UPS and generator interaction?

Mon Mar 29 19:03:53 UTC 2004

Brian (nanog-list) wrote:

> Does anyone know of a way to get a UPS to trigger a generator to start,
and
> to switch over to the generator power automatically or does this type of
> thing just not exist?  

What Patrick said.

>But, on a minor note that probably won't affect your Symmetra but I'm 
>posting in case anyone else here can shed light on.... we had a power 
>event this AM. The transfer switch did it's magic and all was good... 
>Except for two new APC1400's- they failed once the batteries drained. I 
>triple-checked that they were on the right panel, played with 
>sensitivity, even tried daisy-chaining one off a good working 2200. 
>Nothing I did would convince the two 1400s they had power. Once the 
>house power was restored they came back to life and look normal. I later 
>learned that two of our colo customers with APC1400s had the same 
>problem :( Other models (even a couple non-essential lower-end, dumb APC 
>450s and 650s) didn't blink at the generator power.

>Mike

If you are sure they were on an EP panel, then you may want to verify the
generator frequency/voltage.
We had an old 120KVA UPS that was VERY sensitive to frequency, and would
stay on battery while the generator was running,  even if the frequency was
only off 1/2 cycle. 

Regards,
Keith