Mission Critical Power: Putting Scientific UPS Under The Microscope

When one of the country’s leading research labs needed a reliable scientific UPS, our Multi Sentry proved the perfect choice.

As home to the UK’s national synchrotron particle accelerator, the work of Diamond Light Source touches many aspects of our lives. Research conducted at the government-funded facility has helped study diseases like polio. It’s aiding the fight against foot and mouth disease.

But it’s not just medical science or antibiotic research. Academic and industry researchers use the facility to develop new technologies. It’s even played a part in the preservation of historic artefacts like the Mary Rose.

All this is possible because of a 1/2km circumference particle accelerator called a synchrotron. This massive microscope is basically our version of the Large Hadron Collider. It produces light beams more than 10 billion times as bright as those produced by the sun.

As Mission Critical Power’s article explains, these beamlines need to be calibrated through several machines before they are of use. Any disruption or fluctuation to the power renders the whole process futile, and the equipment needs to be re-calibrated again. This downtime can last for anything up to a fortnight.

double page spread from Mission Critical Power magazine, article is a case study of Riello UPS's work with Diamond Light Source

Multi Sentry As A Scientific UPS

When the time came to upgrade its uninterruptible power supplies, Diamond Light Source worked with authorised Riello UPS reseller Specialist Power Systems.

Delivering dependable power protection for such precision critical equipment isn’t an easy task. In fact, Diamond Light Source had experienced several UPS failures during recent years.

When it was looking for a scientific UPS, our Multi Sentry was chosen as the most suitable option thanks to its combination of performance and efficiency. The online UPS also operates with open protocol communications, which makes UPS monitoring and UPS maintenance easier to undertake.

More than 40 of the dual conversion uninterruptible power supplies were installed at the site in Harwell, Oxfordshire. And thanks to the dedication of the UPS engineers, the entire power protection system was completed inside three months. That’s half the expected project timeframe, with the added bonus that no power load was lost throughout the entire implementation.

Read the full case study on pages 22-23 of the August edition of Mission Critical Power