Circular economy in the data center: how to extend the service life of your UPS from 10 to 20 years without losing performance

The question that changes the TCO calculation

A traditional UPS with a VRLA bank has a design service life of 8 to 12 years under controlled conditions. After that, the typical decision is to replace the whole system, including cabinets, cabling, and battery bank. But a UPS designed for circularity can extend its operational service life to 20 years through three mechanisms: hot-swappable modular architecture, active degradation monitoring, and incremental component refresh instead of systemic replacement.

The economic prize is meaningful. A 500 kW UPS with capital cost between $200,000 and $400,000 USD (approx. $3.5M-$7M MXN at 17.5 MXN/USD) has an annualized cost of $15,000 to $40,000 USD (approx. $262,500-$700,000 MXN) at 10 years. Extending service life to 20 years cuts that annualized cost in half, before considering energy inflation and disposal costs.

Modular architecture as an enabler

Traditional monolithic UPSes (one single big cabinet, no modular redundancy) require full replacement when a critical component fails or when capacity is no longer enough. That means that at the end of the weakest component’s service life, the whole system is discarded, even though the remaining components have years of useful life left.

Modular UPSes change that equation. Systems such as the Legrand Keor FLEX (Data Centre World 2026 award for best circular infrastructure) are designed with:

• Hot-swappable power and bypass modules that can be replaced, restored, or relocated independently.
• Universal battery interface that allows reusing existing VRLA, Li-ion, or Nickel-Zinc banks during upgrades, instead of discarding the whole bank.
• Low-impedance internal busbar architecture that reduces thermal failure points and extends semiconductor service life.
• FMECA validation (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) to design distributed resilience, which limits unnecessary module swaps.

The result is that a well-maintained modular UPS can extend its operational life far beyond the traditional design horizon.

The three levers for extending service life

1. Active condition monitoring

The first lever is moving from calendar-based preventive maintenance to condition-based predictive maintenance. For UPS, that includes:

• Internal resistance monitoring of each battery cell. Internal resistance increases with age and cycle count. A 25% increase over the initial value usually indicates end of service life near.
• Thermal monitoring of power semiconductors. IGBTs and SiC devices operate within specific thermal windows. Exceeding them accelerates degradation.
• Vibration analysis on rotating components (fans). Real-time monitoring detects degraded bearings before catastrophic failure.
• Logging of bypass-transfer events. Each transfer registers stress on semiconductors and filters; elevated frequency indicates systemic degradation.

The required instrumentation costs between $5,000 and $15,000 USD (approx. $87,500-$262,500 MXN) for a medium UPS, and the return is early problem detection before they become operational failure.

2. Component refurbishment at mid-life

The second lever is to accept that certain components will need replacement before the whole system, and to plan for it. For a UPS with a VRLA bank:

• At 5-7 years, VRLA cells begin to show internal-resistance increase. The whole bank does not need replacement — the worst-condition cells do.
• At 10-12 years, DC filtering capacitors are usually out of specification. Selective replacement extends system life.
• At 15-18 years, fans and some power components may need refurbishment.

The practice of replacing individual components instead of the whole system reduces the volume of electronic waste generated by between 60% and 80% compared to systemic replacement.

3. Incremental technology refresh

The third lever is modular technology upgrade. A 500 kW UPS installed in 2010 with first-generation IGBTs may, by 2025, have gone through:

• Replacement of the VRLA battery bank with Li-ion (without changing cabinets or power cabling).
• Replacement of IGBT power modules with higher-efficiency SiC modules (in architectures that allow it).
• Controller upgrade for new features (IoT monitoring, BMS integration, communication with management systems).

Each incremental refresh extends service life between 5 and 7 years. Three incremental refreshes over 20 years let the original UPS stay operational while incorporating the technological improvements available at each point in time.

The TCO calculation at 20 years

For a 500 kW UPS, the approximate total cost of ownership calculation over 20 years under three scenarios:

Scenario 1: Traditional replacement at 10 years.

• Initial cost monolithic UPS: $250,000 USD.
• Initial cost VRLA battery bank: $50,000 USD.
• Full replacement cost at year 10: $300,000 USD (new UPS + bank).
• Disposal cost of replaced equipment: $15,000 USD.
• 20-year total: $615,000 USD.

Scenario 2: Modular UPS with incremental refresh at 20 years.

• Initial cost modular UPS: $350,000 USD.
• Initial cost Li-ion battery bank: $80,000 USD.
• Battery-bank refresh at year 12 (only degraded cells): $25,000 USD.
• Power-module refresh at year 8 (SiC upgrade): $60,000 USD.
• Controller refresh at year 6 and year 14: $20,000 USD each.
• Disposal cost at year 20 (only individual components): $8,000 USD.
• 20-year total: $563,000 USD.

Scenario 3: Modular UPS with active monitoring and predictive maintenance.

• Same as scenario 2, but with initial monitoring cost: $15,000 USD.
• Reduction in unplanned downtime: conservative estimated value $20,000 USD per avoided event, assuming 2 events in 20 years.
• Service-life extension from early detection: 2 additional years without major replacement = $50,000 USD saved.
• 20-year total: $498,000 USD plus operational continuity value.

Scenario 3 reduces TCO by 19% versus the traditional one, before counting operational continuity.

What the operator must document

For the circular approach to work operationally, the minimum documentation includes:

• Component inventory with installation date, supplier, model, serial number.
• Historical log of operational events, including bypass transfers, alarms, maintenance interventions.
• Measured degradation curve per component, not aggregated by system.
• Refresh plan per component with horizons at 3, 5, 10, and 15 years.
• Disposal traceability when a component leaves the system.

That documentation is the foundation on which future REP compliance and the verification of the circularity claims that corporate clients will demand are built.

The difference between new modular UPS and refurbished monolithic UPS

A decision that will appear in many RFPs over the next 5 years is: is it preferable to buy a new modular UPS at a higher initial price, or to maintain a refurbished monolithic UPS at a lower price?

The answer depends on planning horizon and on the quality of the maintenance program:

• For operators with 5-year planning, a refurbished monolithic UPS with new batteries is the lowest initial-cost option.
• For operators with 15-20-year planning, a modular UPS with incremental refresh is the lowest-TCO option.
• For operators migrating to hyperscale or closing sites, no new UPS option makes sense — the existing equipment is used until end of life and discarded.

The case for Li-ion batteries in UPS

Replacing the VRLA bank with Li-ion at mid-life of the UPS is the most underestimated service-life extension lever. Compared on operational metrics:

• Service life: Li-ion 10-15 years vs VRLA 5-7 years. At equal horizon, the Li-ion bank requires 1.5 to 2 fewer replacements.
• Energy density: Li-ion 3-5x higher than VRLA, which reduces footprint by 50-70%.
• Operating temperature: Li-ion tolerates 86-104°F (30-40°C) vs VRLA which degrades quickly above 77°F (25°C).
• Cost: Li-ion 2-3x more expensive per kWh, but the gap shrinks when counting the full life cycle and the freed space.

The universal battery interface system of modern UPS such as Keor FLEX allows this change without replacing cabinets or power cabling. Only the battery bank.

Sources

1. Intelligent Data Centres (March 2026). Legrand’s Keor FLEX modular UPS wins Data Centre World 2026 award for circular infrastructure. https://intelligentdatacentres.com/2026/03/09/legrands-keor-flex-modular-ups-wins-data-centre-world-2026-award-for-circular-infrastructure
2. Data Centre Insight (March 2026). Legrand’s Keor FLEX modular UPS wins Data Centre World 2026 award. https://datacentreinsight.co.uk/2026/03/10/legrands-keor-flex-modular-ups-wins-data-centre-world-2026-award
3. Intelligent CIO Middle East (2026). Keor FLEX three-phase modular UPS — Data Centre World Awards 2026. https://me.magazine.intelligentcio.com/intelligent-cio-middle-east-special-edition-issue-125/0241215001774870330/p30
4. Critical Power Battery Solutions (January 2026). Best UPS Battery Solutions for Data Centers in 2026: Expert Guide. https://criticalpowerbatterysolutions.com/best-ups-battery-solutions-data-centers-2026
5. Data Center Dynamics (2026). The transformation of power — UPS upgrade strategies. https://datacenterdynamics.com/en/marketwatch/the-transformation-of-power