Kent County Council Adds Riello UPS To Its 21st Century Infrastructure

Kent County Council is one of only 26 of 150 councils to be rated an "excellent" council by the Audit Commission. As such ‘value for budget’ and efficient services are key to the Council’s success. In 2002 the Council sought to consolidate their services, particularly Education and Social Services, into a new Contact Centre offering call centre type facilities.

Invicta House in Maidstone was the building chosen, built approximately 15 years ago for an insurance company. The building’s new 21st century IT needs required 24/7 operations and suitable power protection in case of mains fluctuations with guaranteed long runtime backup when the mains failed. The building needed a large UPS and diesel generator and in March 2003 Powersense Technology responded to the invitation to tender from Kent County Council, which they won against stiff competition from at least four other companies.

Powersense had specified Riello Galatrek’s Master Dialog 120kVA, a three phase system with approximately 15 minutes run time, and a 375 kVA diesel generator.

Alan Brailsford, Commercial Director at Powersense;

“We selected Riello as a favoured supplier because of the product range, good, proven product reliability and track record. They have a great range of UPS products and we have always had good open relationship with them, with full co-operation at all levels. We always find them extremely contactable and responsive. Service at both field service and sales levels is excellent. The relationship has to be good because we were in open tender for the project.”

Site Challenges

The generator and UPS were to be sited in the multi-storey car park part of the building, the UPS in a newly constructed room on the 2nd storey built by Morgan Lovell. This room was completed after the electrics and building services housed inside were installed. The site was challenging because of floor loading restrictions. The UPS had to be craned into place and commissioned before the generator was installed two weeks later.

Commissioning

Extensive procedures insured that the UPS was able to support its critical load. Powersense had to ‘load bank’ test both the UPS and generator at full load for one hour each. The company also had to carry out a witnessed ‘black building test’ to simulate a real power failure in order to test the whole system.

The whole project was completed to time and budget, with much of the work carried out at weekends and after hours so that disruption to existing council activities in the building were minimised.

Nathan Bolton, Project Technical Lead, in the Information Services Group at Kent County Council;

“The whole project was a success with many challenges presented by the existing site and new demands. It brought out the importance of teamwork between the many different contractors working at any one time on the site. Following completion of the installation it was put to the test with a complete black-out in Maidstone, the Contact Centre was able to continue without any interruption to power, which could have resulted in a major incident and loss of service to KCC and members of the public.”

Kevin Wooding, Director at George Buxton Electrical Ltd.;

“Powersense were chosen based on a competitive price and superior service levels. Also important were their reputation, value, range of services, skills and their apparent knowledge of the site. The tender had to be agreed by the contractors as well as Kent County Council. The main contractor was Morgan Lovell, with the electrical contract going to George Buxton Electrical Ltd. of Bishops Stortford. Powersense provided and installed the UPS and generator hardware and by all accounts did an excellent job.”

Alan Brailsford, Sales & Commercial Director at Powersense;

“Everything went extremely well. A lot of issues arose at the start of the project with the complexities of the site, but they were overcome with co-operative working between contractors. Riello was extremely helpful and reactive on all accounts and went through the final specifications with us in detail to ensure we all got it right.”

Powersense is a Power Solutions Partner for Riello Galatrek.

“As Power Partners we work closely with Riello on new equipment sales and the service of products installed in the field. Powersense has always evaluated products on their merit, price, performance and quality. The quality of communication and response from the factory at all levels is just as important too. This enables us to give our customers the level of service to which they are entitled, and our philosophy has always been that our "customers come first". Riello Galatrek helps us achieve this.”