27/12/2021
Why Flexible Power Distribution system for Data Center Power Management Solution?
Data center managers are faced with increasingly challenging demands: supplying additional computing power using less energy in a smaller space, while staying within budget constraints and maintaining mission-critical reliability. These demands often create a culture of frequent and predictable change without compromising the end product.
Unfortunately, it can also stress some existing data centers, making them unsustainable for several reasons. These reasons can include: the inability to quickly adapt to changes in computer equipment capacity, the fact that many data centers are nearing or have surpassed the limitations of their power capacity and power distribution system and the lack of efficiency due to an outdated or non-existent power monitoring infrastructure. In the many data center there are traditional Power Solutions which power capacity and distribution designs consist of stand alone online ups, power distribution units (ICT PDUs) delivering power to remote power panels (RPPs), which in turn deliver power to racks via โwhipsโ โ power cabling routed underneath a raised floor. While such implementations
are well known and represent a low risk for the design engineer and electrical contractor, the drawbacks of such designs are well established: valuable floor space is consumed by distribution equipment; raised floors are costly; under-floor cabling becomes congested, disrupting air flow used for cooling; requirements to remove unused cables, which tend to be abandoned; and risk of human error while working with circuit breakers and cables that are not clearly associated with a given load. Equally important, traditional data center power implementations are neither flexible nor adaptable, and are therefore expensive and time consuming to change. When designing a data center with traditional electrical systems, engineers or designers must pre-plan every outlet โ from dedicated hard wired conductors for each power outlet through overhead or raised floors back to main distribution panels and circuit breakers. It is nearly impossible to pre determine the power requirements for each rack in each location when the data center goes live, let alone plan for future requirements. As a result, data center managers either overbuild the current system with a much higher investment, or build a system that will meet current planned demand, but increase the operating expense when costly changes are required. When inevitable changes occur as a result of growth, equipment upgrades or changed plans, the costs for electrical changes can be significant, both in terms of labor costs and the risk of outages.
How to Todayโs Power Management Solution Flexible and Adaptable:
In recent years, power management solutions have evolved to the point where they are both flexible and easily adaptable to changing requirements. They are also scalable for change and growth and typically provide the lowest long-term cost of ownership.
Solutions include Modular Online UPS, overhead busway systems, intelligent ICT PDUs and intelligent power management software.
