POWER
The 80 Plus Program and Power Supplies
The one thing that the largest recent trends in technology all have in common is that they all require tremendous amounts of computing power. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) can require massive amounts of computational power to execute specific algorithms; supercomputers are often used to do the processing. AI/ ML also frequently requires enormous amounts of data to train the algorithms correctly. Like cloud computing, storing and processing this information requires data centers full of servers, routers, and switches, all of which consume large amounts of power.
Efficiency is Increasingly Important in High Performance Computing
This new generation of computing is placing stringent demands upon the components and systems needed to run these machines. Of utmost importance in all these computing applications is the power supply. It is no longer enough to “just” provide power. Thermal constraints must be met, greater power efficiency must be achieved, redundancy must be put in place, and reliability is required.
Any well-designed computing system will take all these factors into account. In fact, regulations and certifications are beginning to govern some of these requirements and help identify power supplies that meet certain criteria.
One such example is Energy Star, a voluntary program developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They set stringent requirements for 80 PLUS power supplies, ensuring their energy efficiency and environmental performance. The specifications demand that the power supplies achieve at least 80% energy efficiency at various load levels: 20%, 50%, and 100%. For instance, to qualify for the basic 80 PLUS certification, a power supply must perform at 80% efficiency at the specified loads. The standards become progressively stricter for higher certifications like Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium. These rigorous standards reflect Energy Star’s commitment to promoting power efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of energy use, thereby driving the creation of more sustainable servers and storage
devices.
What is the 80 Plus Program? The 80 Plus program is a certification program launched in the early 2000s. It was first put together by Ecos Consulting but is now run by CLEARResult. It is a voluntary program that helps manufacturers promote energy-efficient designs intended for use in computers. In order to meet the 80 Plus certification, power supplies must be at least 80% efficient at 20%, 50%, and 100% of the rated load and achieve a power factor of 0.9 or greater at 100% load.
But what exactly are power efficiency and power factor?
Calculating Power Supply Efficiency Power efficiency may be the more well- known measurement of the two. Simply put, power supply efficiency is the ratio of output power to total input power, expressed as a percentage. * 100
Due to the non-ideal effects of electronic components used in power supplies, 100% efficiency is not possible. These effects can be the switching and conduction losses in active components, such as transistors and rectifiers, resistive losses in wires, windings, PCB traces, and ac losses in the transformer. The energy lost in these components is generally dissipated in the form of heat, which can create additional issues.
Calculating Power Factor
Power factor is a bit more complex. It is a ratio of real power to apparent power and
26 MARCH 2024 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS
Figure 2: Current 80-Plus Levels
Figure 1: Power triangle showing real and reactive components and resulting apparent power vector.
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