UPS Installation and Commissioning

Buying the right UPS is half the job. The other half is installing it correctly and proving it works before it is handed over. A UPS that has been installed but never properly commissioned is an unknown quantity. It looks healthy on the front panel, and nobody finds out otherwise until the first real power event, which is the worst possible moment to discover that a setting is wrong or that a battery string was never tested under load.

Natural Power Solutions (NPS) installs, commissions and acceptance tests critical power equipment across Australia and New Zealand. Our field service engineers are factory trained on the systems we supply, and every installation is handed over with full commissioning documentation, so your warranty is valid and you hold written evidence that the system performs as designed.

Installation and Commissioning Are Two Different Jobs

The two words are often used as though they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference is where most of the risk sits.

Installation is the physical and electrical work: getting the equipment onto site and into position, connecting it to the supply and to the load, and making the installation safe and compliant. In every Australian state this is licensed electrical work. It must be carried out by a licensed electrician working for a licensed electrical contracting business, and the completed work has to be tested and certified before it is energised.

Commissioning is what happens after the equipment is connected: configuring it for the site, deliberately failing it, and proving it behaves the way the design said it would. Installation makes the system live. Commissioning is what tells you it will actually carry the load when the mains drops.

A UPS can be installed perfectly and still be wrong for the site: the transfer point set incorrectly, the battery autonomy never verified at the real connected load, the alarms wired to nothing. NPS does both stages, which means there is no gap between the contractor who connected it and the engineer who proved it.

What an NPS Installation Covers

An NPS installation is managed as a project from the first site visit to the signed commissioning certificate:

• Site assessment and pre-scope: Confirming delivery access, floor loading, the electrical supply and cable routes, and that the specified configuration matches the site, before the equipment is on a truck. Problems found at this stage are cheap. The same problems found on delivery day are not.
• Delivery coordination: Scheduling delivery, unloading and positioning around your site rules, access restrictions and operating hours, including removal of any equipment being replaced.
• Electrical and mechanical work: Installation and connection of the UPS, battery cabinets, power distribution and associated switchgear, including maintenance bypass arrangements where required, and installation of standby generators where they form part of the solution.
• Commissioning and testing: Powering up, configuring and testing the complete system under the conditions described below.
• Documentation and handover: A full commissioning certificate for warranty validation, as installed documentation, and a walkthrough with your team so the people who live with the system know how it behaves.
• Monitoring configuration: Setting up communications cards, alerts and remote monitoring at commissioning rather than as an afterthought, so the system is visible from day one.

What Is Tested at Commissioning

Commissioning is a sequence of deliberate failures. The point is to make the system do the things it is meant to do in an emergency while the site is still in a controlled state and an engineer is standing in front of it. Depending on the system and the site, an NPS commissioning covers:

• Pre energisation checks: Insulation resistance, earth continuity, torque checks on connections, phase rotation, and verification that the installation matches the drawings before anything is switched on.
• Battery system verification: String voltages and polarity, inter cell connections, charger output, and confirmation that the battery configuration matches what the UPS is set to expect.
• Start up and configuration: Bringing the unit up, setting output voltage and frequency, transfer thresholds, battery parameters and alarm settings for this site rather than leaving factory defaults in place.
• Transfer testing: Simulating loss of mains and confirming the transfer to battery happens cleanly, then confirming the return to mains does the same.
• Bypass testing: Proving static bypass operates on fault, and proving the maintenance bypass can be used to take the UPS out of circuit without dropping the load. If the maintenance bypass has never been operated, nobody knows whether the next service visit will need an outage.
• Battery autonomy testing: A discharge test to confirm real runtime at the actual connected load, not the runtime printed on the datasheet at rated load.
• Parallel and redundancy testing: On multi module and parallel systems, confirming load sharing between modules and that the system rides through the loss of a single module.
• Alarm and monitoring verification: Confirming that every alarm reaches the place it is supposed to reach, whether that is a building management system, a monitoring platform or a person’s phone.

Load Bank Testing

A load bank is an artificial load that lets the system be taken to full design capacity, held there, and failed deliberately, before anything valuable depends on it. It is the difference between believing a UPS will carry the load and having watched it do so.

It matters most in two situations: when the installed load at handover is far below the design load, which is normal on a new build or a staged fit out, and when the site cannot tolerate the risk of finding out during a real event. In both cases testing against the connected load alone proves very little, because the connected load is not what the system was bought to survive.

NPS carries out load bank testing as part of commissioning where the project calls for it, and can combine it with battery discharge testing and thermographic scanning under load, which is the point at which a loose or undersized connection shows itself.

Acceptance Testing and Integrated Systems Testing

Commissioning proves the equipment works. Acceptance testing proves it works the way the design said it would, under the conditions the site will actually put it through, and it is usually the stage a consultant or an end client wants to witness.

For critical environments that generally means demonstrating transfer behaviour on loss of mains, verifying runtime at the real connected load, exercising the maintenance bypass, and confirming that alarms and monitoring report correctly to wherever they are meant to report. Where a project requires it, NPS carries out witnessed acceptance testing so your team, your consultant or your client sees the system perform before handover rather than taking it on trust.

On larger projects the UPS is one component in a sequence that runs from factory testing through component start up and functional performance testing to integrated systems testing, where the whole facility is failed at once and every system has to respond together. NPS works to the commissioning plan the project sets and provides the UPS evidence the plan requires, including participation in integrated black building testing where the programme includes it.

Why Commissioning Protects Your Warranty

Manufacturer warranties on critical power equipment are conditional. They generally require that the equipment was installed and commissioned by an authorised party, to the manufacturer’s specification, with the commissioning recorded and submitted within a set period of delivery. Miss any of those and the cover that was quoted is not the cover that exists.

In practice this is not usually a question of the warranty being void. It is a question of what is left. A self commissioned or contractor commissioned unit typically falls back to the base parts warranty, while manufacturer recognised commissioning is what triggers the longer parts and labour cover, and in most cases it is also what makes the manufacturer’s own technical support available on the unit. None of that is discovered at the time. It is discovered at the point of a claim, usually during an outage.

NPS is an authorised partner of Eaton, APC by Schneider Electric, Socomec and Vertiv. Our engineers are factory trained on those systems, and commissioning is documented and submitted so the warranty registered is the warranty you were quoted.

What You Receive at Handover

A commissioning visit that leaves no paperwork behind has not finished. Every NPS installation is handed over with a documentation set, which is what you will be asked for at a warranty claim, at an audit, and by whoever maintains the system after us:

• Electrical compliance certification for the installation work
• A signed commissioning record listing every test performed and its result
• Battery acceptance and discharge test records
• Load bank test results where load bank testing formed part of the scope
• As installed drawings and configuration settings, including the parameters the unit was left on
• Manufacturer warranty registration confirmation
• Operating instructions and an on site walkthrough for the people who will use the system
• Alarm and monitoring configuration details, including where alerts are routed

Safety, Licensing and Standards

• Installation carried out by licensed electricians working under a licensed electrical contracting business, with the completed installation tested and certified before energisation
• Commissioning performed by field service engineers factory trained on the equipment being commissioned
• Electrical work performed to the relevant Australian and New Zealand wiring standards
• Battery installation and testing carried out to the relevant Australian standards for sealed and vented cells
• Documented work health and safety (WHS) procedures

Installation and Commissioning by Industry

Installation in a live critical environment is as much about working around the site as it is about the equipment:

• Healthcare: Installation scheduled around clinical operations, in facilities where the load being protected cannot simply be switched off for a convenient window.
• Government: Documented installation and commissioning that meets procurement and audit requirements, with the certification trail public sector clients are required to keep.
• Manufacturing: Installation planned around production schedules and shutdown windows, in environments with their own permit, isolation and safety regimes.
• Mining: Remote site installation where mobilisation is expensive, access windows are fixed, and the crew has to arrive with everything the job requires.
• Communications: Installation at exchanges, transmission sites and network facilities that carry live traffic throughout the work.
• Security: Installation for surveillance and access control infrastructure that has to stay operational during the changeover.

Where NPS Installs

NPS operates from offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, and installs and commissions across Australia and New Zealand. That covers metropolitan data centres, hospitals and commercial sites, and extends to regional and remote installations where a single mobilisation has to carry everything the job needs, because a return visit for a missing part is measured in days rather than hours.

Part of a Complete Power Project

Installation and commissioning sits in the middle of a longer sequence. NPS delivers it as a standalone service, and also as one stage of turnkey delivery, where the same team handles the site assessment, the power quality audit, the design, the supply, the installation, and the preventative maintenance and battery replacement that follow. When the people who commissioned the system are the same people who maintain it, nothing is lost in the handover.

Why Choose NPS for Installation and Commissioning

• Over 30 years installing and commissioning critical power equipment across Australia and New Zealand
• Factory trained field service engineers for Eaton, APC by Schneider Electric, Socomec and Vertiv systems
• Winner of the 2020 Eaton Project of the Year
• Full commissioning certification for warranty validation, issued on handover
• Pre scope site assessment before delivery, so access, floor loading and supply issues surface early
• Installation planned around your operations, with minimal disruption to the site
• Vendor agnostic: NPS commissions and services equipment it did not supply as well as equipment it did
• The same team available afterwards for maintenance, so the system is supported by people who know how it was built

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between UPS installation and commissioning?

Installation is the physical and electrical work of getting the UPS into position and connected to the supply and the load. Commissioning is the stage after that, where the system is configured for the site and deliberately tested, including transfer to battery, bypass operation and battery runtime, to prove it performs as designed. A UPS can be fully installed and still not be proven, which is why the two stages are quoted and recorded separately.

Does a UPS need to be commissioned?

For anything beyond a plug in desktop unit, yes. Commissioning is what configures the system for the site rather than leaving factory defaults in place, and it is what generates the documentation manufacturers require for warranty validation. It is also the only point at which anyone confirms the battery runtime and the transfer behaviour before a real outage does it for you.

Do I need a licensed electrician to install a UPS?

If the UPS is permanently connected to the fixed wiring, yes. In every Australian state that is licensed electrical installation work. It has to be performed by a licensed electrician working for a licensed electrical contracting business, and the completed installation has to be tested and certified before it is energised. Plug in units are the exception, but the threshold is lower than most people expect and it is usually reached well before the equipment looks industrial.

Will installing a UPS without manufacturer commissioning affect the warranty?

Usually it reduces it rather than voiding it. Manufacturer warranties on critical power equipment are generally conditional on installation and commissioning by an authorised party, documented and submitted within a set period. Without that, cover typically falls back to a shorter parts only position instead of the longer parts and labour cover that was quoted, and manufacturer technical support on the unit may not be available. Check the specific warranty terms for the model being supplied, because they vary by manufacturer.

Can a UPS be installed without shutting down the server room?

Often, yes, but it depends on what already exists. Where there is a maintenance bypass, or a second supply path, or an existing redundant system, the work can usually be staged so the load is never unprotected. Where a single UPS feeds everything and there is no bypass, some period of unprotected running or a planned outage is generally unavoidable. This is one of the main things the pre scope site assessment is for, and it is better to find out at that point than on installation day.

What is UPS load bank testing?

A load bank is an artificial load connected in place of, or in addition to, the real load so the system can be driven to its full design capacity, held there, and failed deliberately. It is used when the connected load at handover is well below the design load, which is common on new builds and staged fit outs, because testing against a light load proves very little about behaviour at full load. It is normally combined with a battery discharge test and a thermographic scan under load.

How long does a UPS installation take?

It depends on the size of the system, whether it is a replacement or a new installation, and how much electrical work the site needs first. A straightforward single phase replacement into existing switchgear is usually a single visit. A three phase installation involving new switchgear, battery cabinets and a maintenance bypass is a multi day job and is planned around the site’s access and outage windows. The pre scope assessment is what produces a firm programme, and it happens before the equipment is ordered.

What Australian standards apply to UPS installation?

The installation itself is governed by the Australian and New Zealand wiring rules, which cover the supply arrangement, protection and isolation, wiring, earthing and the mandatory verification of the completed installation before energisation. UPS equipment safety and performance are covered by the relevant UPS standards, and battery installation, testing and replacement by the Australian standards for sealed and vented cells. NPS works to the applicable standards for each installation and can confirm which apply to a specific project.

Does NPS install UPS systems it did not supply?

Yes. NPS is vendor agnostic and installs, commissions and maintains equipment from multiple manufacturers, including systems supplied by others. Where a manufacturer restricts commissioning to its own authorised partners, NPS will say so before quoting rather than after.

Contact NPS to discuss an upcoming installation, or call 1300 911 605.