GE Teams with Validus DC Systems to Introduce “Direct Current” Data Center System

GE Consumer & Industrial's electrical business recently signed a "strategic alliance agreement" with Validus DC Systems, LLC, a leading provider of fully integrated Direct Current (DC) power infrastructure for datacenters and telecommunications facilities, to promote the new Validus DC Data Center System using advanced GE electrical components. In addition to providing improved end-to-end reliability, the new system can lower facility costs for equipment, real estate and energy, effectively reducing the total cost of ownership by 30 to 50 percent.

“Data centers are using an increasingly larger share of the world’s total electricity,” says Paul Foody, global product general manager of GE’s electrical business. “Recognizing this trend, our alliance combines the best attributes, technologies and skills of our organizations to help data centers deliver significant energy savings.”

Marriage by Market Demand

According to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, data centers account for 1.2% of total electrical use within the United States. And the use is growing.

GE and Validus signed a "strategic alliance agreement" in October 2009, allowing the birth of an enterprise-class DC solution that combines protection technologies from GE with the Validus end-to-end power and cooling system. As part of the agreement, Validus and GE will jointly promote the DC Data Center System through white papers, customer presentations and industry meetings.

“Data center and telecommunications facility managers demand greater reliability from their infrastructure while driving hard to reduce the total cost of operations,” says Rudy Kraus, chief executive officer of Validus DC Systems, based in Brookfield, CT. “Our alliance, and consequently the DC Data Center System, meets this market demand by delivering a highly reliable direct current system designed for the requirements of today’s most demanding data center and telecommunications environments.”

For a 2.5 MW data center with a 2N system, the DC Data Center System can provide the following benefits compared with AC systems:

• Use up to 25% less energy, saving nearly 14 million kWh per year, equivalent to approximately $3.3 million per year in annual energy savings, assuming $0.14 per kWh.
• Reduce the initial cost of the electrical distribution equipment by about 50% and cut the installation cost by about 20-40% depending on site conditions and power density.
• Reduce the real estate required for infrastructure equipment by about 50% — equivalent to a savings of about 7,000 ft² or $3.2 million per year assuming $500 annual cost per square foot.
• Provide total savings equivalent to $33 million over 5 years.
• Improve reliability as the system has fewer single points of failure. The system has fewer power conversions and transformations, and therefore produces less heat output. As a result, the DC system is half as likely to fail within a 5-year period compared with an equivalent AC system, and it provides 99.9998% reliability.

AC vs. DC

In a typical AC system, the utility voltage is normally transformed, rectified and inverted five times before it reaches the servers. The DC system rectifies and converts the utility supply twice to provide 48VDC, or just once to provide 380-570VDC, directly to standard DC powered servers. The DC system provides a more efficient end-to-end solution because it reduces energy losses from multiple conversions, produces less heat, and reduces the amount of cooling needed.

The DC system eliminates the need for some of the power distribution equipment and sophisticated electronics normally found in an AC system. The reduction in equipment greatly reduces the need for large amounts of copper, steel, plastic and lead acid batteries.

To find out more, please visit www.youtube.com/dcdatacenters, www.validusdc.com and www.geelectrical.com/datacenters to request the white paper co-authored by GE and Validus.

The Historical Rivalry

Thomas Edison, founder of the Edison General Electric Co. in 1876 originally promoted DC for electrical power distribution, considering it a safer, more reliable option than AC power. But Edison faced off against Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse in the ensuing “Current Wars.” AC ultimately came out on top due to technological limitations of the time. AC had the advantage of being stepped up to high voltages via transformers, sent via thin, inexpensive wires, and eventually stepped down again at distribution to the user site by another transformer. Still, DC power has continued to be used in high voltage scenarios, as well as in low voltage deployments in the data center, telecommunications and light transportation industries. The addition of the DC Data Center System allows GE to expand its data center offering to include both AC and DC systems.

About Validus DC Systems

Validus DC Systems is a leading provider of fully integrated Direct Current (DC) power infrastructure for datacenters and telecommunications facilities. The company’s “Hybrid Power” technology combines the best attributes of Alternating Current (AC) system design and DC energy efficiency, offering scalability, reliability and modularity, all while improving energy efficiency by up to 30%. By deploying Validus’ solutions, based on the global standard for DC power, customers are able to increase processing power and server densities in new and existing facilities at a lower total cost of ownership due to reduced complexity, greater uptime and reduced power and cooling costs. Validus DC Systems, LLC is headquartered in Brookfield, CT. For more information please visit www.validusdc.com.

About GE Consumer & Industrial

GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliances, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and ecomaginationSM, a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE), imagination at work, sells products under the Monogram®, Profile™, GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater™, Reveal® and Energy Smart® consumer brands, and Entellisys®, Tetra®, Vio™ and Immersion® commercial brands. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.