News

Posted On: 12/07/2009

GE teams with Validus DC Systems to introduce Direct Current Data Center System

PlantServices.com

GE Consumer and Industrial's electrical business recently signed a "strategic alliance agreement" with Validus DC Systems LLC, a provider of fully integrated Direct Current (DC) power infrastructure for datacenters and telecommunications facilities, to promote the new GE and Validus DC Data Center System. In addition to providing improved end-to-end reliability, the new system can lower facility costs for equipment, real estate and energy, effectively reducing the total cost of ownership by 30 to 50%.

Marriage by market demand

According to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., data centers account for 1.2% of total electrical use within the United States. And the use is growing.

GE and Validus signed a "strategic alliance agreement" in October 2009, allowing the birth of an enterprise-class DC solution that combines protection technologies from GE with the Validus end-to-end power and cooling system. As part of the agreement, Validus and GE will jointly promote the DC Data Center System through white papers, customer presentations and industry meetings.

"The need for increased productivity and improved efficiency within the datacenter continues to drive innovations across the industry,” says Amy O'Connor, vice president of marketing, Sun Services. "Sun can leverage the solutions offered through the GE and Validus alliance and our Sun Netra carrier-grade systems, as a new option for our customers when recommending datacenter designs.”

For a 2.5 MW data center with a 2N system, the DC Data Center System can provide the following benefits compared with AC systems:

• Use up to 25% less energy, saving nearly 14 million kWh per year, equivalent to approximately $3.3 million per year in annual energy savings, assuming $0.14 per kWh.
• Reduce the initial cost of the electrical distribution equipment by about 50%, and cut the installation cost by about 20-40%, depending on site conditions and power density.
• Reduce the real estate required for infrastructure equipment by about 50% — equivalent to a savings of about 7,000 ft² or $3.2 million per year assuming $500 annual cost per square foot.
• Provide total savings equivalent to $33 million over five years. 
• Improve reliability as the system has fewer single points of failure. The system has fewer power conversions and transformations, and therefore produces less heat output. As a result, the DC system is half as likely to fail within a five-year period compared with an equivalent AC system, and it provides 99.9998% reliability.

AC vs. DC

In a typical AC system, the utility voltage is normally transformed, rectified and inverted five times before it reaches the servers. The DC system rectifies and converts the utility supply twice to provide 48VDC, or just once to provide 380-570VDC, directly to standard DC powered servers. The DC system provides a more efficient end-to-end solution because it reduces energy losses from multiple conversions, produces less heat and reduces the amount of cooling needed.

The DC system eliminates the need for some of the power distribution equipment and sophisticated electronics normally found in AC systems. The reduction in equipment greatly reduces the need for large amounts of copper, steel, plastic and lead acid batteries.