Detailed description of data center Power Supply Mode

Detailed description of data center Power Supply Mode

Electricity for data center equipment, just like gasoline for cars, cars cannot start without oil, and data centers cannot run without electricity, therefore, electricity is the most important thing for Data Center devices. All those who have learned the power base know that electricity is mainly divided into ac, DC and high voltage DC. AC power supply is the most common power supply method, but this power supply method is not efficient. Because the phase and size of the alternating current are changing at every moment, the alternating current can be changed, while the DC cannot be changed. The alternating current can be increased during transmission, this reduces the loss during transmission. Transformer may have multiple types of voltage output, such as 24 V, 48 V, or V, which makes AC the most common method in the power grid, however, for data centers, the power supply method should be considered comprehensively to save resources.

First, AC power supply. AC power distribution is still the mainstream power supply method for data centers, but AC power is not the most efficient power supply method. When the power was invented more than one hundred years ago, the efficiency issue was certainly not considered. At that time, it was quite remarkable to solve the problem. Currently, the use of AC power is not efficient, but after more than one hundred years of improvement, AC power supply has become the most mainstream mode, and it has been suppressing the progress of other methods, most data center devices also require exchange of input. AC input is simple. You can directly unplug the power cord for easy operation. In addition to the data center, most of the electrical appliances in the home are usually used for AC power supply. It can be said that the use of AC power has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and this has also affected the data center field. Therefore, all devices in the data center have been forced to support communication input, but do not require other methods. This also makes few devices in the data center that support other power supply methods.

The second is DC power supply. The AC power consumption is larger, while the DC power supply is the opposite. The DC power supply is smaller, and the DC power supply can be transmitted only with two wires. However, the DC voltage phase remains unchanged and is vulnerable to external interference when transmitting small signals. However, compared with AC power supply, DC power supply can save about 15% ~ 30% of the energy consumption, which cannot be rejected by large data centers. The energy consumption of the data center has severely restricted the rapid development of the data center. The high cost of electricity has become a obstacle in front of the data center. Nowadays, the competition for homogeneous data centers is fierce. If there is great savings in power consumption, it will greatly improve the competitiveness. Therefore, some DC-powered data centers are emerging. To support DC power supply, all devices need DC power supply. Compared with AC power supply, the manufacturing cost of DC power supply is higher. In addition, the power grids are both alternating current (AC), and the cost of these conversion devices is also high to increase the number of off-site conversion devices. In this case, it is necessary to calculate the charge. It is to directly use AC power supply, endure its waste, or add Substation Equipment, purchase equipment that supports DC input, and use DC power supply, this problem has been plagued by data centers for many years. The reality is that the high efficiency of DC power supply has become a consensus, but there are not many DC data centers to be built. Most data centers currently use AC power supply. Although the DC power supply is highly efficient, it is not easy to maintain at ordinary times. Unlike the AC power cord, you can directly unplug the cables. The DC inputs are connected through the wiring bar and need to be operated by personnel with knowledge of electricity. DC power supply also has high requirements on the grounding of equipment. If the equipment with poor grounding uses DC power supply, it is prone to leakage, and sometimes it may even break through the equipment, resulting in equipment failure, therefore, AC power supply is safer than AC power supply. It is worth noting that the DC power supply method has never been hot in the data center, but it is not widely used.

The next is high-voltage DC. We all know that the DC power supply is 48 V input, while the high-voltage DC uses high-voltage input such as 240 V, 280 V, and 336V. High-voltage DC refers to the high-voltage current without periodic changes in the direction and time, but the current size may not be fixed, resulting in a waveform, also known as a constant current. In fact, this power supply method has been available for a long time, but it has never been noticed and is rarely used. When the data center encountered energy consumption problems, some people thought of high-voltage DC. Therefore, if DC power is used, almost all existing devices need to be replaced and substation equipment needs to be added. These inputs are unacceptable to the data center, but the energy consumption problem cannot be solved, the increasing operation cost of data centers restricts the development of data centers. In this context, it is suggested to introduce high-voltage DC power supply. High-voltage DC is stable, efficient, and cost-saving. It almost combines the advantages of AC and DC power supply. Therefore, when someone suggested that the data center should adopt the high-voltage DC power supply mode, it was widely responded. Now the question is, can the current data center equipment support high-voltage DC? The vast majority of data center devices only support AC power supply, with a voltage of 220 V. When it is increased to V or even V, can the devices still operate? After learning about this voltage range, many data center devices are designed with redundancy, that is, the vast majority of devices can naturally support V high voltage DC, some even support 280 V directly, but to support 336V, You need to replace the specific power supply. The power supply of the original data center equipment supports high-voltage DC, which may be tested in accordance with the regulations. The power supply is not difficult to use. In this way, the use of high-voltage DC power supply can not only protect the investment of existing equipment, it can also solve the data center energy consumption problem. Currently, it is the best and the only solution for the data center energy consumption problem. However, the promotion of high-voltage DC is also facing a lot of resistance. For example, the national standards of high-voltage DC have not yet been introduced, and the lack of national standards affects the promotion and use of this technology in some industries; data center equipment manufacturers are generally on the sidelines of high-voltage DC, and are reluctant to provide equipment maintenance and other services. There are not many maintenance technicians who have high-voltage DC maintenance experience in the data center, these problems cannot be easily maintained in the future.

The above describes the Power Supply Mode of the data center. It is not difficult to see that AC power supply is currently the most popular. DC power supply is suitable for some data centers with relatively high environmental requirements and has a wide application scope, high-voltage DC is the future.