The History and Technological Advances of SANYO DENKI (29) - Development of the SANUPS A11M Small-Capacity UPSs｜Column

History

Along with advancement of information and communication technology, today's electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are becoming more and more advanced. As such, the network systems that support them cannot afford even a split second of downtime, and the role of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) has become even more important than ever.
As the successor of SANUPS ASE-H (hereinafter "current product") that has been used in railway and highway management systems, the SANUPS A11M small-capacity UPSs are suitable for mission-critical applications that require high reliability.

High reliability with autonomous parallel control

▲ Fig. 1. SANUPS A11M (8 kVA model, rack mount)

As the inverter output is AC voltage, when connecting inverter units in parallel, the voltage amplitude, frequency, phase, etc. of all units must be equal, otherwise the current balance cannot be maintained. Examples of control methods of connecting inverters in parallel include the central control method and the master/slave method. These methods have many common portions, such as control circuits and control/communication lines, therefore are good for capacity expansion, but not really highly reliable.
In contrast, the SANUPS A11M does not have a central control unit, but rather features independent control circuits for each unit, enabling parallel operation of inverters.
Although it has communication lines between units for starting/stopping units and sharing measurement data, each unit is controlled separately without relying on the inter-unit communication. Therefore, even if inter-unit communication is cut, parallel operation can be maintained not only during AC operation, but also battery operation.

▲ Fig. 1. SANUPS A11M (8 kVA model, rack mount)

Widened input voltage range and operating temperature range

Some regions of the world have underdeveloped infrastructure and unstable power systems. Using conventional UPSs in such regions may lead to accelerated battery wear from frequent battery operation caused by voltage and frequency fluctuations. To solve this, we designed the A11M to have wide input voltage and frequency ranges; the voltage range is 55 to 150 V for the 100 V model and 110 to 300 V for the 200 V model, and the frequency range is 40 to 120 Hz. Also, with a wide operating temperature range of -10 to +55˚C, the SANUPS A11M can be used in environments with extreme temperatures.

Battery management functions

This product has a function to automatically perform battery tests on a regular basis to ensure batteries are problem-free. Furthermore, it ensures increased reliability with a battery life alarm function and battery management functions that display the total battery run time, battery state of charge, and estimated backup time.

Network functions

SANUPS A11M comes with a serial cable as standard for computer connections, and commercially-available USB cables can also be used. Also, simple UPS management software SANUPS SOFTWARE STANDALONE can be downloaded free of charge from our website. Moreover, we have optional LAN Interface Card and SANUPS SOFTWARE available for advanced UPS management in a network. These can help users build a flexible and integrated network environment.

This article has introduced the SANUPS A11M UPS that features SANYO DENKI’s parallel operation control technology, widened operating temperature range, and input voltage/frequency range.
Worldwide, there are not many small-capacity (few kVA) UPSs capable of performing parallel redundant operation. As such, we are confident that this product can contribute to customers who require high-reliability but small-capacity UPSs.

Date of publication: November 11, 2020

For more detailed technical information on this product, see our Technical Report (PDF: 282 KB).