No Harmony in Harmonics

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Common causes, implications and resolutions for problematic harmonic distortion in your electrical system

Harmonic currents generated by non-linear electronic loads increase power system heat losses and power bills for end users. These harmonic-related losses reduce system efficiency, cause apparatus overheating, and increase power and air conditioning costs. As the number of harmonics-producing loads has increased over the years, it has become increasingly necessary to address their influence when making any additions or changes to an installation.

Harmonic currents can have a significant impact on electrical distribution systems and the facilities they feed. It is important to consider their impact when planning additions or changes to a system. In addition, identifying the size and location of non-linear loads should be an important part of any maintenance, troubleshooting and repair program.

Emerging UPS Standby Power Sources

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Four Promising Alternatives to the Lead Acid Battery By Ed Spears

Though an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) performs many important functions, most users value them chiefly for the emergency energy they provide during a power outage. UPSs give IT personnel the time they need to protect sensitive equipment and data from the effects of an electrical service interruption by shutting down systems in an orderly fashion or starting a backup generator.

Today, most UPS products use lead acid batteries to store emergency standby power. A proven technology with many decades of successful service in a variety of industrial settings, the lead acid battery remains the most cost-effective energy storage solution as measured by dollars per minute of backup time.

Yet despite these merits, lead acid batteries are unpopular among data center managers due to their size, weight, maintenance requirements, toxic contents and relatively short lifespan, among other issues. As a result, UPS makers have long been searching for an alternative standby power technology that’s smaller, simpler and “greener” than lead acid batteries, yet no more expensive to operate.

Today, that hunt just may be nearing its end. Several exciting new standby power solutions, all rapidly approaching mainstream commercial viability, appear poised to give the lead acid battery a run for its money. This white paper will explore the strengths, weaknesses and future prospects of four such technologies: Flywheels, ultracapacitors, fuel cells and lithium ion batteries.

Is an energy-wasting data center draining your bottom line?

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New technology options and power distribution strategies can dramatically reduce the cost and carbon footprint of your data center

An unforgiving economic climate has left many organizations struggling to sustain (or restore) profitability. Many of them reacted to the downturn by restructuring, trimming back R&D and marketing, and laying off employees. All of these moves leave a company in a vulnerable position when the market rebounds, which it inevitably will.

Meanwhile, huge potential savings are sitting, untapped, right in the company’s data center. Data center energy costs as a percent of total revenue are at an all-time high.

This white paper looks at two key ways that data center managers can improve end-to-end energy efficiency: by changing the voltage of power distribution and by taking advantage of new, high-efficiency, multi-mode uninterruptible power systems (UPSs).

Right-Sizing Your Power Infrastructure

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How to optimize energy efficiency without impeding growth
Data centers today are undergoing unprecedented change, as new technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing help lower operating costs, conserve floor space and simplify management.

This white paper discusses

• The ways in which new technologies are impacting power demand patterns,
• Explores the consequences of having too much power capacity
• Provides concrete advice on strategies for right-sizing your power systems.

Which UPS is right for the job?

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Considerations in choosing standby, line-interactive, double-conversion designs— and new high-efficiency, multi-mode capabilities—for your data center

Traditionally, data center managers and facilities managers could choose from three UPS topologies: standby, line-interactive and double-conversion—offering widely varying levels of efficiency, performance and protection.

The latest generation of double-conversion UPSs offers unique multi-mode capabilities. The UPS operates in a very high-efficiency mode unless power conditions warrant a switch to the higher protective level typical of double-conversion mode

This white paper describes how various UPS topologies work and looks at the impact of operating mode on five key factors of UPS performance:

• Maintaining voltage within tolerances
• Transferring among modes without locking up IT equipment
• Transitioning gracefully to and from generator power
• Reliability and availability
• Energy efficiency

10 Ways to Increase Power System Availability in Data Centers

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Strategies for ensuring clean, continuous power to essential IT systems

Data center availability has become an essential precondition to competitiveness and profitability. Yet despite their best efforts to achieve five nines availability, businesses remain vulnerable to a variety of threats. Chief among them are issues affecting electrical power systems.

Data centers rely on a continuous supply of clean electricity. However, anything from a subtle power system design flaw to a failure in the electrical grid can easily bring down even the most modern and sophisticated data center.

Fortunately, organizations can significantly mitigate their exposure to power-related downtime by adopting proven changes to their business processes and electrical power system management practices.

This white paper discusses 10 such underutilized best practices for building and maintaining a highly available data center power infrastructure.

Power Monitoring 101

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Supervisory, connectivity and protection options that add an umbrella of protection over your entire IT infrastructure

Monitoring options are now available for organizations of any size. You can remotely monitor and manage a single uninterruptible power system (UPS), an enterprise-wide network of many UPSs and power distribution devices, or a complete IT support infrastructure, including generators, environmental systems and detection devices, and other components from multiple vendors.

This white paper discusses the imperatives of intelligent power monitoring.

The Vector Approach to Data Center Power Planning

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How to avoid unplanned obsolescence in the power distribution infrastructure

Many data center power systems were planned and built based on old rules, old metrics, old server designs, and old assumptions for power density per U and per enclosure. In a startling number of cases, there isn’t much spare capacity for normal evolution of the data center, and there isn’t much visibility into the power distribution system the enclosure level. About 80 percent of data centers are facing serious and insidious problems that could cause unplanned downtime. It is time to drastically rethink how data center power infrastructures are planned.

This white paper describes an approach that considers the major milestones and thresholds in data center power requirements—and how planners should adjust their strategies and recommendations for data centers as they pass through different evolutionary stages.

Is your data center running out of power or cooling?

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Seven ways to extend the value of what you have and optimize the plan for what you need

• Optimize the existing cooling system through mechanical and room layout changes, using relatively inexpensive devices to redirect and concentrate available airflow
• Augment UPS and power distribution systems by using modular approaches and the latest, high-efficiency products
• Plan a more efficient and adaptable power and cooling infrastructure, starting with an audit of the present state and evaluation of alternative approaches and technologies
• Monitor and measure power and cooling systems, so they can be managed more effectively and economically

What your IT equipment needs from a UPS

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The top five requirements that define “quality power” in the eyes of the power supplies in your IT systems

Which uninterruptible power system (UPS) design is right for your data center? The answer depends on a combination of factors that have been influenced by industry trends and technology advances.

This white paper provides an objective view of five key issues that go into selecting the right UPS design for a data center, looking at it from the point of view of the “end-user”—that is, the humble power supply inside the IT equipment.

The Green Imperative - Power and cooling in the data center

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Expanding power demands. Increasing energy costs. Excessive heat.

If you manage a data center - or engineer the architecture for clients who do - you know how critical these issues have become. It is a challenge to conserve energy while powering and cooling all those growing loads, without bringing unwanted governmental scrutiny or surcharges for being an energy hog.
In a candid interview, Eaton’s Fred Miller discusses metrics and tools for power planning, and the promise and limitations of new cooling technologies and alternative fuel sources for data center applications.

Build for today. Expand on demand. - Modularity in the data center power infrastructure

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Building the data center to meet the needs of an uncertain future is an expensive and needless exercise in over-engineering. New designs need to be modular, with built-in expansion capabilities.
In the data center power infrastructure, modularity can mean: UPSs that scale for added capacity or redundancy, extended battery modules to customize backup runtime, and plug-and-play power distribution components that break down room-level wiring into row- or rack-level modules.
This paper looks at the concepts and benefits of modularity in all these elements of the power system.
Presenter - Anderson Hungria, Application Engineer, Eaton

Parallel UPS configurations - Connecting multiple UPS modules for added capacity or redundancy

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Increasingly, organizations are finding that the risk of running off straight utility power - even briefly - is too great to ignore. So they deploy multiple UPS modules to ensure conditioned power if a UPS fails.
This white paper describes how paralleling works and particularly how today’s firmware-based paralleling offers advantages over traditional paralleling approaches. With new paralleling technologies, you can eliminate the threat of having a single, system-level single point-of-failure. With a peer-to-peer control strategy, each UPS module operates independently and is not reliant on an external master controller or a complex web of inter-module control wiring.
Presenter - Ed Spears, Product Manager, Eaton Power Quality Solutions Operation

The necessary convergence of IT and Facilities - Bringing the two groups together under one unified process

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In the quest to more effectively manage the IT infrastructure, many organizations are stymied by a disconnect between IT and Facilities. The two groups rarely collaborate and typically report into different parts of the organization. Apart, neither group can optimize energy consumption and system availability across the big picture. The data center could be consuming more energy than necessary. Essential IT applications could be at risk from infrastructure weaknesses. Inefficiencies could force premature construction of additional power and cooling infrastructure.
If IT and Facilities could work collaboratively, organizations can operate more efficiently and effectively while still meeting their business objectives. That’s why Eaton® is partnering with organizations that develop IT management systems to create an integrated approach to energy management. This white paper describes how a joint monitoring and management solution links IT assets, the data center infrastructure and Facilities assets into a holistic perspective aligned with business processes.
By Ken Uhlman

Is your data center ready for virtualization?

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Important power considerations for virtualized IT environments

Virtualization can deliver dramatic benefits for data centers, but it can also stress the underlying support infrastructure. Power and cooling systems - which may have been quite sufficient for pre-virtualization needs - could easily become inadequate when data center performance patterns are radically altered. This paper describes some of power challenges related to virtualization - and the readily available technologies to address them.
Presenter – Chris Loeffler

Is Power Your Weakest Link in Data Center Flexibility?

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An Eaton® white paper outlining key considerations for power systems in adaptive IT environments

How do you prepare for changing power drop requirements? By overbuilding the whole power system's capacity? By stocking a huge inventory of diverse power distribution units, all connected by a spaghetti-bowl of power cables? There's a less costly and cumbersome approach for your data center - one that doesn't require rolling a service truck out to your site. Get this and other simple, effective data center solutions in this detailed report.

Ten Ways to Protect Your IT Infrastructure

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An Eaton® white paper on reducing costs while protecting critical business systems

Are you worried about the health of your data center? Do power, security and environmental hazards keep you up at night? The components of a well-protected data center range from cable management and monitoring challenges to security issues, and each one can be crucial. Monitor your power and secure your data while defending against system damage by using the 10 best practices listed in this white paper.

Distributing Power through Blade Servers

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An Eaton® white paper listing 10 steps to selecting the optimal power distribution design

Which Eaton ePDU™ is right for your blade server application? And which deployment issues should you consider first? The right ePDU model and implementation strategy can enhance your data center's efficiency and uptime, now and in the future. But you have to choose carefully. Find the optimal blade server design for your data center with 10 straightforward, proven steps.

Redefining the economics of running the modern data center

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Is your IT organization capitalizing on the latest technology options and best practices?

Which Eaton ePDU™ is right for your blade server application? And which deployment issues should you consider first? The right ePDU model and implementation strategy can enhance your data center's efficiency and uptime, now and in the future. But you have to choose carefully. Find the optimal blade server design for your data center with 10 straightforward, proven steps.

Power Considerations for VoIP

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Protecting critical voice communications in the converged enterprise network environment

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology—with network components supported by Power over Ethernet (POE)—offers significant advantages for business communications, but it also brings some new infrastructure considerations. For example, a communication closet with PoE capabilities consumes about four times as much power as one without PoE—which affects the sizing, battery runtime, footprint and installation options of the uninterruptible power system (UPS). This white paper describes power protection and distribution technologies that address the changing demands of new communication networks.