Data centers: How is their power supply secured?

A stable energy supply becomes vital to perform the work of data centers, essential for any online service

Data centers are one of those critical systems without Many of the current functions of our hyper-connected society could not be performed. These technological facilities serve as housing for servers, networks, storage, and other technological and IT equipment to provide digital services, such as those that guarantee internet access, connectivity of different systems, or the storage and manipulation of millions of user data. As such, these systems require a power supply that must function perfectly to ensure their operation, avoiding loss of data, time, and financial resources. Today we are going to learn, in detail, how the electricity supply of these data centers is ensured and what elements are responsible for carrying out this task.

It is important to understand that a data center is connected to the local electrical grid, which is its main source of energy. This is something that seems to share characteristics with almost any other element that uses the network, except for one very important detail: the availability of power supply to a data center must be 99.9999% throughout the year. In other words, ensuring the power supply to data centers at all times, to guarantee the operation of the data flow, is a requirement for the design of these data infrastructures. Therefore, it is the quality of the network itself and its power supply, distribution, protection and energy storage systems that will determine the viability of these centers and their service to end users. This is precisely where we find two fundamental components of data center power supply solutions: transformer substations and the medium-voltage network. Let’s see how they coexist.

How does the medium-voltage network and its elements work in a data center?

Transformation centers are joint technological solutions that transform electrical energy from high to low voltage, distributing electricity efficiently and safely. This is replicated in public, local, and private networks, such as data centers. Therefore, these are going to be the main ones responsible for contributing to this almost perfect availability of electricity. To this end, the CTs put their virtues at the service of the different lines and connection points that the DCs have. Typically, a data center has at least one double connection point to more than one medium-voltage line, with the work of the transformation centers guaranteeing connection at all times to at least one of them.

The main task of these transformation centers is to provide electrical isolation between the network itself, with its possible voltage variations in the event of a failure, and the data center; making this connection secure and protecting the entire installation from possible failures in the main network. This is where the medium-voltage cells located within the centers come into the equation. These large switches break and open the electrical connection in a matter of milliseconds thanks to the work of elements such as intensity sensors or self-powered overcurrent protection units.

In addition to this, the work of the medium-voltage network is crucial for each element to be operational at all times. Therefore, its own configuration must take into account different factors and possibilities in the daily operation of data centers, such as failures of internal systems or of the electrical network itself; something that requires designing these centers with a solid emergency solutions architecture.

However, the center’s medium-voltage network must have technological solutions with high layers of digitalization, automation and monitoring that allow these different systems to come into operation in the event of a possible power outage to continue guaranteeing the operation of the complex. In this way, all the automation and protection elements of the electrical network act together to guarantee the service of the data centers. All life insurance for your data.

A normal data center architecture has the following main parts:

• IT Equipment: This is the brain of the data center and the main entity responsible for managing the computer data that these centers host and distribute. This is the part we all think about when we talk about a data center: servers, network infrastructure and routers, application delivery controllers, data storage…
• Cooling elements: All computer equipment generates significant heat in its environment, which requires cooling systems to guarantee its operation and prevent possible overheating and its subsequent consequences.
• Power supply: This is the set of elements that ensures the power supply of data centers and their energy availability. They are divided, in turn, into three relevant subgroups:

1. Connection to the electrical grid: These include all elements such as the electrical grid itself and its configuration, medium voltage cells, transformation centers… That is, those elements that we have been looking at up to now.
2. Systems energy storage: They guarantee the electrical connection in the event of a total power outage, offering a lifeline to critical systems; such as cooling, fire suppression and extinguishing, physical and virtual security measures, etc…
3. Diesel generator sets: They offer an alternative electrical connection, due to a power outage.

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