Circular Economy Based Uninterruptible Power Supply Battery System for Greener and Sustainable Remote Working

据估计，互联网的能源和碳足迹超过了航空旅行，每年在数字技术的制造和运行中产生约17亿吨温室气体排放（climatecare.org和BBC 2020）。计算机和数据中心等网络硬件必须从不可再生燃料中获取电力来供电和冷却。在COVID 19封锁的高峰期，英国的互联网使用量飙升至创纪录水平。与封锁前的使用情况相比，在家工作的在线时间增加了67%（Opinium 2020年4月的调查）。远程在线工作显著增加了为互联网和支持互联网的设备（例如支持远程工作的公司和办公室的数据中心和服务器网络）供电的能源和相关的碳足迹。解决此问题的一个有前途的解决方案是将闲置的备用能源存储设备转换为具有投资回报和碳节约潜力的资产。UPS -不间断电源-系统通常用于商业建筑物和工业中，以在存在可能导致伤害、死亡、严重业务中断或数据丢失的任何意外电力中断的情况下保护诸如计算机、数据中心、电信设备或其它电气设备的硬件。UPS除了主要用途外，还可以用作储能系统，为用户带来额外的好处。Alp开发了一种名为BRIC的公用事业规模智能电池系统，通过使用更智能的电子设备和人工智能，将系统总成本降低了30%以上。基于环境可持续性和循环经济原则，BRIC的设计和测试旨在利用新电池或二次电池，并大幅延长使用寿命。我们的创新通过电子设计、人工智能和软件来实现这一目标，这些创新可以在单个电池水平上主动监控和管理电池，以便在问题升级之前预测问题。这些解决方案不仅可以优化性能和延长使用寿命，还可以提高安全性，同时简化维护、维修或更换。这些独特的功能使BRIC能够更好地处理较旧和第二次生命的电池。该项目将涉及研究和开发，以改善服务器级设计（Mega-BRIC），并证明技术和逻辑设计可以满足UPS系统在安全性，效率和可用性方面的要求。

The internet's energy and carbon footprints are estimated to exceed those of air travel with around 1.7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year produced in the manufacture and running of digital technologies (climatecare.org and BBC 2020). Computers and network hardware such as data centres must be powered and cooled drawing electricity from non-renewable fuel sources.During the height of COVID19 lockdown, UK's internet usage surges to record levels. Time spent online due to working from home is up by 67% compared with pre-lockdown usage (Opinium April 2020 survey). Remote online work has significantly increased the energy and associated carbon footprint that power the internet and the equipment that support it such as the data centres and server networks at companies and offices that enable remote working.A promising solution to address this problem is to transform an idle backup energy storage device into an asset with an investment return and carbon savings potential.UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply - systems are commonly used in commercial buildings and industries to protect hardware such as computers, data centers, telecommunication equipment or other electrical equipment in case there are any unexpected power disruptions that could cause injuries, fatalities, serious business disruption or data loss. UPS can be used as energy storage systems additionally to their primary use in order to generate additional benefits to their users.Alp has developed a utility scale smart battery system called BRIC which reduces total system cost by over 30% by using smarter electronics and AI. With environmental sustainability and circular economy principles in mind, BRIC is designed and tested to utilize new or second-life cells and substantially increase useful life.Our game changing innovations accomplish this by an electronic design, AI and software that proactively monitor and manage the battery at the individual cell level to anticipate issues before they can escalate. Combined, these solutions will not only optimise performance and prolongs useful life but improve safety while simplifying maintenance, servicing or replacement. These unique features give the BRIC the ability to better handle older and second-life cells.This project will involve research and development to improve the server level design (Mega-BRIC) and demonstrate that the tech and logic design can meet the requirements of a UPS system with regards to safety, efficiency and availability of the system.