Power failure in the data centre! It’s the stuff of nightmares for every IT manager. The causes of such blackouts vary hugely – natural disasters, human error, or even a technical fault in the power supply. Naturally, that power supply must be safeguarded at all times. There is not a company these days that can afford for their IT infrastructure to go down. It’s no wonder, then, that planners and operators of data centres pour a lot of engineering expertise into this problem.

However, planning switchgear systems for data centres is not a trivial undertaking. There are many steps involved in getting a data centre switchgear system from design and engineering to manufacture and commissioning. Special requirements must be taken into account, such as incorporating redundancy for all components and factoring in automatic switching between the redundant power supplies. However, how are planners to strike the balance between implementing all technical requirements correctly and ensuring the project is completed efficiently and quickly?

READY-MADE ENGINEERING

Planners now receive support from Rittal in the form of a ready-configured Eplan project for data centres that provides significant efficiency gains along the entire value chain. The new Industry Standard Project takes account of all technical requirements that need to be met for a main low voltage distributor (LVDB) in a data centre.

Here’s what that looks like. In the Industry Standard Project, the electrical energy that comes in from the medium-voltage transformers is distributed to the individual outputs, which in turn supply the server racks. This is done by the Ri4Power system from Rittal. To ensure a high level of availability for the data centre, the system includes an automatic transfer switch from Siemens as a core component. This switch constantly checks the two infeeds. If the primary supply fails, it switches immediately to the secondary infeed. An uninterruptable power supply (UPS) buffers the switching procedure to ensure the power supply to the consumers in the server racks is not interrupted.

DESIGN VERIFICATION AT THE PUSH OF A BUTTON

Data centre planners can adapt the Industry Standard Project to their own specific requirements. This has the benefit that the engineering has already been done in Eplan. Parts lists, wiring diagrams, 3D design and documentation are all completed with just a few clicks of a mouse. All components are perfectly coordinated with each other in the Eplan project. Alongside the enclosures and the power distribution components from the Ri4Power system, these components also include the automatic transfer switch and appropriate circuit-breakers from Siemens. For customers using the new solution, the all-inclusive carefree package also includes the documentation. The entire system, including the automatic transfer switch is type-tested and has a design verification to IEC 61439. As a result, there is no need for any time-consuming individual testing of the complete LVDB.

Using the Energy Standard Project leads to time savings and efficiency gains in all phases. The engineering is taken care of in no time at all. The parts list can be transferred directly to procurement, and all standard components from the Ri4Power system have short delivery times. And if that’s not all straightforward enough, systems can even be preassembled in the new Rittal Application Center in Gera.