Surprising Ways to Save Your Uninterruptible Power Supply Budget

If you’re in charge of critical power at your facility, you know that proper and proactive maintenance of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) equipment is crucial for reliable uptime. An experienced UPS service provider keeps you up and running 24/7/365. But the best service provider will also go one step further to deliver hidden savings that can have a huge impact on your critical power budget.

Stop downtime before it starts.
We’ll start with the obvious: Critical power outages can cost anywhere from $900 to $1,600+ per minute. Experienced engineers prevent expensive downtime with proactive maintenance customized to your UPS system’s make, model, age and environment (humidity, transient spikes, potential exposure to chemical spills and/or UV light, etc.) DC Group’s extensive inventory of UPS parts allows us to support every make and model of uninterruptible supply unit built since the 1980s. This means superior, one-stop support for all your equipment, no matter what year, make or model.

Consider one case of a complex entertainment operation, running in an area with extreme temperature fluctuations and hurricanes regularly stressing the power grid. With our superior, tailored service capabilities, DC Group was able to eliminate recurring downtime. In fact, we were able to cut back on business interruption to the tune of six-figure savings. In one instance, a storm knocked out power to two million people, but DC Group’s client was up and running.

 

UPS Parts

Get the most out of your original UPS investment: A little more about parts.
Because DC Group has focused on service from day one (vs. equipment sales) we’ve been able to invest in creating the largest inventory of UPS components in the industry – including OEM-discontinued and rare parts. Our on-site warehouse and North American distribution network is unparalleled, and lets us get to your site in record time (2.35-hour on-site average) with the correct part. Not only does this mean a faster return to uptime, it also lets you get the best value from your original critical power investment. I.e., you replace the units when you want to and after you’ve gotten the full value of the unit, vs. replacing when the OEM stops support. Our focus is always on keeping equipment going strong, vs. replacement or repair.

Save with the power of predictive critical power maintenance planning: D-Tech.
D-Tech™ is a continuously-updated database that gives you vital information on service calls, scheduled preventive maintenance, critical backup emergencies and more. Instead of a flat service report that most companies provide, this client tool let’s you actually use the data to look at usage trends, plan maintenance out ten years into the future, create reports, and search all the information kept in the database. It’s the only critical power management tool in the industry that’s accessed by the client, the engineer and your dedicated Account Manager, so it contains a constant flow of usable information. This singular tool has led to huge savings.

In one instance, a client discovered they had $1million dollars of capital funds to spend by the end of the fiscal year, but only 6-8 weeks to approve, schedule, and complete installation of any projects. As capital money not spent is money lost, they contacted DC Group for help with planning proactive replacements of batteries and critical components. By utilizing the proactive replacement tool in D-Tech™, DC Group was able to identify the units needing batteries, capacitors, and fans. We prioritized the replacements, and produced quotes for quick approval. Once the quotes were approved, DC Group was able to expedite the ordering, scheduling and replacements, helping the client keep $1.1 million in much-needed capital expenditures.

Put all of our advanced technology to work for you.
D-Tech is part of the PowerTools Suite™, a cutting-edge suite of software tools that helps our customers get the most from their critical power investment. Another part of DC Group’s singular focus on service has been our development of software innovations that streamline every aspect of critical power maintenance, from reporting to detailed diagnostics. We also have OEM-level software access to UPS equipment, which as one client discovered, can also lead to huge savings.

A company had contracted with a battery company to replace a string of wet-cell batteries associated with their UPS unit. Following the replacement, the battery company instructed the site that they needed to boost charge the batteries for 110 hours for optimal performance, and to kick off the warranty for the batteries. They had not mentioned this previously, and the customer was left to figure it out. The OEM was a week out for dispatch. DC Group, on the other hand, was able to complete the necessary work the same day. This saved the site the cost of the OEM dispatch (an average of $3,500), a week of downtime and a voided warranty. Based on this client’s portfolio, average savings per year could exceed $200,000 and countless hours of downtime.

Contact us any time for a PowerTools Suite demo, or free uninterruptible power supply consult. Let’s find out how DC Group can get to work helping you streamline and save on uninterruptible power supply.