Tor2 UPS Maintenance - 28-Oct-2024 - 8:15am - 4:00pm

Post by **porcupine** » Fri Oct 18, 2024 4:25 pm

Hi Folks,

Please be advised of the following maintenance window:

Maintenance Window: Monday October 28th, 2024, 8:15am - 4:00pm Eastern Time
Affected Device: UPS-A.tor2, UPS-B.tor2
Affected Customers: Tor2 colocation customers
Service Impacting: No - Precautionary Notice Only

Details: We will be replacing the UPS batteries powering UPS-A.tor2, and UPS-B.tor2 with new batteries. The batteries in both of these plants have been in service for just over 4 years, having been replaced at the start of the pandemic. While the current UPS batteries would typically be considered a little past the mid-point of their expected life-cycle, the frequency of individual battery replacements due to signs of fatigue strongly implies a Q/C issue with this batch of batteries, which is becoming more disruptive as they age.

We will be replacing all batteries in both UPS plants with larger units (+27.5% higher rated capacity), a longer design life (16 year vs. 8 year), with a proportionally longer warranty, manufactured by a different battery manufacturer -- partly in consideration of the above paragraph.

While we do not expect this to be a service impacting maintenance, the UPS units will be operating on battery bypass, and should utility power fail at this time, there will be an interruption in services as the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) switches power from utility to generator. As such, this should be considered a precautionary maintenance window. Batteries will be replaced on a shelf by shelf basis, and efforts will be made to minimize time on bypass as one would reasonably expect.

While both UPS plants will have their batteries replaced on this date, at no time will both UPS plants be in battery bypass mode at the same time. UPS-A.tor2 will be upgraded first, during which time UPS-B.tor2 will continue to operate in normal/protected mode. Once UPS-A.tor2's battery replacement has been completed, it will be returned to normal/protected mode, and we will work on UPS-B.tor2, ensuring that customers with A/B power are fully protected throughout the maintenance window.

Regards,