Get smarter with silicon
Jason Yates, Technical Services Director of Riello UPS, explores how silicon carbide (SiC) technology is enabling a new generation of modular UPS systems delivering higher efficiency, resilience and sustainability for modern buildings and critical infrastructure.
Commercial buildings are undergoing rapid transformation. The growth of smart buildings, electrification, AI-enabled systems and increasingly complex building services is driving higher energy demands and placing greater pressures on electrical infrastructure.
At the same time, facilities managers, consultants and construction professionals must contend with rising energy costs, evolving sustainability regulations and the need to maintain resilient operations across healthcare, education, manufacturing, transport and commercial environments.
While reliability remains non-negotiable, today’s power protection systems must also deliver higher efficiency, greater flexibility and a lower environmental impact.
Technological evolution
For decades, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) have relied on insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). This silicon based technology is mature, reliable and cost effective – it has served the power protection industry well. Over time, manufacturers have increased efficiencies through refinements such as three-level inverter architectures and improved filtering components.
However, the operational demands of modern buildings mean these incremental gains are reaching their limits. As electrical systems become more dynamic and energy intensive, achieving the next step forward in efficiency requires a more significant shift in power electronics. This is where silicon carbide (SiC) comes in.
How SiC changes the game
Silicon carbide is already widely used within the electric vehicle sector, but its benefits are now increasingly being realised across critical power applications.
Compared to silicon based IGBT technology, SiC offers several advantages for UPS manufacturing:
- Higher efficiency and reduced switching losses: lower electrical resistance significantly reduces switching losses, improving UPS operational efficiency.
- Increased power density: SiC enables more compact system designs, allowing higher output power from smaller, lighter installations.
- Improved thermal stability: SiC can operate at higher temperatures, reducing cooling requirements and widening operating ranges.
- Enhanced frequency response: rapid response to load changes makes SiC based UPS systems well suited to modern building environments with fluctuating power demands.
- Durability: SiC’s robustness and ability to withstand high surge currents or voltage spikes helps extend component lifespan while reducing maintenance requirements.
Silicon carbide components currently do require more energy to manufacture than conventional silicon devices. However, this initial impact is typically outweighed by the operational savings delivered over the UPS’s lifecycle.
Turning theory into performance
Riello UPS has incorporated silicon carbide technology into the Multi Power2 range, its latest modular UPS. The series comes in three versions: MP2 (300-500-600 kW versions), Scalable M2S (1,000-1,250-1,600kW versions), and the new M2X, which protects up to 120kW and is designed with smaller buildings in mind.
All variants are built around high-density power modules incorporating SiC components. The result is ultra-high efficiency of up to 98.1% in online double-conversion mode, delivering significant reductions in energy consumption, operating costs and carbon emissions.
Long-term reliability
The advantages extend beyond efficiency. SiC durability improves long-term reliability while helping UPS systems cope with rapidly fluctuating AI workloads.
For example, conventional UPS systems often require capacitor replacement after 5-7 years, potentially that’s twice or three times over a 15-year lifespan. But with the durability of SiC it is realistic to go through the entire lifespan without having to replace the capacitors at all, cutting maintenance and disposal costs.
And don’t forget the broader benefits of modular UPS too, namely ‘pay as you grow’ scalability that allows facilities to add capacity as their load requirements change, and hot-swappable modules that ensure zero-downtime maintenance.
Quantifying the cost and energy savings
So what is the tangible impact of adopting a silicon carbide based UPS compared to a traditional system? Consider a large commercial facility operating with a 3.2MW load.
Replacing a UPS with 96% efficiency with a modern system achieving 98% efficiency can deliver:
- More than 840,000kWh of energy savings per year.
- Approximately £130,000 reduction in annual electricity costs.
- Around £2.5 million saved over a 15-year operating life.
- Roughly 196 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided annually.
When reduced maintenance requirements are factored in, particularly the avoidance of repeated capacitor replacements, total savings can increase by a further £80,000–£120,000 over the UPS lifecycle.
For facilities managers and construction professionals working to meet increasingly demanding energy performance and ESG targets, these operational savings can contribute significantly towards wider sustainability and whole-life cost objectives.
Summary
While silicon carbide based UPS systems typically carry a higher upfront cost than traditional IGBT designs, the long-term value proposition is increasingly compelling. Lower cooling demands, reduced energy consumption, improved reliability and extended component lifecycles combine to deliver a significantly lower total cost of ownership.
Silicon carbide is not the solution for every energy challenge facing the built environment. However, it is rapidly becoming an important enabler for the next generation of resilient, energy efficient power infrastructure.
As buildings become smarter, more electrified and increasingly dependent on continuous power availability, SiC technology is set to play a central role in how the facilities management and construction sectors approach UPS and critical power protection in the years ahead.
