Eight hours of CCTV backup, delivered ready to connect

When RackPower NZ needed eight hours of battery autonomy behind a CCTV UPS on a government project in Auckland, Valen Power sized the battery bank, built it into two prewired cabinets and delivered a complete system that connected straight to the UPS.

Discover

RackPower NZ is a Palmerston North based UPS and rack power specialist, supplying uninterruptible power systems to IT, data and critical infrastructure customers across New Zealand. On a government project in Auckland, RackPower was supplying the UPS that keeps a CCTV system running through a mains outage. The UPS needed an external battery bank, along with the cabinets, cabling and protection to go with it.

The brief was specific. Support a 4,961 W load for eight hours, and do it in the smallest practical footprint. RackPower came to Valen Power for the battery autonomy calculations and a complete battery solution, rather than a pallet of batteries to integrate on site.

Design

The end client was RackPower’s, so our role was to work alongside them as the battery partner behind his UPS. Working from the load and runtime RackPower supplied, Wayne Foster from our New Zealand team ran the autonomy calculations and came back quickly with a runtime-matched design and a complete bill of materials.

The solution was 40 Valen TOPIN 12V 100Ah front terminal AGM batteries split across two 44RU galvanised steel indoor cabinets, with 20 batteries in each cabinet on five shelves to form a 240 V DC string. Front terminal batteries suit this kind of rack build because every connection sits at the front, so the batteries pack closely on the shelves and can be inspected without being pulled out. Each cabinet carries DIN rail, battery cabling and circuit breakers, so the DC protection sits inside the enclosure rather than being added on site.

Alongside the hardware, we supplied a single line diagram for the battery system and generic, non-site-specific fastening details so RackPower’s engineers could finalise anchoring against their own calculations.

Deliver

Both cabinets were fitted out with cabling and breakers in our facility before shipping to New Zealand, so they arrived as a finished system rather than a kit of parts. Freight between Australia and New Zealand was congested at the time and the transfer took longer than first planned. We booked the earliest available transfer and kept RackPower updated as the schedule moved.

When the delivery address changed to the project site in Mt Wellington, our New Zealand team updated the consignment. Once the order landed in Auckland it was unpacked, photographed for RackPower and repacked for a tail lift truck to suit site access, then delivered the following day. RackPower’s team completed the installation and connected the cabinets to the UPS.

Support

The result

The project received a complete, prebuilt battery system sized to the required eight-hour runtime, in two standard cabinets. RackPower supplied the load requirement and everything else was done for them: sizing, cabinets, cabling, protection and documentation.

What was avoided

With no battery assembly, DC wiring or terminations on site, installation time was cut and the risk of wiring errors and exposure to live DC during the build was reduced. The UPS could be brought onto battery backup as soon as the cabinets were connected, without downtime spent building the battery bank.

Over the long term

TOPIN batteries are sealed, maintenance-free AGM with a design life of 10 to 12 years on float, and front terminals keep routine checks quick and simple. For RackPower, the approach is repeatable. They have since come back to Valen Power for the same solution on another UPS project.

Where else this applies

Prebuilt, runtime-matched battery cabinets suit any UPS integrator, telco or facility that needs extended autonomy without on-site build work. That includes security and CCTV, communications rooms and data cabinets, telecommunications sites, control rooms and emergency services. The integrator supplies the load and runtime, and the battery system arrives ready to connect.

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