Waitrose on MINIpower for EPOS support

Waitrose has chosen MINIpower UPS from Uninterruptible Power Supplies Limited to provide flexible, easy-maintenance support for its EPOS systems.

Waitrose has chosen MINIpower UPS from Uninterruptible Power Supplies Limited to provide flexible, easy-maintenance support for its EPOS systems.

MINIpower is specified for all store new-builds and refurbishments, and will gradually replace existing UPS installations in an ongoing swap-out programme, ultimately providing power protection in the 167 stores of the Waitrose group.

"When we embarked on upgrading our EPOS systems in 2002, we were unsure of the future power requirement, and a solution with flexibility for simple expansion was essential", comments Waitrose's electrical services manager, Andy Lowe.

"In addition, MINIpower has attractive features for maintenance and repair which ensures that these functions can be carried out with no break in the power supply to the load and minimum impact on costs." MINIpower is a compact, sophisticated modular UPS in which the required output is built up using 1kVA boards, mounted in rack or tower cabinets.

The units specified by Waitrose have four board slots, and are currently populated with two boards.

MINIpower features the unique PowerWAVE paralleling architecture, which means that the boards can be connected for capacity or, as at Waitrose, to provide n+1 redundancy.

If output needs to be upgraded, Waitrose can expand within the same footprint to 3kVA with redundancy, simply by adding extra boards.

Autonomy is similarly flexible.

A further innovative feature is MINIpower's maintenance bypass switch, which plugs into the back of the unit and allows the UPS to be isolated for maintenance purpose or removed for repair, both without a break in the supply to the load.

"Clearly, any break in power to our EPOS systems is unacceptable", Andy Lowe continues.

"Not only does MINIpower give us excellent inherent reliability, but continues to support the load even if one board goes down".

"With this facility, we will never experience an emergency requirement for UPS maintenance, so that we can call out an engineer during normal working hours without incurring 'out-of-hours' costs, and with confidence that there will be no interruption to our ability to trade during maintenance operations." With UPS installations from Harrogate to Dorchester and Abergavenny to Ramsgate, Waitrose could view maintenance as a logistical nightmare.

However, with an association going back over a decade, Waitrose has discovered that it can safely leave the problem in its supplier's hands.

"During the initial swap-out contract in 40 stores, we found we could depend on Uninterruptible Power Supplies to just go in and take care of it".

"Now, with a contract which covers preventive maintenance and battery care, we're confident that we can rely on the company to proactively manage our UPS resource." MINIpower systems are available allowing expansion in lkVA increments up to 8kVA, and are part of a PowerWAVE range which covers all UPS requirements up to 3MVA.

PowerWAVE technology not only allows cost-efficient output expansion and redundancy within a small footprint, but also reduces running costs through high operating efficiency and near-unity power factor.

Reading-based Uninterruptible Power Supplies is the UK's foremost independent supplier of power support solutions, backing its products with comprehensive technical, installation, commissioning and maintenance services, and with an extensive track record in high-street financial and retail channels.

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