Our team members come from diverse and experienced backgrounds in electrical training, and many have been in critical power for years. We pride ourselves on choosing the best people to service our customers to ensure that you get the most out of your equipment.
Our team members come from diverse and experienced backgrounds in electrical training, and many have been in critical power for years. We pride ourselves on choosing the best people to service our customers to ensure that you get the most out of your equipment.
Anthony is a Pittsburgh native who has worked in Mitsubishi Electric’s Critical Power Solutions Division as a Field Service Technician II for the past 6 years, following his previous role in the High Voltage Switchgear Division.
Certifications
SAFT batteries, Samsung batteries, Vyconn flywheel, NFPA-70, OSHA 10
Field Trained
9900D; 9900C/CX; 9900B; 9900A; 9900, 9800, Samsung & SAFT Lithium Ion; LookUPS & CS141 Monitoring; Load Banking, Battery Install and Testing; Wet Cell Batteries
What is something that people may find surprising or interesting about working in critical power?
“The size of the data storage industry. It’s much larger than people think. I mean, everybody uses the internet, but I don’t think everybody quite grasps the idea that the internet’s not just this thing in the Cloud.
The internet - the sites - everything’s done on servers. When you type in a web address, it comes up to a server somewhere; it’s not just this thing floating in the air. All these websites- all this stuff - has to be stored somewhere and these buildings are going up one a day.
You can drive through like Loudoun County, Virginia and it’s just data center after data center after data center. I don’t think people really quite grasp the size of the physical stamp that the internet is.”
Speaking of the physical presence of data, do you think there will ever come a time when we'll run out of space for it?
“Physical space? No per se, but you have to realize these centers also have to be in a place that’s conducive to having a center.
That’s why there’s so much in Virginia because it’s also the fiber optic capital of the world. You need the fiber optic cable to communicate with the servers at a certain speed, so you can’t just pop one up in the middle of anywhere.’’
Mitsubishi Electric supports a variety of colocation data centers. What other industries do you expect will see an increase in need for critical power? Why?
“The medical field. I just think the medical field’s getting more technical every day. We rely more on machines assisting whether it be [CT scans] or MRIs or x-rays.
We have AI coming into diagnosing nowadays. There’s more and more responsibility on technology assistance in the medical field, so it makes a good assumption to me, that when you keep adding more technology to something, you need to add reliable power for that technology. [However] nothing will ever rival a data center.”
What sets Mitsubishi Electric apart from other brands in the industry?
“Our reliability. I speak to customers and electricians who work at these sites that see units other than ours and get their feedback and stories. I’ve heard stories about how some of our competitors actually send extra modules along for startups because they expect something to go wrong during the startup where they need a replacement - and that’s something I could never see us doing.
We don’t go into a job expecting something to fail. I hear about other units that need repairs on a regular basis that we don’t.”
What is something people should know when looking for the ideal Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)?
“Think about sizing and future use of unit. I was looking more at our smaller customerswhere we do a lot of hospital stuff or small business things where they buy a unit and they don’t plan for expansion down the road and then they end up buying a second unit or buying a larger unit. It’s just more of a thinking ahead type of idea for smaller customers who don’t expect to grow as much as they do.”
* Read our "Basics of Sizing a UPS" blog post for more detail!
What advice would you give to a facility manager?
“Be aware of conditions to get the most life out of the unit - mostly environmental. A lot of the places you go to don’t have proper cooling and the batteries are in an environment that causes them to run down faster.
A lot of places aren’t as clean. Our units are tanks - they’re made to withstand a lot. It doesn’t necessarily mean that putting them in a dirty room and having everything covered with dirt all the time is a good idea.
A lot of people treat these units as tanks because they are, but they don’t realize that if you treated them as fine equipment, you’d get a much longer life span out of them and it would save you money in the long run because you’re not replacing parts or replacing batteries as often as you’d need to.”
In your opinion, what sets our Field Service Team apart?
“Our ability to lean on each other and work as a team. We communicate with each other very often so when one of us has a problem, it’s easy for us all to be aware of it so when we see it in future instances, we kind of have an idea of what it is already.
And I think the other part is not all of us have the same experiences day-to-day. Some of us tend to do certain tasks more than others and vice versa, so one person might see something all the time and it becomes regular for him so that he has a good understanding of it.
So when Technician B does it and doesn’t see it all the time, they have a source to lean on and it reciprocates. Tech B sees this all the time when Tech A needs advice, he’s there for him.”
What is something you are passionate about outside of work?
"Fantasy Football.”
What is the best advice you have received?
“'You get out of it what you put into it.'
That’s what I feel is a good life mantra - if you’re willing to work hard and put forth an effort, you reap the rewards of it. If you wanna sit around and do nothing, then you’re never gonna get anything.”