Power management of an organization is the biggest challenge that the IT department facesthey are always on their toes and under increasing pressure to deliver technically and environmentally sound solutions. In most companies, the power management strategy is still in an infant stage.

As energy costs and power supply issues override the other issues in organizations, the creation and maintenance of power management infrastructure (PMI) has become inevitable. Thus, power management infrastructure should be the key strategy of an organization and should be brainstormed within the IT and facility management group. Increasing energy costs will only eat into the companys profit, hence power management should be the prime concern for companies.

Maintaining a Robust PMI
To create a robust power management infrastructure, the company needs to efficiently address the issue of power usage. The organization should try to reduce energy usage. Just a look at the data center of an organization will reveal that only 30% of the entire power consumed is by server infrastructure. The power consumed by the server, chiller, and the UPS add up to the remaining 70%.

A company could do anything from having a cooling solution that consumes less energy to analyzing the requirements and catering to it. The normal trend followed by most companies is to build infrastructure that will match their future requirements.

In the race to cover the future needs, companies are over utilizing their capital and, in turn, getting underutilized infrastructure. Over-sizing of electrical infrastructure has become an epidemic in the industry. But now products with modular scalability are available, and, with this modular scalability being a possibility, it is a good practice to improve the infrastructure, as and when the need arises.

Also, before setting up a power management infrastructure, it is important to take care of things like taking sanctions from the electricity board for connected loads, and proper planning to build a PMI, because once the infrastructure is built, the organization cannot make changes without down time.

If the organization does not size the load properly, they may end up paying excess amount to an electricity company, as payments are charged on the basis of the load sanctioned. Also, the PMI should be designed in such a way that they should be safe, and in case of any short circuits or accidents, the downtime should be minimum. This can be achieved by involving electrical consultants.

Challenges Faced
Implementation of the PMI poses certain challenges, especially where companies have their infrastructure up and running. Companies feel that if they need to set up a PMI, they may have to rip off the entire initial infrastructure and rebuild the same. The other challenge is the availability of clean and sufficient space.

This, however, need not be true as there are instances where organizations have scrapped the entire infrastructure to build new and power-efficient infrastructure. But it is also possible to use the same infrastructure, with modifications, and turn it into a PMI. Pre-engineered solutions must be used to reduce the planning and engineering gestation period, which, currently at 6-12 months, is way too long and does not correspond to the planning horizon of the organization.

Different organizations have different requirements in terms of cooling. The traditional method of cooling is to cool the entire room, but this consumes more energy. Localized cooling caters to the heating problem and at the same times saves a lot of energy. In high capacity centers, it is recommended to use liquid cooling.

In short, an uninterrupted IT infrastructure is essential for the organization to remain in the business. This creates more challenges for the organization in setting up a dependable PMI. The PMI solution should be scalable and it should adapt to technological changes in the IT hardware without any downtime.

The Right Choice
There are a few basics that a customer needs to consider before going for a power management infrastructureplanning ahead, choosing the right supplier, and incorporating the green vision in the planning stage.

In planning, physical design of the infrastructure should not be underestimated. Physical design needs extensive planning. This plays a major role in power and cooling for sustainability, costs, and environmental impact.

The evaluation of a product should not be price versus performance comparison. It is important to incorporate the total costs of the environment into calculation, which also includes costs for energy consumption.

Make sure to use suitable technology and products. One may use pre-engineered and pre-tested control systems that dont take much time to set up with detailed information on troubleshooting. The detailed information may be significant as it could reduce servicing related problems. The key here is to understand the needs of an enterprise and build an infrastructure accordingly.

The company should set a margin of voltage range to asses the systems performance. Local manufacturing setup can support the company to test the power systems in Indian conditions. Many manufacturers from Europe sale their products in India, where power conditions are totally different from those in Europe, where the company can sue a power company if the voltage goes beyond +/-5%.

The PMI supplier should be well known and reputed. The capability of the supplier depends entirely on its ability to provide consistent and uninterrupted service toward the PMI. The supplier should have thorough knowledge of power problems beyond UPS as the UPS systems are becoming more reliable day-by-day. The UPS is now being seen more as a power provider, an essential component of business continuity plans of many enterprises.

IT systems are very sensitive to earth and to neutral voltages. The knowledge of earthing, grounding, and bonding is very important, and should be known to the supplier. Power distribution systems should be made in such a way that you can maintain the distribution system without disturbing the load.

Implementation Tips
Implementation is where the real challenge lies. A single flaw in the implementation could bring system failure and the process of rectification may increase the downtime of the system, which, in turn, may stop all the functioning of the enterprise.

The most important factor to set up a PMI is the availability of right and sufficient space. In most companies, this factor is ignored in the planning phase. Many a time, good organizations provide inaccessible space to utility so as to avoid disturbing the interiors.

Sometimes, the UPS system, battery, and distribution panels are kept on the loft of toilets. People dont provide the removable tiles for cable trays. At times, even exhaust fans or air conditioners are not provided in utility rooms. This results in heat and humidity that reduce battery life.

Oversized systems are a drain on capital investment and available space. There is a growing need to optimize both spatial resources and return on capital investment. Right-sized systems that can be scaled rapidly with changing requirements would reduce oversizing. Hence, modular systems that support expansions are the need of the hour. It will also ensure that service contracts are properly utilized, as there will be no service contract wastages on unused or underutilized equipment.

The challenge faced is the ability to predict and adapt to the dynamic requirements of the PMI. The additions to IT needs that occur every two years further complicate it. Pre-engineered solutions can eliminate, or simplify extensive engineering, and facilitate expansion or modification. The system should be capable of not only managing new loads but also of being quickly directed to isolated high-power loads, if and when the need arises.

In order to maintain a PMI, HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) and electrical systems are needed that are capable of providing efficient operation over a range of operating loads. The variation in operating loads may occur as data centers are incrementally built-out, or as computing equipment and electrical loads vary with changing technology.

Currently, in most data centers, electrical and HVAC systems operate considerably below their design basis. Over the life of the facility, many different loading conditions will be present, based on the changing conditions. The challenge that designers face is to provide design options that satisfy both fully loaded and partially loaded conditions while achieving high efficiency. Design professionals have identified that design options have been limited by capital budget constraints, unrealistic owner demands, or other reasons, but often are due to lack of good planning guidance.

Power management not only helps in optimum utilization of energy, it also saves the companys cost in terms of cash spent on energy. There is also a need to continuously improve and find out new ways of saving energy. An efficient PMI helps the industry in capital and operational expansion; helps improve profit margins, and plays a role in environmental improvement.

Sandeep Sharma
sandeeps@cybermedia.co.in

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