The availability of power impacts the average person, as well as businesses and government agencies at virtually every level. In today’s energy security aware world, ensuring power reliability is a critical mandate. Most recently, new energy storage technologies are being considered to help enhance the availability of power systems by allowing them to accommodate a variety of energy sources.

Intelligent power management systems are key to maximizing the benefits of energy storage and to seamlessly adapt to more dynamic power sources. Furthermore, the power infrastructure must be flexible when it comes to accommodating fluctuating daily and peak power demands, as well as potential overall increases in future energy usage.

As a result, more sophisticated management system technologies, including energy storage from the basis of the smart grid at utility levels, are being utilized for local micro-grid applications to increase the overall availability and efficiency of their power management. In addition, this also allows us to cost effectively meet long-term sustainability goals in an environmentally-conscious world.

Julius Neudorfer is the CTO and founder of North American Access Technologies, Inc. (NAAT). Based in Westchester, NY, NAAT’s clients include Fortune 500 firms and government agencies. NAAT has been designing and implementing data center infrastructure and related technology projects for the last 25 years. Julius is a member of AFCOM, ASHRAE, BICSI, IEEE and The Green Grid. He is a Master Instructor for the DC-Professional Development program, as well as for the U.S. Department of Energy “Data Center Energy Practitioner” “DCEP” program. He developed and holds a U.S. patent for a high efficiency cooling system for rack mounted computer equipment. He writes the “Hot Aisle Insight” column at Mission Critical, and has also written numerous articles and whitepapers for various IT and data center publications and has presented seminars and webinars on data center power, cooling and energy efficiency.

A global force in power solutions since 1920, Kohler is committed to reliable, intelligent products, purposeful engineering and responsive after-sale support. The company manufactures complete power systems, including generators (portable, residential, industrial, and marine), automatic transfer switches, switchgear, monitoring controls, and accessories for emergency, prime power and energy-management applications worldwide. For more details, please visit www.KohlerPower.com.