Designing power systems for co-location data centers

Many sections of the NEC will apply to a co-location installation, with the most important being Articles 445 (Generators), 645 (Information Technology Equipment), 646 (Modular Data Centers), 700 (Emergency Systems), 701 (Legally Required Standby Systems), 702 (Optional Standby Systems), and 705 (In...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Consulting - Specifying Engineer 2018-12, Vol.55 (11), p.16
Main Author: Martin, Brian P
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Automation
Building codes
Business models
Component reliability
Computer centers
Cooling
Costs
Data centers
Design
Electric power distribution
Electric power systems
Electrical codes
Electrocutions
Emergency equipment
Engineers
Flashover
Generators
Harmonic distortion
HVAC
Information technology
Load
Modular equipment
Onsite
Power factor
Racks
Redundancy
Response time
Switches
Switching
Systems design
Transformers
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Summary:Many sections of the NEC will apply to a co-location installation, with the most important being Articles 445 (Generators), 645 (Information Technology Equipment), 646 (Modular Data Centers), 700 (Emergency Systems), 701 (Legally Required Standby Systems), 702 (Optional Standby Systems), and 705 (Interconnected Electric Power Production Sources). * NFPA 70E: The SLA may include items such as: * Temperature/moisture level including variances, rate of rise, excursions allowed per year. * Voltages served to racks. * Redundancy of components. * Reliability/availability metrics. * Planned outage time per year. * Unplanned outage time per year. * Outage response time. * Physical security. * Site security. * Networking and network providers available. * Power factor and total harmonic distortion (THD). * Site support hours and level of support. * Metering locations and billing methodology. * Certifications and classifications (Uptime Institute or others). The disadvantages of this system include: * More complicated switching for operations staff. * If switches are used and automation is required, it requires switches with motor operators to provide automatic switching. * At higher voltages, load break switches have a very low number of operations allowed before requiring service (refer to IEEE Standard C37.20.4-2013 for additional detail). * As mentioned previously, reducing arc flash at the secondary of transformers when using switch/fuse construction can be difficult. [...]the transformer that was often supplied with the UPS is now pushed down to the power distribution unit (PDU).
ISSN:0892-5046
1558-2876