BSEE DATA CENTRES


Will Darby, Managing Director at metering, controls and automaon specialist Carlo Gavazzi UK, discusses trends in electrical distribuon in data centres and missioncrical applicaons and an innovave soluon to power quality monitoring.


plants can have devastating consequences and lead to financial losses, damage to reputation and reduced business.


P


Mission-critical applications have complex electrical distribution systems and it is essential that end- users monitor key parameters affecting power quality such as leakage currents, neutral-ground voltage, voltage stability, wave shape and harmonics. Equally, effective monitoring of power usage is essential to minimise energy consumption and running costs and meet environmental legislation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets.


Quality me


Why are power quality issues such as harmonics important? Let’s take data centres as an example. There are two key issues in any data centre: equipment reliability and running costs and problems with harmonics will have a detrimental impact on both. Harmonics can be


ower outages or power quality issues in mission-critical


environments such as data centres, hospitals and industrial process


caused by both current distortion and voltage distortion. Typically, current distortion will be caused by non-linear loads, while voltage distortion is most likely to be caused when an electrical device pulls current distortion through an impedance.


Harmonics can lead to a reduction in energy efficiency because harmonic currents increase losses on conductors and transformers, creating heat and increasing power and cooling costs. The heat generated by harmonics can increase equipment downtime and cause early equipment failure or breakdowns. Overall lifespan of electrical equipment can be shortened, leading to increased capital expenditure as companies are forced to purchase replacement equipment sooner than planned for. Capital costs can also be increased because data centre managers may opt to oversize equipment to compensate for the losses caused by heating and distortion.


Monitoring is essenal


So the ability for end users to quickly and cost-effectively monitor power quality is crucial. Today, large data centres are the norm with multiple


Adversing: 01622 699116 Editorial: 01354 461430


ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION IN DATA CENTRES And why power quality monitoring is missioncritical


servers and data racks. Typically, groups of 48 servers are installed in rack panels in big data centres. Each server supply is protected by a dedicated breaker and it is necessary to monitor each branch for effective control of electrical variables and energy cost allocation. The mains supply to the distribution panel (located close to the server racks) must also be monitored and controlled. A device is needed that is able to monitor this amount of channels


uFollowing extensive market research Carlo Gavazzi has introduced its WM50 branch circuit monitoring system.


while keeping space and installation complexity under control. A traditional metering system requires too much space and a short installation time is also crucial as a single data centre can include 100 to 200 distribution panels.


36 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER SEPTEMBER 2018


VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.bsee.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58