
system consists of a chain of 100 or more cells in series,
failure of one cell can result in the entire system being
unable to provide power to the critical load during a
utility source problem. In conventional UPS applications,
the batteries have thus become the weakest link.
Customer frustration with this issue spawned the
development of mechanical flywheel systems as an
alternative to batteries.
This paper discusses how well different energy storage
systems have performed in UPS applications.

Energy Storage Performance Comparison

The graph in Figure 1 compares the Mean Time Between
Failure (MTBF) performance of the most popular UPS
energy storage technologies in use today. In each
instance, the value indicated is based on 2,000,000 or
more hours of actual field performance . . . not projected
calculations. The comparison is independent of the ridethrough time of each technology, which varies from 12 to
13 seconds for an Active Power or Piller flywheel UPS to 5
minutes or more for the VRLA and wet-cell batteries used
in conventional UPSs.

Energy Storage Performance

Comparison
550,000
500,000
450,000
400,000
350,000
300,000
M
TBF (hours)
MTBF
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
-

>500 K

<8 0K

100 K

Wet Lead
L ead
Acid
Acid

Pillerr
Pille
Flywheel
Flyw
hee l

50 K
<20 K
Se ale d
Sealed
VRLA
VRL A

Active
Power
Pow
er
Flywheel
Flywhe
el

PureWave
PureWave
Lead
Le ad Acid
Acid

Product
Product
Figure 1. Energy storage performance comparison.

Several recently published technical papers and articles

discuss the reliability of batteries and flywheels and support the graph in Figure 1.

Wet-Cell Lead-Acid Batteries

A good deal of historical data is available on the performance of traditional wet-cell lead-acid batteries. In a
recently presented paper on battery maintenance at the
IEEE Power Engineering Society Stationary Battery Committee Meeting, it was shown that thin-plate wet-cell batteries in UPS applications generally require replacement
within the first 10 years of service.

VRLA Batteries
The vast majority of UPSs in use today utilize VRLA battery strings for applications up to 500 kW, and wet-cell
lead-acid batteries for higher-power applications and
those requiring more than 15 minutes of ride-through. In
April 2002, Energetics, Inc., of Washington, DC, presented
an extensive report, Reliability of Valve-Regulated LeadAcid Batteries for Stationary Applications, at the Electric
Energy Storage Application and Technology (EESAT)

2002 Conference, in San Francisco. This report provides

an unbiased evaluation of end-user experience with VRLA
batteries. It details problems with 11,553 VRLA batteries
in UPS applications utilizing a total of 742,547 batteries,
and indicated the following:
23 failures occurred in the first year of service.
Approximately 66% of the VRLA batteries needed
replacement within 3 to 4 years of service. Only 20% of
these replacements were scheduled.
These conclusions are supported by a recent article,
Uninterrupted Powerthe Key to a Bullet Proofing Security published in the July 2002 issue of Battery Power
Products & Technology Magazine. The article was written
by Alan Katz, Senior Product Manager of MGE UPS Systems. In the article, Mr. Katz indicates that VRLA batteries
should be replaced every 3 years in small UPS systems
and every 4 to 6 years in higher-kV systems.
In the same article, Mr. Katz strongly suggests that dual
parallel battery strings be used for mission-critical applications. He points out that a dual string of batteries

greatly increases reliability and adds maintainability. But

he neglects to mention that a dual string adds 30 to 40%
to the installed cost and nearly doubles on-going maintenance costs.

Flywheel Energy Storage

The use of flywheels in UPS systems has increased in
recent years because of their purportedly higher reliability and lower overall life-cycle costs than battery-based
systems.
The most popular flywheel UPSs on the market are the
Piller Powerbridge System, available in ratings of 250 to
1300 kW, and the Active Power CleanSource UPS, rated
250 kW. The Piller system operates at 3600 rpm. The
Active Power system operates at 7700 rpm. Both are rated
to provide approximately 12 to 13 seconds of ride-through
at 100% load. Unlike battery-based systems, flywheel
UPSs utilize both mechanical and power-electronic components. The flywheel is actually a high-frequency motorgenerator. If there is a problem with the utility power
source, the flywheel give up energy as it spins down.
Since the flywheel output decays in voltage and frequency,
it is processed through an ac/dc converter that provides
constant voltage output to the critical load. But a mechanical problem in a flywheel system can result in a loss of
protection for the critical load.
Active Power has produced two technical papers in the
last couple of years addressing the reliability of flywheels
in UPS applications. In June 2001, Bradley Walter, Active
Powers UPS Product Manager, presented a paper, High
Reliability Battery-Free Power Quality Solutions for Large
Internet Data Centers, at the Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI) PQA 2001 Conference in Pittsburgh. In
this paper, Mr. Walter stated that, based on actual field
data, the Active Power system has achieved a MTBF of
42,000 hours. Mr. Walter also pointed out that the Piller
Powerbridge system has a MTBF of just over 100,000
hours.
In a subsequent presentation by Scott Ritchey of Active
Power, CleanSource 2Battery-Free Energy Storage,
Theory of Operation, at the EESAT 2002 Conference, he
stated that the Active Power system has now achieved a
MTBF of 50,000 hours, based on experience gained
through 2,000,000 hours of field run time.

PureWave UPS High-Power Lead-Acid

Battery
As discussed earlier, development of the PureWave UPS
System began over 10 years ago. Through working with
the Delphi Division of General Motors, it was determined
that Delphis Delco 1150 battery has unique characteristics that make it ideal for high-power, short-duty UPS

applications. Originally designed as a starting battery for

large diesel trucks, the Delco 1150 is very durable and
capable of repeated high-current discharges. Unlike VRLA
batteries typically used in UPS applications, the 1150 uses
a unique wrought-plate construction that enhances
power-discharge performance and overall reliability. This
performance has been measured over many years, with
production volume in the tens of millions.
S&C has very accurate performance records for PureWave UPS Systems because each unit is furnished with a
monitoring computer that saves performance information
in a historical file. From an analysis of the performance of
the first 200 250-kW power modules shipped since 1996, it
has been determined that the MTBF for the PureWave battery system is 500,000 hours . . . and growing. The analysis
covers over 9,900 individual Delco 1150 batteries in battery packs of 48, and over 2,000,000 hours of operating
experience. As of June 30, 2002, only three Delco batteries
experienced problems requiring replacement. At no time
did the performance of these batteries impact the performance of the PureWave UPS System.
The exceptional track record of the Delco 1150 in PureWave UPS applications is the result of a carefully executed design and a testing program aimed at making sure
all aspects of battery performance and life are properly
addressed. Its key elements include:
Individual battery testing at the factory.
Performance testing of each 250-kW string of 48 batteries prior to final acceptance. All batteries must be
equally charged to a tolerance of 0.2 Vdc.
Stabilized-temperature environment within the air-conditioned energy storage container.
Proper equalization charging every two weeks utilizing
a proprietary algorithm, with an individual temperature-compensated charger for each battery string.
No exposure of the battery strings to dc ripple current.
Constant monitoring of each battery string and its performance during each discharge.
Programmed replacement of each string after 5 years
of service life.

Conclusion
The performance of the PureWave UPS battery system
surpasses that of all other energy storage systems used in
UPS applications. In addition to higher reliability, the
PureWave UPS battery system is lower in initial cost and
provides a lower life-cycle cost as well. The results show
that lead-acid batteries, properly applied, can achieve
extremely high reliability in UPS applications.

References
1)Technologies for Energy Storage by Electricity Storage Association, IEEE/Power Engineering Society Stationary Battery Committee Presentation, IEEE/PES
July 2000.
2)Reliability of Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid Batteries for
Stationary Applications by Jennifer Miller and Mindi
Farber De Anda, Energetics, Inc., Washington, DC,
EESAT 2002 Conference, April 17, 2002, San Francisco,
California.
3)High Reliability Battery-Free Power Quality Solutions
for Large Internet Data Centers by Bradley S. Walter,
Active Power Inc., Austin, Texas, EPRI PQA 2001 Conference, June 2001, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
4)CleanSource 2Battery-Free Energy Storage, Theory
of Operation by Scott Richey, Active Power Inc., Austin, Texas, EESAT 2002 Conference, April 18, 2002, San
Francisco, California.
5)Uninterrupted Power, the Key to a Bullet Proofing
Security by Alan Katz, MGE UPS Systems, Costa
Mesa, California, July 2002 issue of Battery Power
Products and Technology.