The Lower Kuskokwim School District, located in Bethel, Alaska, is the state’s second largest rural school district, covering roughly 22,000 square miles of roadless tundra. The district is comprised of 29 K-12 school sites and nearly 4,000 students, with the mission to ensure bilingual, culturally appropriate and effective education for its students.
Significant power quality issues, the need for unparalleled uptime at school sites and the logistical challenges for its remote location combined to create a perfect storm for the Alaskan school district. However, by standardizing a power management strategy Lower Kuskokwim has dramatically increased uptime.
A Flurry of Challenges
When it came to reducing downtime within the Bethel, Alaska school district, obstacles were almost as abundant as the snowfall in the area. “Our power isn’t the cleanest, nor is it the most reliable,” Network Manager Gabe Carmichael said. “Some schools experience power outages on a daily basis, while others have weekly blackouts. Still others might only lose power when their generators need maintenance.”
Despite the tests and trials sparked by power quality conditions, downtime just isn’t an option for the district. “In today’s learning environment, just about everything of any real instructional value requires online access,” Carmichael emphasizes.
To achieve continuous, high availability of technology, the Lower Kuskokwim School District recognized the need to upgrade its power protection solution. The organization desired an alternative to the hodgepodge of uninterruptible power system (UPS) brands and capacities that were scattered among school sites and frequently failed.
Working with Inside Solution Architect Rob Pepper from CDW, the school district was able to determine the optimal UPS solution. “We look to him for most of our outside project equipment,” Carmichael explains, “and he recommended the option of standardizing on lithium-ion UPS technology.”
An A+ Power Protection Solution
The Eaton 9PX lithium-ion UPS proved to be an excellent solution to overcome the multitude of challenges experienced by Lower Kuskokwim Schools. Initially trying out a few units, the district was so impressed with the technology that it promptly standardized on the 2000 VA model and to date has rolled out 120 units.
Providing two to three times more runtime at full load compared to lead-acid batteries, the double-conversion UPS offered a set-it-and-forget-it deployment ideal for remote environments. “The set-it-and-forget-it factor was huge for us,” Carmichael emphasizes. “Where lead-acid UPSs might have a three- or four-year lifespan anywhere else, in our harsh environment we were lucky to get two years and we never knew when the batteries might die.”
Providing eight to 10 years of life expectancy, the 9PX lithium-ion UPS not only lasts longer than lead-acid UPSs but optimizes long-term cost savings by minimizing battery maintenance expenses. The solution is 40 percent lighter than comparable lead-acid UPSs and smaller, which eases delivery challenges. The solution also provides remote firmware upgrade functionality, giving Lower Kuskokwim the ability to keep firmware consistently up to date.
Earn Extra Credit
Lower Kuskokwim School District paired each 9PX lithium-ion UPS with an Eaton Gigabit Network Card, the first UPS connectivity device to meet both UL and IEC cybersecurity standards. The card improves power system reliability by providing warnings of pending issues and helping to perform orderly, graceful shutdown of servers and storage.
Another appealing feature is they require less amperage to charge quickly. “When we had lead-acid UPSs, at some sites they were put on underpowered circuits and would trip,” Carmichael explains.
The school district is also benefiting from a space-saving footprint. “The size was definitely a concern,” Carmichael acknowledges, “because some of our communication closets are purpose-built rooms and others are not. Some are literally janitorial closets where we ducted air flow into when the schools were wired in the mid-90s.”
Additional reliability, performance and peace of mind are achieved through the UPS’s proven Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry and built-in battery management system (BMS), which actively monitors temperature and charge. Lower Kuskokwim complemented its power protection solution with Tripp Lite series power distribution units (PDUs) that feed switches on different groups of UPSs.
Setting a High Bar
Since standardizing its backup power solution, Carmichael reports that the district’s internal outages have decreased significantly. “Some schools have equipment that has maintained uptime for 18 or 19 months now because of the UPSs. For us, this is an extraordinary feat.”
The district has experienced a courseload of advantages, not the least of which is dramatically improved uptime. “We no longer cringe every time our ISP notifies us of an outage, or we get a call from a site saying that we lost power,” Carmichael noted. “The UPSs keep the equipment up and running.”
The author, Sami Hussaini, is a product manager at Eaton.