Houston Astros
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Success Story: Houston Astros Eaton 9155 a big hit with the Houston Astros Product: Background Challenge In prior seasons, the team had Eaton® 9155 UPS fielded several smaller UPS units Located in the heart of It is the technology behind — a rotation that wasn’t working Location: downtown Houston, Minute the scenes at Minute Maid well for the organization. Houston, Texas Maid Park is home to Major Park that is as important to “Previously, I had six different League Baseball’s Astros the Astros’ overall success as Market Served: units running everything in the franchise. Combining the feel of league-leading batting averages room,” explains Hovan. Major League Baseball a classic old-time park with the and stellar pitching. That’s “I not only had to worry about amenities of a modern venue, why, in 2009, the organization replacing the batteries in the stadium has scored big changed its entire game plan each UPS, but we were also points with fans for its focus on with regard to power protection. outgrowing the solution.” “We can do a software technology. With the stadium’s data center In addition to a larger, more Minute Maid Park was not only supporting numerous servers, upgrade on the UPS at switches, routers and other robust unit, the baseball club the first major sports facility was scouting for a centralized to feature a closed-captioning critical networking devices, the any time to get more club’s need for a highly reliable UPS that would be easier to board for the hearing impaired, manage. Furthermore, having kVA. If we were to but the stadium also provides uninterruptible power system (UPS) was essential. launched the Play Green™ outgrow this particular Wi-Fi capabilities. Fans can bring campaign the previous year their Wi-Fi compatible devices “If we were to have a power — which is committed to solution, then we just to the ballpark during games outage and we didn’t have Earth-friendly initiatives in the upgrade to a 15 kVA and surf the web for a nominal a reliable UPS, it would shut greening of sports movement fee. In addition, a state-of-the-art down our entire company,” — the Astros hoped to invest with the software.” video board provides baseball acknowledges Michael Hovan, in an energy-efficient power enthusiasts with unmatched network administrator for the protection solution. “We wanted instant replays, as well as Astros. - Michael Hovan, network administrator a solution that was as green as special video features and Indeed, the club relies on possible,” Hovan confirms. effects unlike any other stadium the integrity of its power in Major League Baseball. Footprint was also a key factor. protection solution to ensure “Space was a major concern,” the continuous operation of all Hovan reveals. “The only spot I business systems, including had to put it in was only about ticket sales, accounting, e-mail, two or three feet wide. I didn’t payroll and event reservation. have many options.” “Basically, every single tool that we use,” says Hovan. Although the Astros had been investigating the purchase of a new UPS for some time, the club was ultimately forced to make a quick trade when one of its prior units was threatening the ability to maintain continuous uptime. “We had been looking for a to four hours of backup time. consumption calculations, while Results better solution for awhile, as Through Eaton’s exclusive ABM® also allowing the user to fully we knew the other one was technology, the UPS significantly monitor, switch, sequence and It’s been nothing short of a just limping along,” Hovan extends battery service life over manage individual outlets. perfect game since the 9155 was installed at Minute Maid acknowledges. “Then we competitive models, which use Further complementing the started having complete failures conventional trickle-charging. Park. “The UPS makes me sleep Astros’ power protection better at night,” Hovan says. “I off one unit in particular, and ABM, on the other hand, relies solution is a ConnectUPS Web/ that’s what put some real on an innovative, three-stage no longer have to worry about SNMP device, which enables things shutting down.” urgency to it.” charging technique that offers convenient monitoring and prolonged rest periods between management of the UPS with With the 9155 now part of the Solution charge phases, as well as a standard Web browser, Astros team, the organization is temperature-compensated while simultaneously providing able to: The Astros organization charging to optimize recharge graceful shutdown for multiple • Ensure the high availability discovered grand-slam power time. protection when it added the computer systems over the of its critical networking Eaton 9155 UPS to its roster. Thanks to the 9155’s scalability network. equipment options, the Astros organization Available in 8, 10, 12 and 15 “It’s very nice to be able to • Guarantee continuous was able to sign the 9155 to kVA models, the unit’s online control the servers remotely uptimes for its wide range a long-term contract. Having design completely isolates while monitoring the ºof business operations equipment from utility power to purchased a 10 kVA UPS — environment,” says Hovan. protect against all nine of the which met their immediate • Easily add capacity to the power protection needs — the UPS if the club’s equipment most common power problems, Implementation including outages, sags, surges, club is able to easily grow the needs grow in the future spikes, brownouts, line noise, solution if their equipment When the 9155 was deployed • Contribute to the Play Green frequency variation, switching needs expand in the future. within the stadium’s data campaign with the 9155’s transients and harmonic “We can do a software upgrade center, the Astros were pleased efficient design distortion. on the UPS at any time to get to experience no curve balls. Rather, the team discovered that • Preserve valuable data center At the same time, its high 0.9 more kVA,” Hovan explains. real estate with the unit’s “If we were to outgrow this ease of installation is yet another output power factor delivers advantage of the UPS, whose small footprint more power than the vast particular solution, then we just small footprint supports more • Extend runtime as desired majority of competitors’ models, upgrade to a 15 kVA with the software.” location options and provides with optional EBMs enabling the 9155 to power fast and simple installation while more equipment than other Furthermore, because the lowering deployment costs UPSs of equivalent VA rating. innovative design of the 9155 and preserving space for other “We really wanted to centralize offers high efficiency across all equipment needs. into one unit, so that was really load ranges, it plays perfectly important to our being able to into the Astros’ green initiative. To keep the UPS at the top of achieve that,” Hovan says. In addition to lowering utility its game, the Astros opted to preserve its ongoing health with The centralized solution has costs, the 90 percent efficiency rating allows the unit to run regular preventive maintenance significantly eased management performed through an Eaton and maintenance hassles for cooler, thereby extending component life. service plan. “We’re a small the network administrator, as shop, and I don’t know power well. “I don’t have to run around Finally, the UPS’s low total supplies as well as they do,” changing all of the batteries harmonic distortion — which Hovan explains. and checking all of the units makes it exceptionally friendly anymore,” he notes. to generators — was clutch for The Astros chose the On-Site the baseball franchise, which Gold Plan, which provides The Astros also scored with maintenance coverage with the 9155’s space-saving design, relies on a generator for backup power. on-site startup, technical which offers high power density support, advanced exchange per square foot. The sleek tower The Astros supplemented the replacement and all freight ® model measures just 12 inches new UPS with an Eaton ePDU , charges paid by Eaton. With wide and 33 inches deep — half which provides the ability to this plan, the team receives the size of most other units on measure power consumption the added assurance that its the market today. Even more, and oversee power distribution UPS has been installed properly unlike competitors’ models, within the data center — from and is operating as designed to the 9155’s design includes the a comprehensive overview protect critical equipment and batteries. down to an individual server. information. The ball club opted to bolster its The technology provides runtime capabilities by adding an understanding of power an extended battery module distribution in the rack for load (EBM) to the 9155, which has balancing, load segmentation, the potential to achieve up efficiency and energy Eaton Corporation Electrical Sector 8609 Six Forks Road Raleigh, NC 27614 Toll free: 1.800.356.5794 www.eaton.com/powerquality Eaton, ePDU, ABM and PowerChain ©2009 Eaton Corporation Management are trademarks of All Rights Reserved Eaton Corporation. Printed in USA COR126CSS_9676 All other trademarks are property September 2009 of their respective owners..