GE Teams With Validus DC Systems to Introduce DC Data Center System
GE Consumer & Industrial’s electrical business recently signed a "strategic alliance agreement" with Validus DC Systems, LLC, a leading provider of fully integrated direct current (dc) power infrastructure for datacenters and telecommunications facilities, to promote the new Validus DC Data Center System using advanced GE electrical components. In addition to providing improved end-to-end reliability, the parties claim the new system can lower facility costs for equipment, real estate and energy, effectively reducing the total cost of ownership by 30 to 50%.
"Data centers are using an increasingly larger share of the world’s total electricity," said Paul Foody, Global Product General Manager of GE’s electrical business. "Recognizing this trend, our alliance combines the best attributes, technologies and skills of our organizations to help data centers deliver significant energy savings."
GE and Validus signed a "strategic alliance agreement" in October 2009, allowing the birth of an enterprise-class dc solution that combines protection technologies from GE with the Validus end-to-end power and cooling system. As part of the agreement, Validus and GE will jointly promote the DC Data Center System through white papers, customer presentations and industry meetings.
"Data center and telecommunications facility managers demand greater reliability from their infrastructure while driving hard to reduce the total cost of operations," says Rudy Kraus, Chief Executive Officer of Validus DC Systems. "Our alliance, and consequently the DC Data Center System, meets this market demand by delivering a highly reliable direct current system designed for the requirements of today’s most demanding data center and telecommunications environments."
For a 2.5 MW data center with a 2N system, the DC Data Center System can provide the following benefits compared with ac systems: use up to 25% less energy, saving nearly 14 million kWh per year, equivalent to approximately $3.3 million per year in annual energy savings, assuming .14 per kWh; reduce the initial cost of the electrical distribution equipment by about 50% and cut the installation cost by about 20-40% depending on site conditions and power density; reduce the real estate required for infrastructure equipment by about 50% – equivalent to a savings of about 7,000 ft or $3.2 million per year assuming $500 annual cost per square foot; provide total savings equivalent to $33 million over 5 years; and improve reliability as the system has fewer single points of failure. The system has fewer power conversions and transformations, and therefore produces less heat output. As a result, the dc system is half as likely to fail within a 5-year period compared with an equivalent ac system, and it provides 99.9998% reliability.
