APC endows UPS with ability to report power consumption

Your APC by Schneider Electric uninterruptible power supply (aka UPS) can now report on how much energy specific pieces of your IT infrastructure are using. The catch is that it works with the APC Smart-UPS networ and server lines, so you'll need to make sure that's the equipment you are using. (Incidentally, a new edition of the Smart-UPS equipment is due in North America late in the fourth quarter.)

The power cost tracking capability is made possible by PowerChute Business Edition 9.0, which calculates the cost of a specific Smart-UPS power draw in kilowatt-hours. It can adjust that calculation according to the local currency that makes sense for your particular installation. The software, which comes with the Smart-UPS 5kVA product and can also be downloaded off the APC Web site, also calculates the carbon emissions associated with the equipment attached to each UPS.