Vertiv has announced a partnership with energy software specialist Upside Energy. By utilising Upside Energy’s cloud-based Flexibility Platform, Vertiv will enable their current and future UK customers with uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), to provide unutilised energy to the UK electricity grid. By extending battery storage beyond its typical use, UPS owners will be able to generate value and make savings on their energy bill.

Upside Energy’s cloud-based advanced algorithmic platform has the capability to provide demand response and orchestrate over 100,000 devices or systems running in parallel in real-time. The platform software will continuously and remotely monitor the UPS of Vertiv’s UK customers who opt in, utilising battery storage to provide flexibility to the grid while the UPS primary function as emergency backup power remains unaltered. In turn, the UK electricity grid can run more efficiently, particularly at peak times when it is running short of capacity.

Businesses usually invest in UPS solutions as emergency backup for critical systems, but this new distributed energy model makes UPS more attractive for potential customers as these systems can now be used also to generate value. Moreover, with energy consumption by data centres set to increase more than three times over the next 10 years, the partnership with Upside Energy will give Vertiv customers the opportunity to play an important role in preserving the energy availability and resilience of the grid.

The constant monitoring and management provided by the Virtual Energy Store, powered by Upside Energy, also enables customers to track how their batteries are being used and whether they are functioning properly. The monitoring capability also minimises the risk that the batteries might get depleted while sitting idle and waiting to be called upon in a potential emergency.

Emiliano Cevenini, vice president of commercial and industrial vertical markets for Vertiv in Europe, Middle East and Africa, commented: “At Vertiv, we are committed to delivering best-in-class mission critical technologies while also finding new ways to utilise our solutions for innovative and alternative applications. In today’s world, it is vital for organisations to optimise their energy consumption and costs – while we are not energy producers, we can definitely help companies leverage UPS battery storage and cut energy costs.”

“Our partnership with Upside Energy, a company with deep knowledge of the UK energy market and a modern cloud-based approach, allows our customers to manage their battery storage more efficiently and get more value from their UPS in an eco-friendly way. We look forward to building on this partnership and connecting more of our fleet of UPS over the next few years.”

To learn more about Vertiv’s offerings in the critical energy space, visit www.VertivCo.com/EnergyStorage. Vertiv will be presenting at the Smart Building Show on 7th November at 16:00 on how organisations can optimise the usage of their power infrastructure to generate value by extending battery storage beyond its typical use.

To register for free go to www.smartbuildingsshow.com