Even a brief power disruption can cause huge financial losses. According to ProSource, the average cost of data center downtime is around $9,000 per minute. If a backup battery system fails, the consequences can be devastating (and costly). At $9,000 per minute, is your facility prepared for hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses—all because your batteries failed?
In our experience, we find that batteries are both the unsung heroes and silent killers of any facility. They sit waiting to be used, can be forgotten, not tested, and yet when an outage occurs, they’re heavily relied on. They aren’t noticed until they don’t work. Most battery problems could be prevented if your facility prioritized your batteries health (and installed a battery monitoring system).
We often get asked about the ROI of battery monitoring systems, and it’s hard to provide an exact total, but let’s consider this scenario:
“An organization had a 4-hour outage last year. This facility has an average per-minute loss cost of $4,000. This particular outage cost them around $960,000. The outage was caused by one bad string of batteries that took down an entire UPS system. With this one UPS system down, the facility didn’t have enough runtime to cover them for the entire outage. This one outage cost the facility more than installing a battery monitoring system that could have warned them about the battery issues months ago. If the battery monitoring system had detected an issue, it would have alarmed immediately. When this event occurred, the UPS would have remained online with the expected runtime because all batteries would have been operational. The facility may have only had to replace one battery (maybe costing a few hundred dollars) compared to almost $1,000,000. This is a scary yet common scenario we see in many facilities. One bad battery is all it takes.”
Battery failures have hidden costs that go beyond outage expenses and simple replacements, including operational inefficiencies, safety risks, maintenance inefficiencies, and potential compliance failures. Let’s look at a few of these costs.
Operational Inefficiencies
Without proper monitoring, facilities often replace batteries too early or too late. Replacing batteries too soon results in unnecessary expenses. Imagine replacing the tires on your car when they still have plenty of tread left—you wouldn’t do this because it would waste time and money. Yet facilities often replace batteries way too early. On the other hand, waiting too long to replace batteries increases the risk of failure exponentially. Battery monitoring systems provide real-time data on battery health, ensuring replacements happen at the ideal time (saving your facility money).
Safety Risks & Compliance Issues
Aging or failing batteries can pose fire hazards, especially in high-density data center environments. Additionally, regulatory bodies such as NERC, NFPA, IEEE, and OSHA require regular battery maintenance and documentation. Failure to comply could lead to fines, liability risks, and increased expenses.
Maintenance Costs & Labor Inefficiencies
Traditional battery testing methods rely on manual inspections, which are time-consuming and can lead to human error. When technicians perform periodic checks without real-time insights, issues can go undetected—leading to potential safety hazards. Imagine a facility has been having a battery overheat for months (but they’re unaware). Their technician goes to perform a load bank test on that string of batteries, and while doing so, the battery catches fire. That technician is now in an extremely dangerous situation—all because no one knew that one battery had been having issues for months.
With a battery monitoring system, the facility would have known about that battery and could eliminate the human factor altogether. Instead of physically performing the test, the technician could run a report remotely and analyze the data before making an on-site visit or performing on-site testing. The battery monitoring reports can educate the technician about the state of the batteries before performing any in-person tests, keeping both the facility and technician safe.
Battery failures are not just a minor inconvenience—they are a major financial and operational risk. In an industry where every second of downtime matters, can you afford to take the risk? Implementing a battery monitoring system today could be the key to safeguarding your facility’s future—and your bottom line.
Source:
Prosource website
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