Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules - Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules

For Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Scope, Description of the Representative Product (for approval by the Environmental Footprint Steering Committee of June 2014)

Draft

Version: 1.1

Participating Organizations:

Link to Wikipage:

Contact person:Christophe Garnier, Schneider Electric

Phone: +33 (0)4 76 18 32 50

Mobile: +33 (0)6 75 65 71 02

Email:

Address: 140 av Jean Kuntzman, 38334 Saint Ismier, France

Content

Content

List of tables

List of figures

List of equations

List of acronyms

1Introduction

2General information

2.1Technical Secretariat

2.2Consultation and stakeholders

2.3Date of publication and expiration

2.4Product classification (NACE/CPA)

2.5Geographic region

2.6Language(s) of PEFCR

2.7Relation with other PEF pilots

3Scope and unit of analysis

3.1Category of products covered

3.1.1UPS definition

3.1.2UPS size ranges

3.1.3UPS components

3.1.4UPS topologies

3.2Unit of analysis

4System boundaries

4.1System diagram

4.2Upstream processes/scenarios

4.2.1Raw material production phase

4.2.2Manufacturing phase

4.3Downstream processes/scenarios

4.3.1Distribution phase

4.3.2Installation phase

4.3.3Use phase

4.3.4End of life

5Representative product

5.1Description of representative product

5.2Bill of materials

6Data quality requirements

7Assumptions

7.1Assumptions related to transportation scenario

7.2Assumptions related to use scenario

7.2.1Operating profiles

7.2.2Calculation of electricity consumption

7.2.3Lifetime

7.2.4Maintenance

7.3Assumptions related to End of Life

Annex I: Examples of UPSs

Annex II: UPS topologies

Annex III: UPS typical topologies

List of tables

Table 1: Members of the Technical Secretariat

Table 2: EU market share of different UPSs

Table 3: BOM of a UPS

Table 4: BOM of a primary packaging

Table 5: BOM of a lead-acid battery

Table 6: Assumptions on transport distances

Table 7: Operating profiles for different UPSs

Table 8: Calculation of electricity consumption in single mode

Table 9: Typical lifetimes of different UPSs

Table 10: Maintenance frequency

Table 11: Recyclability of different materials

Table 12: Examples of UPSs

Table 13: Commonly used topologies for different UPS sizes

List of figures

Figure 1: Stakeholder distribution

Figure 2: System diagram

Figure 3: Standby (VFD)

Figure 4: Line interactive (VI)

Figure 5: Double conversion (VFI)

List of equations

Equation 1: Calculation of energy efficiency for a single mode UPS

Equation 2: Calculation of energy efficiency for a multimode UPS

List of acronyms

B2B Business To Business

B2C Business To Consumer

EFTA European Free Trade Association

IT Information Technology

kVA kilo Volt Ampere

UPSUninterruptible Power Supply

VFD Voltage Frequency Dependant

VFI Voltage Frequency Independent

VI Voltage Independent

1Introduction

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Guide[1]developed by the European Commission provides detailed and comprehensive technical guidance on how to conduct a PEF study. PEF studies may be used for a variety of purposes, including in-house management and participation in voluntary or mandatory programmes.

This Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) shall be used in parallel with the PEF Guide. Where the requirements in this PEFCR are in line with, but at the same time more specific than those of the PEF Guide, such specific requirements shall be fulfilled.

The use of the present PEFCR is optional for in-house PEF studies; it is recommended for external applications without comparison/comparative assertions, while it will be mandatory for external applications with comparisons/comparative assertions after the PEF pilot phase.

2General information

2.1Technical Secretariat

This PEFCR was developed bya consortium of several UPS manufacturers, an EPD programme operator specialized on electronic products, and a LCA consultant within the EU EF pilot phase. The following tablepresents the members of the Technical Secretariat of the project:

Logo / Name / Activity / Website
/ Schneider Electric / UPS manufacturer /
/ EATON / UPS manufacturer /
/ SOCOMEC / UPS manufacturer /
/ Legrand / UPS manufacturer /
/ Emerson / UPS manufacturer /

/ CEMEP / European trade association of UPS manufacturers represented by Gimelec /
/ PEP ecopassport / EPD programme operator of PEP ecopassport® /
/ SGS / LCA consultancy /

Table 1: Members of the Technical Secretariat

2.2Consultation and stakeholders

Stakeholder membership

Stakeholder status June 20th, 2014: 80 stakeholders have registered from the following type of organizations:


Figure 1: Stakeholder distribution

Organizations invited but did not join

  • AEG and Riello: UPS Manufacturers
  • WWF: NGO

Stakeholder meeting
The first meeting was February 26th, 2014.

2.3Date of publication and expiration

  • Version number:
  • Date of publication/revision:
  • Date of expiration:

2.4Product classification (NACE/CPA)

The Eurostat guidance indicates that the manufacture of UPS is covered by Prodcom class 27.90. A review of the codes for this class indicates there is no specific code associated with UPSs. The most potentially appropriate code, which covers electrical machines and apparatus, having individual functions is:

  • 27.90.11.50: Machines with translation or dictionary functions, aerial amplifiers and other electrical machines and apparatus, having individual functions, not specified or included elsewhere in HS 852 (excluding sunbeds, sunlamps and similar suntanning equipment)

In addition, a review of other Prodcom codes suggests that UPSs could also potentially be covered by the following code:

  • 27.11.50.40: Power supply units for telecommunication apparatus, automatic data-processing machines and units thereof

These definitions are very broad and will include products other than UPSs.

2.5Geographic region

The PEFCR is valid for Europe 28 and EFTA countries.

2.6Language(s) of PEFCR

The present original is in English (GB). It supersedes translated versions in case of conflicts.

2.7Relation with other PEF pilots

The pilots of the EF pilot phase will have several overlaps due to the use of same materials or processes. Therefore, all PEF pilots will be followed to enable synergies between the projects. Especially those projects will be considered whose scopes show a strong relation with the UPS pilot:

  • Battery pilot: UPSs are using batteries, mainly lead-acid batteries. However, the PEF pilot project of batteries excluded the lead-acid batteries from their scope. Nevertheless, there are overlaps in both scopes.
  • IT pilot: UPSs can be considered as an IT equipment. Although they are not in the scope of the IT PEF pilot, the defined system boundaries show overlaps regarding used materials and components. In addition, both pilots have to make similar methodological choices and will cooperate to ensure a consistent method within the pilots.
  • Metal sheets pilot: Some UPSs are using metal sheets; thus, there is a link between both pilots.
  • Decorative paints pilot: UPSs are using industrial paint not decorative paints; however, overlaps with this pilot are likely, as industrial and decorative paints have similarities in their composition.
  • Photovoltaic pilot: The PEF pilot of PV systems is focusing on the PV panel itself; UPSs are not in the scope of this project. However, both pilots consider the same materials, components, and processes.

3Scope and unit of analysis

3.1Category of products covered

The product category covered by this PEFCR is “Uninterruptible Power Supply” (UPS).The main use of a UPS is to provide backup time in case of power failure.

There are UPSs for private and professional use in different size ranges (see chapter 3.1.2). Basically, all types UPSs fulfill the same function and have the same components. In addition, they have the same application. However, they vary, for example, in size, used topologies, and life time.Annex I gives some examples of different UPSs.

The following UPSs are excluded from the scope of this PEFCR:

  • UPSs with no backup time
  • Rotary UPSs
  • UPSs for special application (e.g.):
  • UPSs exposed to extremetemperatures, excessive dust, moisture, vibration, flammable gasses, corrosive, or explosive atmospheres
  • UPSs in vehicles, on board of ships or aircrafts, in tropical countries, or at elevations higher than 1000m
  • UPSs in electrometrical applications with the UPS located within 1.5m of the patient contact
  • UPSs in systems classified as emergency power systems by an authority having jurisdiction

3.1.1UPS definition

An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)is a “combination of convertors, switches, and energy storage devices (such as batteries) constituting a power system for maintaining continuity of load power in case of input power failure.”[2]It acts as an interface between the power mains and the sensitive applications.A UPSsupplies the load with continuous, high quality electrical power regardless the status of the mains.

Power distribution systems, both public and private, theoretically supply electrical equipment with a sinusoidal voltage of fixed amplitude and frequency (e.g. 400Vrms, 50Hz on low voltage systems). In real-life conditions however, utilities indicate the degree of fluctuation around the rated values. Because digital equipment (computers, telecom systems, instruments, etc.) use microprocessors that operate at frequencies of several mega or even gigahertz, i.e. they carry out millions or even billions of operations per second,a disturbance in the electrical supply lasting just a few milliseconds can affect thousands or millions of basic operations. This resultsfor instance in malfunctions orloss of data with dangerous (e.g. airports, hospitals) or costly consequences (e.g. loss of production).

3.1.2UPS size ranges

There are different UPS size ranges. They are defined based on the apparent output specified in kVA or W. In this project the following four UPS sizes ranges from the ErP Lot 27 are used:

  • UPSs below 1.5 kVA
  • UPSs between 1.5 kVA and 5.0 kVA
  • UPSs between 5.1 kVA and 10 kVA
  • UPSs between 10.1 kVA and 200 kVA.[3]

There are also larger UPSs, i.e. bigger than 200 kVA, but in most cases they are made of several smaller ones.

3.1.3UPS components

UPSs generally contain the following components:

  • transformers (if incorporated inside the UPS)
  • electrolytic capacitors (if incorporated inside the UPS)
  • semi-conductors: IGBT / THYRISTOR, etc.
  • circuit boards
  • housing
  • fans and / or cooling systems
  • switches
  • relays
  • breaker
  • lead-acid battery, if included inside the UPS (In some specific cases, other types of batteries are used.)
  • wires

3.1.4UPS topologies

Depending on the protection to apply and the characteristic (voltage or frequency or both) that is it necessary to control,there are three different UPS topologies:

  • At the stand by topology: voltage and frequency depends from the main, it is also the maximum energy saving mode (VFD). The normal mode of operation consists on supplying the load from the primary power source.
  • The line interactive topology allows the voltage independence (VI), during the normal mode of operation the load is supplied with conditioned AC input power at the input frequency.
  • The double conversion topology provides the highest power conditioning (VFI), output voltage and frequency are independent of input conditions.

The functioning of these topologies is shown in Annex II.

The topology has a high impact on the electricity consumption of the UPS. Typical UPSs´ architecturesfor different UPS sizesaregiven in Annex III.

3.2Unit of analysis

Although there are different UPS sizes ranges only one unit of analysis was defined, as all UPSs have the same function, application, and technology. Based on the definition of the representative product (see chapter 5) the unit of analysis was defined as follows:

To ensure the supply of power without interruption to equipment
with load of 100 watts for aperiod of 1 year,
including a backup time of 5 minutes during a power shortage.

In the sensitivity analysis of the screening study the influence of the UPS size on the impact assessment results will be analysed. If the analysis reveals significant differences in the environmental performance of different UPSs, the reference product will be subclassified. It might then also be necessary to adapt the unit of analysis correspondently.

This unit of analysis answers to the following questions:

  • The function(s) / service(s) provided: “what”: a UPS to ensure power supply to an electrical equipment
  • The magnitude of the function or service: “how much”: supply 100 W to the equipment for 5 minutes. 5 minutes is the most frequentUPS backup time for small and large UPSs.
  • The amount of service provided over the life time: “how long/ how often”: 1 year
  • The expected level of quality: “how well”: without interruption

How to use this unit of analysis

  • Load: Divide the load of the studied UPS to have a 100 W load. For instance, for a 3 kVA UPS, divide the impacts by 30.
  • Lifespan: Divide the total impact of the product by the lifespan of the product in years to reduce it to 1 year. For instance, for a product < 1.5 kVA, divide the results by 5.The coefficientsare given in Table 9.
  • Backup time: The backup time is directly linked to the battery size. The only impacts that need to be adjusted are the impacts of the battery. For instance, a 10 min backup time UPS, the study shallconsider the same UPS but with a battery configuration of 5 min. If such product is not available and the amount of battery is unknown, an approximation using default values provided in this document must be done.

4System boundaries

All attributable life cycle stages and processesneed to be included in the product system. Main life cycle phasesare:

  • Raw material production phase: from extraction of natural resources to production of basic materials including production of utilities
  • Manufacturing phase: from production of UPS components and packaging to manufacturing of the end product and its availability at the producer's last logistic platform including transport processes
  • Distributionphase: from the producer's logistic platform to its arrival at the installation place including retail and storage
  • Use phase: use of the product and the maintenance required to ensure its ability to be used including reuse
  • End-of-life phase: transport of the product at the end of its life to a treatment plant or landfill site and the waste treatment processes

The processes included in each life cycle stage will be described more in detail in the next chapters.

The manufacture of UPS does not entail any co-products or by-products.

4.1System diagram

Figure2is a simplified flow diagram[4] outlining main processes in the UPS life cycle that will be included in the product system for the screening study.

Figure 2: System diagram

4.2Upstream processes/scenarios

4.2.1Raw material production phase

The raw material production phase includes the following processes:

  • Production (extraction, treatment, transformation, etc.) and transportation of raw materials
  • Manufacturing of basic materials (plastics, metals, cardboard, etc.) and utilities(electricity, detergents, etc.)

4.2.2Manufacturing phase

The manufacturing phase includes the following processes:

  • Production of components, sub-assemblies, and utilities(heat, compressed air, etc.)
  • Reuse of sub-assemblies from end of life UPSs
  • Transport of components andsub-assembliesfrom the supplier's place of manufacturing to assembly site(s) on the producer's premises
  • Manufacturing of the packaging
  • Assembling of the UPS
  • Transporting of the UPS from the assembly site to the producer's last logistic platform

4.3Downstream processes/scenarios

4.3.1Distribution phase

The distribution phase includes the following processes:

  • Transporting of UPS from the producer's logistic platform to the distributor or retailer
  • Storage of the UPS
  • Retail
  • Transporting of the UPS from the distributor's site or retailer to the place of use

4.3.2Installation phase

The installation phase includes the following processes:

  • Installation of the UPS
  • Use of a crane for large UPSs
  • Presence of a professional for the installation of large UPSs

4.3.3Use phase

The use phase of the UPS takes into account the operation of the product under normal conditions of use as well as the maintenance of the product as well as a reuse phase. The following processes are included in the use phase:

  • Use of the UPS (electricity production and distribution)
  • Reuse of the UPS (de-installation, transport to second user, second installation, reuse)
  • Maintenance of the UPS during the entire life time (production and transport of spare parts and elements required for operating, servicing, and maintaining the product, as specified by the manufacturer and not supplied with the product)

4.3.4End of life

The end of life phase comprises thefollowing processes:

  • Transport from the user or reuser to the recycling and waste treatment facility
  • Waste treatment (recycling,incineration, landfilling, etc.)

5Representative product

5.1Description of representative product

As described above there are different UPS size ranges for private and professional use. Basically, all UPSs have the same function, application and technology. They vary, for instance, in weight, material composition, or life time. Since there is sufficient market and technical information available, the representative product has been defined as a virtual product covering the four groups of UPS sizes as defined in the ErP Lot 27[5] weighted by their market share based on the sales volume in EU market. Table 2 indicates the EU sales volume of the defined four UPS size ranges which cover nearly the full market:

UPS size / Target market / EU-27 Sales
in Million Units / Market share in %
< 1.5 kVA / B2C / 0.99 / 69.23
1.5 kVA – 5.0 kVA / B2B / 0.40 / 27.97
5.1 kVA – 10 kVA / B2B / 0.03 / 2.10
10.1 kVA – 200 kVA / B2B / 0.01 / 0.70
1.43 / 100%

Table 2: EU market share of different UPSs

Source: ErP Lot 27, Task 5

During the screening study within the sensitivity analysis the four UPS subcategories are considered separately to be able to identify differences in the impact assessment. If there are significant differences in the results the representative product will be broken down in different subcategories and benchmarks for each subcategory will be provided. Moreover, it might be necessary to modify the unit of analysis.

5.2Bill of materials

The following table provides a bill of materials for the virtual UPS considered in the screening study based on the BOMs of each UPS size multiplied with its EU market share(without battery and packaging):