EMerge Alliance Sets Standard for Hybrid AC and DC in Data Centers

The EMerge Alliance, an open industry association developing standards leading to the rapid adoption of DC power distribution in commercial buildings, has completed its namesake standard for facilitating the hybrid use of AC and DC power within data centers and telecommunications central offices.

The EMerge Alliance Data/Telecom Standard creates an integrated, open platform for power, infrastructure, peripheral device and control applications using AC and DC power.  This change in power distribution architecture involves making a single conversion of the incoming line of AC voltage to 380VDC, and then distributing it directly to rack-mounted ICT equipment, simplifying the otherwise unnecessarily complex power management provisions generally used in today’s AC-powered data centers.

“The benefits are clear. By requiring fewer components and conversions than their AC counterparts, DC power systems in data centers suffer fewer heat related failures and require less space, energy, and maintenance to operate,” said Dennis Symanski, senior project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and chair of the Alliance’s technical standard committee. “DC power collection and distribution systems also simplify the use of locally generated power, providing an effective integration of on-site energy generation and storage with direct delivery of controlled power.”