Intelligent CIO APAC Issue 05 | Page 42

FEATURE : POWERING DATA CENTERS
and you don ’ t have to pre-plan where your cables are going to be landing .
What are some of the main benefits of using busbar systems in data centers and how does this approach offer operational advantages ?
There ’ s a commercial benefit because we can work directly with the facility owner . We eliminate a lot of the people that may come in between the user and the manufacturer by working directly with the end-users so commercially our offers are normally very attractive . and then you ’ re buying what we call plug-in units or tap off units that are inserted in the busbar to connect to the load . So we use a lot of quality purchasing procedures to make sure that our products are built to the quality standards needed for high reliability .
Secondly there ’ s design quality and reliability . We ’ ve designed our products so essentially anyone can install it and it ’ s almost impossible to make a mistake when installing .
Joints are usually the area of concern when you ’ re doing an installation to make sure connectors and meters , and so forth . And then relative to safety again it ’ s about design quality , our products are designed to be safe in operation . Both UL and IEC have standards for safety and we ’ ve tested our products to make sure they are safe for operation .
From a technical perspective how does the make-up of the system ensure reliability and scalability ?
One of the primary components is what type of materials you ’ re using , relative to reliability . The best material for use in
Then there ’ s the flexibility that allows you to basically buy a kit , and where the engineering can be as simple as how many rows of cabinets do you have and how many cabinets per row , that reduces the amount of effort that ’ s required for pre-planning and pre-engineering . And then when our product arrives because of the flexibility where you attach the power , you can simply just attach plug in units to power cabinets wherever you need them .
Then there ’ s scalability . What most of our customers do is build a facility , and then attempt to find customers to take up the lease space , or to take up the colocation space , that they have . As they find those customers , they can then add a portion of the electrical system that ’ s needed to complete the power path , so they don ’ t have to make the investment all on day one . They can scale their investment based on how sales are going .
How do these systems enable reliability , flexibility and safety and how do these factors contribute to effective power distribution in the data center ?
Reliability is primarily dictated by manufacturing quality and design quality and then installation quality . The manufacturing quality is sustained to the highest international standards . We always test 100 % of our systems . We have computer testing for all of our plug-in units .
Essentially , when you purchase a busbar system , you ’ re buying two different types of systems . You ’ re buying the busbar itself

RELIABILITY IS PRIMARILY DICTATED BY MANUFACTURING QUALITY

AND DESIGN QUALITY AND THEN INSTALLATION QUALITY .

that each section of the busbar has joined properly . Our joints are designed in such a way that you can ’ t make them improperly , so you don ’ t have to worry about joint integrity as a portion of our installation so that helps a lot with the reliability .
Then , of course , we ’ re using the highest reliability components for circuit breakers and conducting electricity is generally copper . That ’ s the most economical and has the highest sustainability so all of our products use copper conductors . And then , we use aluminium housings with the insulator materials to house the copper .
Those aluminium housings are very important structurally to make sure that the busbar maintains structural integrity as mechanical loads are added to it . But then also it provides longevity and there are no issues with painting , for instance , that you might use for steel or some of the polymer housings that are used that have less rigidity and so forth .
We use the highest quality materials to make sure that we have the highest reliability and safety .
Can you outline some of the environmental benefits of your products ?
One of the biggest factors is when you use busbar essentially what you ’ re doing is you ’ re taking a whole lot of electrical wires and you ’ re compressing them into one system .
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