APC holds product roadmap session

Global leader in critical power and cooling services, APC by Schneider Electric recently in Lagos held its products roadmap sessions, to educate local resellers on its end-to-end solutions offering and Reliability Partner Programme (RPP).

Speaking at the occasion, Regional Director, Africa at APC by Schneider Electric, Mr. Carl Kleynhans, said that at the RPP level, resellers have access to a range of benefits, such as personalized web pages, which provide them with information at their fingertips, enabling them to proactively search information on a daily basis, or as often as they require, without having to contact APC or its partners.

“Although we do send regular e-mail newsletter informing dealers of special offers and updated information pertaining strictly to the region, we believe that this added level of independence is a great step for our local resellers,” he said.

According to hi, not only could they now check for upcoming tradeshows and company events in their regions, but they could also keep tabs on current industry news, as well as read the latest local press releases and product information.

“Our website is a major delivery vehicle for our Reliability Provider Programme,” Kleynhans declared, adding that another major advantage to the local channel is “our web-based reseller locator, which end users can access to find all contact details for our dealers.”

Equally speaking, APC’s Manager, English Speaking Area and Service Centre West and Central Africa and Indian Ocean, Mr. Paul-Marie Dable, emphasized that companies across Africa would do well to look at the line interactive uninterruptible power supply (UPS) when on the lookout for a power protection solution to safeguard homes and businesses from the hardware damage and data loss associated with lightning strikes and power outages.

“The line interactive UPS has an improved design that is commonly used in both homes and businesses,” he said.

Dable pointed out that one of the major advantages to this type of UPS is Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR), a device that boosts and trims the power without using the battery.

He explained that AVR protects a computer from damage and loss of data by monitoring incoming electricity, smoothing out high and low voltage conditions and ensuring delivery of only safe, “clean” electricity. A wide range of errant line voltage levels such as brownouts, surges, or spikes are converted by AVR into safe electricity for your computer.

In addition, the line interactive UPS is also available in sizes up to around 3,000 VA and offers a number of benefits over other UPS topologies, including size, durability and low cost.

In this type of unit, the separate battery charger, inverter and source selection switch have all been replaced by a combination inverter cum converter, which charges the battery and converts its energy to AC power for the output as required. When the line power is operating, the inverter cum converter charges the battery. When the power fails, it operates in reverse.

The main advantage of this design is that the unit is always connected to the output, powering the equipment. This design allows for faster response to a power failure than a standby UPS, filtering out noise and spikes as well as regulating the power output, providing additional power during brownouts and curtailing output during surges.

Additional benefits of the line interactive UPS include lower electricity consumption, meaning that the UPS is less costly to operate and is more efficient due to using less power. This UPS is also theoretically more reliable due to a lower component count and lower operating temperatures which produces less heat.

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