Data processing centers are essential to ensure the storage, security and constant availability of data for many companies and industries. For this reason, data centers are equipped with generators to ensure the power supply.
Modular data centers are increasingly used to expand the capacity of the main data center, or even combine several modular data centers into a single system, as they can be built more quickly, are more energy-efficient, and are transportable to any location.
The concept of simultaneous maintainability
The characteristics of this type of facility will be determined by several factors. The Uptime Institute provides some indications regarding the basic principle of a Tier III that all DPCs should comply with for security reasons.
It has developed a classification of the infrastructure of a DPC to reach a certain level of operability, where the functionalities that this infrastructure must have are specified for each level.
Within these specifications, the functional characteristic of TIER III certification stands out: the installation must have “simultaneous or concurrent maintainability”. This simultaneous maintainability means that any critical element of the installation must be maintainable without affecting the operation of the DPC IT equipment.
Furthermore, the concept of maintainability for each specific piece of equipment in the TIER certification is always taken to the most extreme case: that it is necessary to physically replace the equipment with a new one.
How do we solve this?
For this type of installation, Electra Molins recommends the automatic control panels type SCR5. This type of panel allows to control the gensets themselves and the synchronization system for parallel operation of the gensets (without external synchronism panel).
In addition, they have the advantage of being easily replaceable, since the interconnection between the gensets is made by means of a single communication cable. With regard to system safety, if a group has a problem, it is removed from the parallel system, but the rest of the groups continue to operate and can be automatically reinstated once the problem has been solved.
The system is completed with the switching control module type CON-5012, which allows Network-Group and Group-Network switching without zero crossing. This combination provides a highly reliable system with high performance in parallel group systems and bi-directional non-breaking switching, enabling tests under real operating conditions, without generating inconveniences in the normal operation of the installation.
To expand the N+1 criterion, we recommend incorporating a double output switch, to facilitate the possibility that all the installed groups can feed both branch A and branch B of a Tier III DPC, without the need for a common busbar.
Also important is the fuel supply, where we propose the duplication of mother tanks, with solenoid valves and pressure control, as well as doubling the number of pumps required, and we incorporate the possibility of by-pass between the existing tanks, which together gives an optimal response in installations of this type.
The flexibility of this system was demonstrated during the certification of one of our customers’ facilities as a TIER III Facility by the Uptime Institute. During the commissioning of the equipment, a failure test not contemplated in the protocol was requested, which implied a reprogramming of the operating logic, which we were able to resolve and implement in less than 24 hours, receiving congratulations from the inspectors for the quick and efficient response.
Sources: T-Systems, Electra Molins.
