Electrical Circuits in Datacenters

[nigel.robertson]

Dear collegues,

I am responsible for the design of datacenters & server rooms in our company, and have just started to "professionalise" this with the use of Revit.

I am not designing the entire building, but only the rooms where our IT servers / racks etc are to be placed.

everything is going really well except for the electrical aspects.

despite going through the internet/youtube and other electrical templates etc, i cant seem to find out how to do the following, and was wondering if someone could give me some help:

• A normal circuit breaker panel needs to be in each server room (these are fed by 380v city power from the building)
  • from this panel, there needs to be 1 circuit per PDU (power distribution unit) of 230V/32A suppling CITY POWER to each rack
  • there is then another circuit to supply the UPS device where the secondary PDU is connected suppling BACKUP power to each rack.
• I have NO IDEA how the building power feeds TO the panel are configured - hence i cant work out how to configure the panel to use "unlimited" power. should i configure the panel to be a transformer/panel/switchboard ???
• under the rasied floor, i need an IEC309/220v/32A socket where each "PDU" plugs into.

In the PERFECT world, i would really like to then automate the power schedules for each rack and as each server is connected to the PDU, the power requirements are automatically calculated. BUT how can i configure servers (electrical equipment) to have 2 independant power supplies going to each PDU ?

i know this stuff is by no way basic, but you never stop learning 🙂

thanks again for your help.

[fabiosato]

Hello nigel,

I suggest you to nest electrical fixtures in the panel to do this, since electrical equipment gather loads and pass them upstream, if their part type is set to panel board, switchboard or transformer, they don´t count as loads.

If I understand correctly, you have a power connection beneath each rack for normal power and UPS, that´s correct? My suggestion in this scenario is to create the connection points as electrical fixtures and assign them the load for the racks, so you don´t need to nest the electrical fixtures in the panel.

[scott_dakin2]

Have you tried connecting all the rack PCs and servers to a PDU fed off the mains board to give an accurate electrical load then connecting the second PDU to the UPS and manually add the same load into the UPS PDU as is generated by the mains PDU?

How come you are not dual feeding the UPS instead of using 2 PDUs to each rack, seems odd with raw mains going to sensitive equipment.

Are they small UPS units with a single mains feed or are they bigger units with bypass wiring etc?

Maybe I don't understand your description correctly, a schematic of the distribution systems would help.

I wouldn't use Electrical Equipment category for servers. Speciality Equipment would be a better choice or maybe Electrical Fixture.

[kadmonkee · Accepted solution]

in this example

 I was asked to connect and circuit each device.

I will try to break it down (see image)

Special receptacle circuited to RPP2 Sub panel RPP2- A1

RPP2-A1 Sub Panel  circuited to PDU-2 Sub Panel

PDU-2 Sub Panel circuited to PDU2

PDU2 is circuited to SWB-1

I have not tried to include a UPS to this test example 

RPP1-A1 is an ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT Panel Board family

PDU-2 is an ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT Switch Board Family

PDU2 is an ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT Transformer Family

SWB-1 is an ELECTRICAL  EQUIPMENT SwitchboardFamily