The ABB FIA Formula E Championship aims to accelerate the shift to e-mobility. Its races are staged at exciting street circuits in cities around the world, with global audiences tuning in online and on live television and radio to follow the competition between some of the world’s most innovative automotive brands.
Making sure it all goes smoothly is Formula E Race Operations, the organization responsible for running the event. The team ensures that coverage can be beamed globally to fans – wherever in the world the races are staged.
ABB Formula E is one of the world’s most high-profile demonstrations of smart energy and high-performance e-mobility in action, so it’s vital that live broadcasts from events are never interrupted. This is where ABB Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to the Formula E broadcast center provides vital support.
The challenge
The project was for the development of a UPS system to secure TV and radio transmissions from the circuits. The UPS needed to provide 15 minutes of autonomous 60kVA power with input/output voltages of 230/400VAC 50 Hz. The solution also needed to be wheel-mounted and weight optimized for mobility as Formula E Operations needed three in total: one for the current race, and two travelling ahead to the next two locations.
Stuart Russell, Senior Electrical Manager for Formula E Race Operations, approached the Power Protection team at ABB Smart Power with this brief: “60 kW. 15 Minutes. No taller than a dining table on wheels.”
To build a UPS of this power, in a package small enough and robust enough to be shipped by courier or on a standard passenger airplane, there is no standard solution.
“But we love this kind of project,” says Tobias Scherer, Head of Sales UPS Swiss Market for ABB. “We have a specialist team who take care of applications that require extra flexibility and creativity. The Formula E project is a great example of our customer focus and innovation.”
The solution
At the heart of the resulting bespoke UPS unit is the modular DPA UPScale RI40 rack UPS with 60kW n+1 built into 19-inch cases. It comprises three hot-swappable 20kW modules with one additional module for redundancy. Each battery cabinet provides five minutes of autonomy.
The 300x7Ah lead acid battery system is divided into three sections to make them easier to move, each of which is also built into the special 19-inch cabinets.
“Our team selected the DPA UPScale RI40 for its reliability and modularity. We knew it was robust enough to stand up to the international travel of an ABB Formula E season and the ‘RI’ stands for ‘rack independent’, making it ideal for custom setups,” Markus Birrer, Head of Industrial UPS for ABB, explains.
With the wheels on, each cabinet is 1355mm high, 605mm wide and 1100mm deep. The UPS cabinets weigh 250kg and the battery cabinets weigh 400kg. The ABB solution uses shockproof 19-inch rack flight cases, specially developed for music tours and outdoor events.
Plug-and-play functionality is essential, simplifying installation for the on-site team. The doors are removable, and all the input, output and battery cables are plugged. For safety reasons, the AC and DC plugs are mechanically different, and all the battery cabinets must be plugged into the UPS for the system to run. An emergency stop is also integrated.
Instead of an instruction manual, ABB’s service team worked on a 10-minute smartphone video that shows how to install and operate the UPS. It worked perfectly.
“From start to finish, ABB’s response to our challenge has been outstanding,” says Russell. “Their team’s attention to every detail produced a custom specification that meets some quite exceptional requirements. Motorsport, particularly electric motorsport is a high-profile, high-pressure environment that places demands on the technologies and suppliers we work with. ABB’s UPS solution and their technical support is a valuable part of our team.”
