News

Software-Defined Power Monitoring and Switching in Large-Scale Production

October 17, 2017 by Paul Shepard

CUI Global, Inc.'s has been awarded its first major order for its power monitoring and switching system for data centers, known as ICE Switch.  This order calls for the manufacture and delivery of 950 ICE Switch units. The full order is expected to be delivered in January of 2018.

The ICE Switch, designed and manufactured by CUI at its recently acquired Canada facility, is a power monitoring and switching system that connects to Virtual Power Systems' (VPS) ICE (Intelligent Control of Energy) Software to provide dynamic redundancy inside a data center.

In a traditional data center, power is typically provisioned to be 2N redundant, meaning that 50% of the power infrastructure is untapped to provide redundancy if a failure occurs. The ICE Switch unlocks additional power by allowing data centers to utilize that stranded power for 1N non-critical servers.

This functionality will allow data center operators to safely and reliably add servers without having to further invest in costly power infrastructure to support those additional applications.

ICE Switch

The ICE Switch recently received UL/cUL and TUV 60950-1 safety certifications and has been deployed in several customer pilot programs since the beginning of the year. This initial production order is intended to support a quickly ramping customer deployment in China.

"The recent production qualification of the ICE Switch has allowed us to quickly move from market interest to market acceptance," said Matt McKenzie, President of CUI. "We expect market adoption of the ICE Switch to continue at a fast pace, and then ramp when the ICE Block is released, providing a comprehensive suite of power solutions for our customers."

The ICE Block, also manufactured by CUI, is currently progressing through the UL and TUV qualification process.  Qualification is expected to be completed in Q4 of 2017, and when released, will work jointly with the ICE Switch to support an even more compelling solution designed to save data centers millions of dollars in operating expenses and capital expenditures.

The ICE Block employs peak shaving principals to free-up redundant supply capacity. By profiling power demand and employing battery storage, it manages peak demand using power stored during low utilization periods (see figure below)

McKenzie continued, "When we acquired the assets of our Canadian facility, we set out to develop innovative, market differentiating products with a senior team of talented individuals. The ICE Switch and Ice Block are the first of these products."

"We are excited to see customer implementations ramping-up for the Ice Switch," stated Steve Houck, CEO of Virtual Power Systems. "This is just part of a ground-breaking Software Defined Power solution that we will bring to market in partnership with CUI in the coming months."