Rapid UPS Recovery and Upgrade in London
Overview
On Christmas Eve, a London customer experienced a critical UPS failure that immediately threatened business continuity at the worst possible time of year. With the festive period underway and reduced site support availability, the priority was clear: restore reliable backup power fast, keep operations running uninterrupted, and put a long-term solution in place without compromising resilience or compliance.
Our team responded quickly, delivered an immediate temporary UPS solution, and then returned to complete the permanent upgrade with a scalable, high-resilience modular UPS system.
The Challenge
The customer’s UPS failure created an urgent operational risk:
- Immediate loss of power protection, increasing exposure to mains disturbances and outages
- Heightened business continuity pressure due to the Christmas shutdown window
- A requirement to remain operational through the festive period and throughout January
- The need for a long-term solution that improved resilience and supported future growth
This was not simply a “replace like-for-like” scenario. The customer needed both rapid recovery and a forward-looking upgrade.
Immediate Response: Temporary UPS Installation
Following the emergency call-out on Christmas Eve, we mobilised resources to stabilise the situation and protect the customer’s critical loads by offering our UPS Rental service.
Immediate action taken:
- Deployed and installed a temporary UPS solution as an urgent measure
- Restored backup power coverage to keep the customer operational
- Ensured a controlled, safe setup suitable for extended operation across the festive period and into January
This approach gave the customer immediate continuity, while buying the time required to design and deliver the correct permanent system.
Permanent Modular UPS Upgrade
This weekend, we completed the permanent works with the installation of a Riello MPW modular UPS system designed around resilience, maintainability, and scalability.
Installed system:
- Riello MPW modular UPS
- 4 × 42 kW power modules
- Configured as N+2 for enhanced resilience and headroom
Why Modular and Why N+2?
The selected solution provides a robust platform that supports both the customer’s current load and future expansion.
- Enhanced resilience (N+2): maintains protection even with multiple module outages or during maintenance
- Improved availability: modular architecture reduces single points of failure
- Future scalability: capacity can be expanded by adding modules as demand grows
- Serviceability: modular systems can typically be maintained with reduced disruption versus monolithic alternatives
Outcome
The project delivered both short-term continuity and a long-term improvement in resilience.
Results achieved:
- Customer operations protected throughout the festive period and into January
- Permanent UPS infrastructure installed to a high standard with new supporting cabling
- Improved resilience through N+2 redundancy
- A scalable platform to support future growth without a full redesign
Summary
From an emergency call-out on Christmas Eve to a fully installed, resilient modular UPS system, this project highlights our ability to act fast, plan properly, and deliver the right outcome—both immediately and for the long term.
