Datacenters' demand for lithium batteries used in their uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems is expected to rise dramatically in 2018, as tech giants including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), are poised to adopt related solutions for their server systems. And Taiwan lithium battery makers including Simplo Techology and DynaPack International Technology are seen to benefit from the explosive market demand, according to supply chain sources.
The sources said that UPS systems are indispensable to securing stable operations of datacenters, and datacenter operators have started trial use of UPS systems supported by lithium batteries instead of lead acid batteries since Taiwan's Quanta Computer released in 2014 a brand-new battery backup system (BBS) with four sets of lithium batteries. The BBS, directly designed as part of server modules, can discharge electricity for three consecutive minutes to support continuous operation of servers in case of power supply interruption.
The release has since attracted tech players to incorporate the lithium battery-based BBS into their server systems on a trial basis, and following years of stable improvement of UPS systems supported by lithium batteries, they are now ready to adopt such systems in their datacenter servers, the sources said.
Industry insiders said that the UPS systems at datacenters used to adopt lead acid batteries mainly because such batteries are far cheaper than lithium ones. But now an increasing number of datacenter operators would use lithium battery-based UPS systems, as such batteries can last longer and boast higher efficiency, compared to lead acid ones.
In addition, lithium batteries involve an environmental friendlier production process than lead acid ones, because lithium is a green material without heavy metal and highly-polluted substances. Furthermore, lithium batteries are much smaller in size, suitable for being fitted with servers set up within a specified hardware space at datacenters, they indicated.
Taiwan lithium battery suppliers Simplo and DynaPack supply battery modules to local UPS system makers including Delta Electronics, Lite-On Technology and AcBel Polytech before the systems are shipped to operators of cloud datacenters. With customers incorporating such UPS systems at a faster pace in 2018, Simplo and DynaPack are expected to see a significant boost in their revenue performances for the year, the sources added.
