Are you ready to revolutionize the way we power our communities and data centers? Picture a future where electricity isn't just distributed from centralized grids but generated and managed locally. Welcome to the world of microgrids, battery energy storage systems, and electronic isolation and controls. 

While it is fun to use these buzzwords and speak about the possibilities the future holds, why does this matter? Simply put, resources. Whether it is capital, space, power, water, or talent, we live in a resource constrained world. As our technology becomes more advanced, its demands for power and cooling will increase. This puts a large strain on our already fully loaded power grids, with the states ¹most at-risk being Texas, Michigan, Ohio, New York, and California. Texas is not interconnected to the national grid, which puts it at risk for downtime due to a lack of redundancy. New York and California, on the other hand, are strained due to their large populations and the decommissioning of traditional power plants. Additionally, with an increase in legislation supporting EV vehicles, the strain on the grid can be too large especially in inclement weather (i.e. hot and cold) increasing risk of downtime. 

Like it or not, soon we will have to supplement power and storage solutions that are smart and reliable enough to be treated as de-centralized grid assets. Let us dive deeper into the realm of Microgrids. 

What is a microgrid? 

Microgrids represent a paradigm shift in how we think about energy distribution. These localized grids can operate independently or in conjunction with the main grid, offering resilience and flexibility in the face of outages and disruptions.  

So, what are some of the basic components that we’d expect to see in a microgrid? Renewable energy, most commonly solar (PV), wind, or, in some cases, hydropower. Next, we would expect to see an inverter to convert the energy from the renewables to a usable form for the loads that are connected. After that, a BESS (Battery Energy Storage System), isolation with controls, a fuel cell, and/or hydrogen electrolyzer.  

While these individual components, alone, could not support an outage, when deployed together, the sky is the limit for “islanding” yourself from utility. These assets could be on a commercial site, outside of a housing community, a data center, and beyond. These are the building blocks for these locally deployed decentralized grids. 

Imagine a community powered by its own microgrid, seamlessly integrating renewable energy sources, like solar panels and battery storage systems, into its infrastructure. These technologies not only reduce reliance on fossil fuels but also pave the way for a more sustainable future.  

Outside of the communities, integrating renewables into their energy portfolio, there are mission critical operators who look to add redundancy to their utility connection and further control their uptime parameters. Mission critical operations are businesses that cannot suffer an outage even for a second. These customers are mostly data centers, healthcare providers, departments of transportation, utilities, etc.  

Furthering the point of living in a resource-constrained environment, these providers are seeing that the addition of high compute applications are driving their energy consumption up higher every year. To combat the risk associated with simply relying on utility, they deploy uninterruptible power supplies, generators, and, now, renewables and BESS systems to allow them even more flexibility during utility loss. 

Market Overview 

As AI and other high performance compute practices start becoming the norm in the market, the utilities won’t be able to adapt quick enough. Standard per rack power density in hyperscale and co-location data centers ranges from 10 - 20 kW of consumption. And, in the next 3-5 years, market analysis predicts for this to shoot to 50 - 300 kW/rack of consumption. While this can increase revenue per sq/ft tremendously in colocation data halls, it is also introducing challenges in cooling and power requirements. Liquid cooling, active rear door heat exchangers, and cold plates, are poised to address these challenges on the heat rejection side. However, the power requirements are an entirely different beast to deal with.  

Enter, the need to BYOP (Bring Your Own Power). This is a facility level strategy that is creating and managing your own distribution, generation, and energy asset deployment. This can be accomplished through a variety of solutions. Utilizing DERs (Distributed Energy Resources), which is a fancy terminology to describe the energy generating and storage assets that comprise a microgrid, facilities can manage peak demand, add layers of redundancy to their systems, and ultimately, completely island themselves from the grid.  

While a completely renewable and stand-alone data center is not happening in the next 1-2 years, it is just over the horizon, and it is critical to start having important conversations as these systems require large intellectual investment, planning, and capital to get them off the drawing boards and into the real world.  

While the matters mentioned above mainly concern data center providers, an energy intensive activity that more and more consumers are participating in, every day, is… Electric Vehicle (EV) charging. Subsequently, never have we seen before, parking garages and multifamily home developments requiring the addition of new transformers to support 1000 amp and above services. Super chargers and 220V standard EV chargers require a large amount of power to charge vehicles quickly. Understandably, this strains the utility provider, especially considering that most charging is occurring simultaneously. What this looks like is a large group of EV users who commute to work and charge during the day, and another other group of users who charge exclusively at home during the night. As adoption increases, these routinely popular charging times become more and more problematic for utility providers.  

So, as the US continues to push automakers to electrify their fleets, the demand on the grid and surrounding infrastructures cannot keep up. Critical equipment necessary to install these new services have lead times measured in years, while the cost to retrofit existing parking structures to support charging can add up quickly, pricing many providers out of the market.  

The need for more readily available power is here, and we are just barely knocking on the door of what is possible, as we will need to, as an adapted society, further expand upon the utilization of already existing technologies. And, as mentioned, a BESS and PV Farm separately will not achieve much, but the value lies in linking them together into a smart controllable system. As we continue to be creative with implementing these already existing solutions together, then we can iterate and create more efficient systems, which allows for more of a mainstream adoption across the industry. 

Looking Ahead 

Plain and simple, for most operations these solutions are currently cost prohibitive. However, let’s keep in mind a key learning from the ramp up of the solar industry; Utilities and governments are willing to subsidize and incentivize companies that choose to implement these solutions ahead of the curve. Currently, in Utah, Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) is rolling out an incentive program that is either per kWh or a one-time upfront incentive for the installation of a BESS. These are not small sums either, with some programs covering up to 75% of the cost of the BESS.  

One may ask, what is the angle for RMP? In short, the more DERs that are connected to the grid, the more redundancy is built into the utility framework. In the case of a contingency, these assets can all be controlled as one, spinning reserve for RMP. During normal operation, owners can enjoy peak shaving benefits, as well as outage protection. A truly rare “win-win” scenario. As peak demand charges continue to increase, ROI numbers start to make sense on 12- and 24-month timelines.  

Additionally, RMP is utilizing “Make-Ready” incentives to support the adoption and installation of EV charging. These incentives could cover up to 100% of the cost associated with powering EV chargers in commercial and residential applications. 

To further this discussion of the future, we can start to think of abstract solutions such as on-site hydrogen generation using natural gas. We can replace diesel gensets with hydrogen fuel cells, as hydrogen is three-times more energy dense/liter than diesel. We are even close to the deployment of small, self-contained, 300 – 500 MW nuclear reactors that can be deployed in remote environments and do not require service for 60 years.  

So, when it comes to reliability and cost savings, all signs point to BYOP. 

While the adoption of microgrid solutions may currently pose financial challenges, the tide is turning as incentives and awareness grow. Just as the solar industry witnessed exponential growth fueled by supportive policies, the trajectory of microgrids and BESS suggests a similar transformation in the energy landscape. As we stand on the cusp of this paradigm shift, it is necessary to initiate conversations and investments today for a more sustainable and resilient tomorrow. The journey towards decentralized, renewable energy is not merely an option; it's a strategic imperative for businesses and communities alike. 

If you enjoyed this high-level overview of the current market of microgrids, please join us for part two of this blog series, which will be released the last week of March. We'll do a deep dive on use/case and applications, and we’ll expand upon DVL’s current product offerings that support this infrastructure and qualify for utility incentives. Additionally, we will provide real-life applications to this equipment.

Have a question or comment about this blog?

Reach out to blog author Alexander "D'Angelo" D'Angelo, Power Systems Sales Engineer,  (based out of our Salt Lake City office) at ADangelo@DVLnet.com.

¹ https://www.generac.com/be-prepared/power-outages/top-5-states-where-power-outage-occur

As Dave Rubcich (Vertiv’s VP, Key Accounts- Multi-Tenant) puts it, “you can’t be sustainable without being efficient,” and “if you’re going to have a sustainable data center you’re certainly going to be efficient—but you can be efficient without being sustainable.” He cautions they are two different terms not to be confused with one another.

Data center energy efficiency has varying driving factors for the range of effects yielded. When infrastructure and equipment are more energy efficient in the way they work, one of the most favorable results is the fact that operating costs will go down. Also, less repairs are needed, and less equipment too, which results in more open space in your data center. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, the less energy that is used, the less of an impact you have on the environment and its natural resources. That’s where sustainability comes into the picture.

Sustainability is becoming more and more companies’ priority, but can have different meanings depending on how you’re looking at the issue. Overall, we are trying to sustain the levels of natural resources we have on the planet so as not to contribute to global warming, or even my some miracle make a dent in efforts to reduce it. To work towards this, data centers are striving to have absolutely no impact on the planet.

It is a dream of an ideal scenario. The way Vertiv sees it, sustainability means zero losses, zero carbon, zero water, and zero waste. “We’re nowhere near there today,” Rubcich admits, “But if we don’t start thinking about it, we can never get there.” So, is it plausible to truly not use any natural resources? Not today, but down the road, it’s the long-term goal, but only once real efforts have been made to chip away at the issue. Rubcich adds, “If you’re going to be carbon neutral or carbon negative, you’re not going to be using generators that are running on diesel fuels.” Alternative energy sources will be a must, going into the future.
Elsewhere, in the case of cooling equipment that rely on water, and therefore the equipment’s WUE (water usage effectiveness) is measured, there has been considerable movement away from certain any of these technologies that use a large supply water. Total water usage is becoming a leading factor for companies’ decision-making criteria for new equipment.

So, in what other way can end-users start to include sustainability strategies in the present-day operations of their data center? Rubcich notes that there are already a number of products readily available on the market today that are going to help improve overall efficiency of the data center and will help drive some of the sustainability goals. For example, pumped refrigerant as an economizer, as is the case with the Vertiv DX system, which doesn’t use any water.

Vertiv, along with many other companies are ramping up their efforts to be innovative with all types of technologies. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and are able to make commitments for sustainability milestones in the future. For example, Microsoft is committed to use 100% renewables by 2025, and to be carbon-negative by 2030. While some companies’ sustainability goals seem like far off pipedreams, they are on the right path as they have brought on C-suite level sustainability officers to create and implement certain strategies to attain these results. As Rubcich points out, “when you’re hiring [someone to focus on sustainability] at that level, you’re committed to it.” And it is that commitment that will make it a reality.

To explore more of this subject with Dave Rubcich, we invite you to listen to our recent Podcast, The Cooler Side of Data Center Sustainability.

If you’ve read the post about distributed and centralized bypass architectures, you’re probably evaluating the right architecture for a new datacenter, or maybe you’re re-designing the one you’re currently using. The decision is not easy and it will often impact the operation and performance of the power protection system in your datacenter or the connected loads. Unfortunately, in technology there is rarely a simple “yes – no” or black – white” answer, and this holds true for power distribution as well. Yet, in technology and science, there’s a “grey area”, in which the ‘right’ decision is strongly influenced by the specific context and case, and is dependent on many parameters. Luckily, there are paths to find the best solution as a trade-off between the multiple parameters involved.

If you’re considering the use of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), it means you are worried about the possibility of utility power failures and the associated downtime problems that follow. Given this, the selection of the appropriate configuration or architecture for power distribution is one of the first topics of discussion, and the use of a centralized, parallel, distributed, redundant, hot-standby or other configurations available, becomes an important part of it.  While there are numerous architectures to choose from, there are also several internal variables that will require your attention. Fortunately, a few elementary decisions will make the selection easier. Even if not all parameters can be matched, it’s important to at least begin the conversation and explore trade-offs and other considerations. Without trying to be exhaustive (which would require a dedicated white paper), you should consider at least the following:

a) Cost: more complex architectures will increase both your initial investment and your cost, not only at the initial design stage but during the entire life of your power system, especially with regards to efficiency. In other words, we could say that complex architectures will increase your TCO.

b) Availability and reliability: how reliable should your power system be? And what about single or multiple points of failure? Would you need any type of redundancy?

c) Plans for growth: Do you expect your power demand or capacity to increase in the future? Will you re-configure your load distribution?

d) Related to the previous point, but highlighted separately because of its importance for UPS is modularity. Do you need a modular solution for future expansion or redundancy?

e) Bypass architecture; an important point as explained in a separate post.

f) Need for monitoring of the complete UPS power system, also considering any shutdown of loads, and in combination with other systems like thermal management.

g) Service and maintenance: Once the initial investment in power protection has been made, please do not forget to keep it at optimum conditions. This maintenance at regular intervals has to be achieved through service contracts, check for spares availability if multiple types of UPS are used, capability to isolate a subset, or use of remote diagnostic and preventive monitoring services such as Emerson Network Power’s LIFE for maximum availability.

h) Profile of the loads; especially if you’re considering a few large loads or many “small” loads (perhaps distributed across several buildings or in a wide area such as a wind farm), autonomy required for each load, peak power demands, etc.

In addition, the decision is not only related to the internal requirements of the power systems, but it is also linked to the type of load or application to be protected, as requirements and decisions may vary depending on the application being industrial, education, government, banking, healthcare or data center. For example, an application where the loads are servers which manage printers in a bank, compared to a hospital where the power protection systems may manage several surgery rooms, are by no means the same. In fact, in the case of bank printers, in the worst case they can be shut down, while in the case of the surgery rooms, their shutdown is not an option unless for scheduled maintenance. This is because a non-scheduled shutdown of the medical equipment in a surgery room would have a serious impact on the people inside that room for a surgical operation.

Let’s take the hospital example further and consider a particular case. In order to do a quick exercise and simplify, we can use a scenario with several surgery rooms as a reference (for example 5 to 20 rooms, each one with a 5-10 kVA UPS for individual protection), plus a small data center (for example with 30 kVA power consumption) and finally, other critical installations in the facility (let’s assume 300 kVA for offices, laboratories, elevators, etc.).

In this scenario, initially, the architectures that could be envisaged as a first step are:

1. Fully distributed, and for simplicity’s sake, a hospital with 10 surgery rooms is assumed here with 10 kVA for each surgery room plus a centralized UPS (>330 kVA) for the remaining loads.

2. A fully redundant solution based on a centralized UPS protecting all the loads (this UPS being in a parallel redundant configuration). The power for any of these UPS would be 300 kVA + 30 kVA + (10 x 10 kVA).

3. An intermediate solution, referred to as “redundant hot standby”, so that this redundant UPS is sized only for the surgery rooms (10 surgery rooms x 10 kVA), and with a bypass line connected to the large centralized UPS (>430 kVA). This solution shows the advantage of a smaller capacity required for this redundant hot standby UPS.

Emerson Network Power has done several simulations based on typical scenarios as the one described above for a hospital, and considered the factors for optimization a), b), e) and h). Considering the parameters for optimization, the energy savings (power consumption and heat dissipation), initial investment (CAPEX) as well as the maintenance costs (OPEX), the solution based on the “redundant hot standby” seems to be the most convenient.
Moreover, the difference between architectures 1 and 3 is larger as far as quantity of surgery rooms or period for cost simulation (from 1 year up to 10 years).
This points us in the right direction in selecting the best distribution architecture for this application in hospitals and using these parameters for optimization. Clearly, it can be enriched using the other parameters shown in the sections above, or adapted to the particular case (quantity of surgery rooms, autonomy for each load, power demanded by CPD room, reliability, …) that could lead to a different choice, but globally, this redundant hot standby has resulted in a good trade-off.

As said at the beginning, there is no magic solution for the optimum selection, but we have sought to explore several guidelines and check points that will help drive you towards the best solution for your case. Of course, any additional variables and the reader’s experience are welcome and can only serve to enrich the discussion.

Kollengode Anand | November 20, 2014 | Emerson Network Power

It’s no longer enough to be dependable if you’re running a data center.  With greater demands being placed by customers, both external and internal, data center administrators are required to be both dependable and fast. Consider these facts, from our “State of the Data Center” report last year:

• The equivalent of one of every nine persons on the planet uses Facebook.
• We generated 1.6 trillion gigabytes of data last year. That’s enough data to give every single person on Earth eight 32-gigabyte iPhones, and it’s an increase of 60 percent in just two years.
• Every hour, enough information is created to fill more than 46 million DVDs.
• Global e-Commerce spending topped $1.25 trillion in 2013.

It’s always been important to respond to your customers, of course, but now there are more of them, demanding more information, and more quickly:  the report says that if the online video they are watching buffers for more than five seconds, 25 percent of viewers drop off.  And if the video buffers for more than 10 seconds, half of them are gone.

Oh, and did we mention that the average cost of a data center outage now runs more than $900,000…an increase of one-third in just two years?

Which is why it’s critical for administrators to be able to flexibly configure their data centers, and to be able to react rapidly when requirements change, or when there’s a problem.  We’ve found that a unified approach to the entire infrastructure is the best way of handling these situations.  Whether it’s heating and cooling, power, servers, software, or more, the ability to administer data center operations in a real-time manner has become more imperative than ever.

It’s one of the key elements in the development of the dynamic data center, and in being able to easily manage changes and maintain an optimal environment.

We’ll be at the Gartner Data Center, Infrastructure & Operations Management Conference in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks, at booth #211, showing off the equipment and software that we’ve developed to help you make your business as dynamic as your data center.  We’ll also be speaking about where our clients believe the data center is headed more than ten years from now.   Their input has proven critical in the past, and their thinking is helping us develop the solutions that will solve their challenges both today and tomorrow.

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