Feel The Power: Eaton, Active Power, Peak 10

We’re feeling the power at DCK this morning, as there’s been a flurry of power-related news. Here’s a roundup:

• Eaton Corporation has launched Eaton Enterprise Power Manager (EPM) software and a full line of power cables to help measure and manage power at the rack and server levels. EPM software aggregates power management information for Eaton’s enclosure power distribution units (ePDUs) and midrange UPS units. “With the EPM software, you don’t have to surf hundreds of URL addresses to gain important visibility into your enclosure power distribution statistics,” said Michael Camesano, product manager, ePDUs and enclosures, Eaton. “If you do not have a high-end power or facilities management system, EPM provides essential visibility into power conditions at a very reasonable price.” EPM software is available for download from Eaton’s ePDU web site.
• Peak 10, Inc.has added generator capacity at its Raleigh data center, the company said this week. The company has added two 2.25 megawatt diesel generators, which will run in parallel with an existing 1.75 megawatt unit to give the facility a total of 6.25 megawatts of diesel generator backup. Peak 10 plans to add a third 2.25 megawatt genset and then upgrade the older generator with a fourth new 2.25 MW unit, giving Peak 10 Raleigh a total of 9 megawatts of generator backup. Peak 10 worked with Progress Energy and PowerSecure International on the project.
• Active Power, Inc. (ACPW) has announced two ordersfor a total of 16 of its 900kVA flywheel UPS units from Caterpillar (CAT). One order for 10 UPS systems is scheduled for delivery in first quarter 2009, witha  second order for six 900 kVA systems scheduled for late 2008. “These two orders exemplify the confidence the market is placing in flywheel technology and its inherent benefits of energy and space efficiency, high reliability and environmental sustainability,” said Jim Clishem, president and CEO, Active Power.

Eaton Tool Tracks Utility Power Outages

Eaton Corp. has launched the Blackout Tracker, a tool providing updates about power outages across the United States. The Blackout Tracker locates outages on a map, and provides a visual guide to the number of customers affected and the length of the outage. The data appears to come via user submissions, but is current enough that there is already one entry from this morning (a maintenance-related outage in Arizona) and two from yesterday (weather-related outages in Albany, NY and Youngstown, Ohio. 

The Blackout Tracker looks like it could be useful in trouble-shooting problems across large network or facility footprints. It also provides a reminder of how often power companies experience outages, a key business driver for Eaton’s line of Powerware UPS systems.

Eaton Discusses its 9395 1100 kVA UPS

At this week’s Data Center World trade show in Orlando, Eaton Corp. introduced an 1100 kVA version of its Eaton 9395 UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system for data centers. In this video, Pedro Robredo, the product line manager for Eaton’s 3-phase power unit, discusses the features of the new UPS model. This video is about 2 minutes, 30 seconds. 

For more news from Big Blue, visit our Eaton Channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

Eaton Plans $160M Data Centers in Kentucky

Vendors of data center equipment are contributing to the industry’s building boom with substantial construction projects. The latest example is Eaton Corp., which plans to spend $160 million to build a pair of identical 55,000 square foot data centers in Simpsonville and Louisville, Kentucky. The facilities will serve as the company’s primary data centers, superseding existing centers near Eaton’s headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.

Eaton has selected sites in Simpsonville’s Kingbrook Commerce Park and Louisville’s Blankenbaker Station Business Park, according to local media. Shelby County Judge-Executive Rob Rothenburger called the Simpsonville facility as a “unique, exciting opportunity” for the county. “It will be a tremendous economic stimulus to our region and give us national recognition,” Rothenburger told the Shelby County Sentinel News.

Eaton Introduces ‘ World’s Ugliest Server’

Eaton’s Power Xpert Server Solution isn’t going to win any beauty contests. In fact, the company is marketing it as the “Ugliest Server You’ll Ever Buy.” The product is clearly geared for folks who think power monitoring is sexy.

With the growing focus on data center energy efficiency, that’s a growth demographic. The new server provides a web interface to Eaton’s Power Xpert Architecture, and provides detailed information about power quality as the electricity enters the data center, identifying sags, swells, transient and other power events that could impact the IT equipment. Any unusual events are time-stamped for later analysis, and staff can monitor and manage the system remotely via the web.

“Topics of hard drive utilization, bandwidth usage and CPU capacity are all second nature to IT managers,” said Jim Thompson, product line manager, Software and Meters at Eaton. “However, the entire community of IT professionals is increasingly being asked to understand electricity because damaging power disturbances such as sags, swells and transients pose threats to critical infrastructure equipment. The Power Xpert Server Solution is a single server that runs continuously to monitor the single most misunderstood component in data centers, server rooms or other IT facilities

Eaton Buys MGE Small Systems Unit

Eaton Corporation has acquired the MGE small systems business unit from Schneider Electric for about $612 million. The unit, known as MGE Office Protection Systems, is based in Montbonnot, France and sells UPS and surge suppression products in 60 countries. Eaton is best known for its PowerWare UPS systems and Cutler-Hammer surge protection devices.

The deal was driven by Schneider’s acquisition of American Power Conversion (APC), which closed early this year. Schneider merged APC with its MGE UPS Systems business, which it acquired in 2003. The European Union cleared the Schneider-APC deal on the condition that Schneider divest its MGE operations for small UPS systems (less than 20kVA). MGE’s large capacity UPS business became part of APC-MGE.

Eaton Acquires Aphel in Power Deal

Eaton Corporation (ETN), which makes the Powerware line of UPS systems and power management equipment, announced earlier this month that it has acquired Aphel Technologies Limited, a UK-based supplier of high density, fault-tolerant power distribution solutions (PDUs) for data centers. Terms were not disclosed. Aphel had sales of $12.3 million in 2006.

“The acquisition of Aphel Technologies expands our power quality and distribution offerings to customers in key European markets,” said Randy Carson, Eaton senior vice president and president of its Electrical Group. Indeed, its increasingly a global marketplace for data center power and cooling products, as demonstrated by Schneider’s purchase of APC last year. Eaton also announced earnings earlier this week, noting that “the markets for uninterruptible power supply products registered solid growth.” Revenue in the company’s electrical segment jumped 12% to $1.1 billion, briefly helping Eaton’s shares hit an all-time high.