Re: Electric Co-Gen plants

[Ray Bruder <bruder () DUQ EDU>]

Dallas,

            Here is my problem.

            Over 2 years ago we had a plan and budget to add an additional
UPS to our environment.  We had an aging 18kva (which will be decommissioned
within a month) and a 75kva that was approx 10 years old at the time.  We
added a 150kva with plans to put an additional 150kva unit in when it came
time to replace the 75kva.  A generator was in the budget large enough to
cover 2 150kva units and the AC cooling to the DC.  Near completion of the
project the generator fell out of the plan (but IT was not notified).   As a
result I have no backup power to the 150 or CRAC units.

            We were told the we would NEVER experience a power outage with
our cogen plant.  Since that time we have had 5 power outages, 2 that
resulted in complete drain of battery power to the 150kva unit and extensive
recovery time and work by the IT staff.  The generator falls under the
facilities guidelines.

            I am fighting to have a generator installed but running into a
brick wall since the director of facilities is the person responsible for
the purchase of the generator and also the same person responsible for the
design and running of the cogen plant.



            Any ideas?



From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Dallas Thornton
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 9:37 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Electric Co-Gen plants



Yes, we still have some local diesel generator capacity but to a much more
limited extent than we would were we only on street power. Depending on the
proximity of the cogen to your datacenter, the capacity of the cogen, and
the campus and datacenter electrical distribution design, abandoning the
diesel generators might be a viable option for you, assuming you are not
trying to alleviate downtime from all offsite causes (i.e. losing both grid
power and natural gas at the same time).



Dallas





Dallas Thornton | Division Director, Cyberinfrastructure Services |  San
Diego Supercomputer Center

University of California, San Diego | 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0505,  La Jolla,
CA, 92093

*:  <mailto:dallas () sdsc edu> dallas () sdsc edu | (: (858) 534-8364 | 7: (858)
225-3661









From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Ray Bruder
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:50 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Electric Co-Gen plants



Are there any other universities out there who have a co-gen plant.  If you
do, do you still have generators backing up your DC UPS units?



*****************************************

Ray Bruder

Manager, Computer Operations

Duquesne University

DUsmall

600 Forbes Ave

CTS, Rockwell Hall

Pittsburgh, PA 15282

(412)396-5775

bruder () duq edu

*****************************************