Today in Germany, more than 700,000 people take a holiday cruise every year; electronic superintendent Michael Sass has had technical responsibility for these passengers for the last five years. “When the AIDAcara went into service, it was equipped with Powerbox UPS systems,” he recalls. “They worked fine, but recently they had reached the point where their replacement parts were becoming increasingly expensive to obtain.” So along with his team, he started looking for alternatives which would be able to handle the safeguarding of both the central IT and navigation systems. Describing the construction principle, Sass says, “Basically, you install the aggregates and distributors first, and then everything else is built around them.” There is little space for subsequent installation of large equipment, and UPS systems performing in a 20 to 60 kVA range are simply not small. Michael Sass does not give a particular brand preference automatically, but selects the systems depending on how they are going to be used. Thus, he received three tenders, including one from Newave, “The modular concept was perfect for us,” says Michael Sass. “Compared with a monolithic one-piece system, subsequent installation was considerably easier.” The financial aspect of Newave’s tender also pleased the engineer: the investment costs were only slightly more than those for a monolithic UPS; plus the costs were lower for the overall service life. “I have to take into account the overall costs; the initial price has little to do with the expenditure for five or ten years of service life.” Thanks to the simplified service provided by Newave’s UPS systems – which do not need a spare parts stock – the maintenance contracts are less expensive than those of other providers. Moreover, downtimes are a matter of minutes, because individual defective power modules can be exchanged for new ones. With so many convincing arguments, it was easy to choose Conceptpower DPA. Michael Sass first ordered a UPS with three 20 kVA power modules. One module is designated for redundancy; 40 kVA is sufficient for all emergency lighting systems on board. Shortly thereafter, two other Conceptpower applications were purchased, each with two 20 kVA modules.