Today, traditional power distribution unit (PDU) manufacturers do not support the mission-critical power requirements of modern data center facility managers. Their outdated designs may continue to pose unnecessary hazards to PDU maintenance personnel. These legacy devices continue to innovate in the name of low-cost production, but at the expense of safety. To ensure that enterprises invest in the best PDU products, data center facility managers and engineers need to analyze a range of issues during PDU evaluations to avoid dangerous consequences.
These issues include:
• Is it safe to work on a live PDU, even with appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)?
• Is it safe for workers to add loads while the equipment is powered on?
• Are there suitable components within the PDU that can be separated and isolated?
• Is PDU metering proprietary or off-the-shelf?
• If it’s proprietary, can it be easily upgraded, customized, or replaced on-site?
• Are thermal-magnetic circuit breakers provided, and will they trip if the ambient temperature in the data center rises?
• Does the PDU manufacturer perform custom modifications and designs if needed or necessary?
One of the main and recurring problems in traditional PDUs is the direct failure of the distribution circuit breaker, which can lead to cascading failures throughout the unit and cause all loads carried by that PDU to shut down completely. However, if the distribution circuit breaker is properly isolated, these failures can be confined to a single compartment and a single load.
The fact is, a new generation of PDU designers is addressing all of these issues. They recognize that safety doesn’t have to come at a higher cost, and a well-designed PDU can significantly improve safety during maintenance. For example, the partitioning of its components is an effective way to provide a safer product.
This simple yet innovative process involves separation:
• Measurement
• Distribution circuit breaker
• Main circuit breaker
TVSS
• transformer
By providing this isolation for each component, the risk of personal injury and damage to other parts can be significantly reduced. However, it’s important to emphasize that application component isolation offers many advantages over traditional equipment. Data center facility and factory engineers need to consider the following options for each PDU:
(1) Measurement:
• Outdated and proprietary metering methods offered by traditional manufacturers are unsuitable for the needs of today’s mission-critical facilities.
• By using off-the-shelf technologies and products, metering can be enhanced without the need for custom installations and deployments.
• By using a plug-and-play system, the product can be configured to provide isolation and a simple method for replacing metering equipment in the event of a field failure.