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Recent outages underline two separate resilience lessons: failures can begin far upstream of a facility, and backup equipment only helps when it is ready to carry the load. The March 2025 North Hyde Substation incident was caused by a transformer bushing failure and fire—not a reported battery-maintenance gap. Three data centres lost grid supply but kept operating on backup generators, according to the UK’s National Energy System Operator (NESO). That outcome demonstrates the role of backup power, but says nothing about the condition or performance of those sites’ batteries.
What the North Hyde outage does—and does not—show
NESO’s final review, published 1 July 2025, attributes the North Hyde Substation incident to catastrophic failure of a high-voltage transformer bushing at National Grid Electricity Transmission’s 275 kV substation, followed by a fire. The resulting outage affected Heathrow and other services. NESO reported that three data centres lost their grid supply and continued operating using backup generators. Read NESO’s final review.
The distinction matters: the reported initiating fault was in the transmission network, not a data-centre battery system. NESO’s account does not identify neglected batteries as a cause, nor does continued operation on generators establish how batteries at those facilities performed. The incident is a useful illustration of how an upstream grid failure can test a facility’s entire backup chain without being caused by it.
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Why power reliability remains a data-centre concern
Uptime Institute’s 2025 Annual Outage Analysis identifies power issues as the most common cause category for serious and severe data-centre outages. It also reports that failure to follow procedures became a greater contributor than in the previous year. These are findings about the outages covered by Uptime’s analysis, not a diagnosis of every major infrastructure incident. See Uptime Institute’s 2025 Annual Outage Analysis.
In its 2025 Global Data Center Survey, Uptime Institute reports that power accounted for 45% of impactful outages in 2025. Separate 2025 resiliency-survey research cited in the report breaks down causes of power-related IT service outages as follows:
| Reported cause | Share | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|
| UPS failures | 42% | A UPS-related failure was reported; the figure does not identify batteries alone as the cause. |
| Transfer-switch failures | 36% | Switching between power sources can be a failure point. |
| Generator failures | 28% | Generation equipment can also fail to support the load. |
The figures are Uptime Institute’s 2025 survey findings, not universal failure rates. The categories may overlap or be rounded, so they should not be added together. A UPS failure can involve components other than its batteries; a working battery is only one part of a system that must detect a supply problem, transfer or condition power, and support the load for the required period. See Uptime Institute’s 2025 Global Data Center Survey.
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What battery maintenance is meant to catch
Stationary batteries change over time, and age alone cannot establish whether a particular bank remains fit for its job. Chemistry, system design, manufacturer instructions, operating temperature, discharge history and measured condition all matter. A maintenance program looks for signs of deterioration and confirms performance against the system’s requirements.
Vertiv describes stationary-battery maintenance that can include visual and mechanical inspection, checks of the operating environment, internal impedance or resistance measurements, load-bank or capacity testing, and infrared inspection. Its guidance identifies high temperatures, corrosion, undercharging or overcharging, shorted or open cells, dryout and aging as factors that can affect battery life. For the stationary battery types and practices covered in its summary of IEEE 450 and IEEE 1188, Vertiv says replacement is recommended when capacity falls below 80% of the manufacturer’s rating. That threshold is not a universal rule for every chemistry, product or UPS. Read Vertiv’s UPS battery maintenance guidance.
How to decide when a UPS battery needs testing or replacement
Use the equipment maker’s instructions and the facility’s operating procedures rather than applying one age limit to every system. The following checks help connect maintenance decisions to the actual equipment and its role:
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- Identify the system and battery. Confirm the UPS model, battery chemistry and manufacturer requirements. A small-office UPS cartridge and a facility’s stationary battery bank are different maintenance contexts.
- Review condition evidence. Check alarms and self-test results alongside inspection findings and, where specified, impedance, resistance or capacity-test trends. A single indicator may not answer whether the system can meet its required runtime.
- Account for operating conditions. Consider temperature, discharge frequency and depth, power quality and the battery’s service history when interpreting age or test results.
- Compare measured capacity with the system’s job. The needed runtime, load, redundancy and available alternative power determine the operational significance of deterioration.
- Plan testing around the risk. Follow the manual and site procedures: capacity tests and runtime calibration can discharge batteries or temporarily reduce backup protection. Establish applicable load and bypass conditions before testing.
- Replace safely and appropriately. Use the specified compatible replacement and plan safe disposal or recycling under applicable local requirements.
For a single-phase Schneider Electric Smart-UPS, the vendor recommends using the UPS self-test. Its FAQ says the cited VRLA batteries typically last four to five years, while its broader safety guidance gives a typical range of two to five years. Both sources note that conditions such as ambient temperature and discharge patterns affect life; the FAQ also cites input power quality. These are product guidance ranges, not a schedule to transfer automatically to large facility systems. Verify instructions for the exact model before testing or ordering a replacement. Schneider Electric Smart-UPS battery FAQ and Schneider Electric battery safety guidance.
Facility maintenance and small-UPS replacement are different jobs
For a consumer or small-office UPS, the practical first step is to find the exact model and confirm its compatible replacement cartridge in the manufacturer’s documentation. Schneider Electric provides model-specific replacement information; a cartridge intended for one UPS should not be assumed to fit another. Find Schneider Electric’s UPS battery replacement guidance.
Commercial stationary-battery inspection, testing and replacement involve system-level procedures and operational risks that a consumer cartridge swap does not address. Facility operators should use qualified service appropriate to the battery and installation, and coordinate tests with those responsible for the supported load and backup configuration. Vendor service descriptions explain available maintenance activities, but do not by themselves establish a comparative ranking of providers.
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The practical lesson for infrastructure operators
Outage reports show why backup power deserves attention, but a headline about a power failure does not prove that batteries caused it. North Hyde’s documented cause was an upstream transformer bushing failure and fire; Uptime Institute’s sector data, meanwhile, show that power-related failures are prominent across reported data-centre outages, with UPS, transfer-switch and generator issues all represented.
For operators, resilience depends on the complete chain: reliable supply, correctly functioning switching and UPS equipment, batteries maintained and tested for their intended runtime, generators where designed, and procedures that are followed. The evidence supports maintaining and verifying that chain; it does not support attributing the named outage—or every infrastructure outage—to a battery-maintenance gap.
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