Development of a calculating system using power supply reliability field data in Japan

The rapid progression of our highly networked information society has made it essential that power be supplied without fail in an uninterrupted manner to IT equipment. For this reason, it is common to set up an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and standby generators alongside the commercial power supply. When designing such backup power supply systems, it is desirable that the reliability of the power supply, which depends on system configuration, be considered together with initial cost and space. We have developed a new system to accurately analyze the reliability of a power supply. The system uses field data (such as power outages, voltage dips, and device failures) collected from more than 200,000 power plants installed in about 8,000 buildings throughout Japan.