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AiNet Receives Patent for Data Center Power Protection Solution

Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

AiNet Receives Patent for Data Center Power Protection Solution

 
October 24, 2011

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  By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

AiNet, a data center services provider, was recently awarded a patent for its solution regarding power protection availability to data centers, hospitals and other facilities that depend on critical power.

Most facilities reliant on critical power have backup power generators and automatic transfer switches (ATS) to keep the power moving to the facility in case the utility power goes down. They also use battery backups to deliver optimal power protection.


According to this DatacenterDynamics report, there are conditions that occur that will take these backup solutions and render them useless, causing power failures and potential damage to data. This problem has struck several facilities recently.

The power protection problem occurs when “dirty power” gets through the ATS and essentially drains the backup battery power. This “dirty power” causes irregularities including the loss of one phase in a three-phase power system. Reduced voltage also causes irregularities, damaging power protection efforts.

Most systems will only go to power protection from generator power when utility power is completely severed, ignoring the more subtle irregularities. While the dirty power is going through the ATS, the system compensates for the lack of voltage by using backup batteries for power protection.

If the problem escalates and the utility power is completely shut down, the backup batteries may not have enough juice left to survive until the utility power is restored.

AiNet’s Critical Power Protection Supervisor, however, will pick up on the irregularities and will switch to the back-up generator to deliver power protection. This solution then sends a message to the operator to informing him/her of the situation.

The Critical Power Protection Supervisor (CPPS) unifies the critical power delivery elements with critical power delivery system. The CPPS monitors all power delivery elements and takes action when the power production reaches potential failure to deliver optimal power protection.

AiNet plans to sell the solution to facilities directly, but it will also license the technology to design-build firms, and to electrical equipment vendors.

Deepak Jain, president of AiNet, said in the DatacenterDynamics piece, “relying on a person to notice the problem and intervene isn’t a predictable or scalable approach.” He added that the Critical Power Protection Supervisor is the best solution as it is an automated one.

“That outages are occurring in otherwise well-designed data centers underscores that vulnerabilities in critical power remain,” he said. “Fortunately, adding this technology in an existing facility is straight forward and generates an instant ROI for projects yet to be built.”

The Critical Power Protection Supervisor should be useful in addressing power protection issues in capacity demand management. All critical power installations are vulnerable to these power issues, regardless of location. As a result, more than a dozen international patents are currently pending.


Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin
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