Data Center Electrical Design & Reliability Concepts

Conceptual Approaches to Data Center Electrical Systems: Design, Redundancy, and Optimization

Description

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the conceptual electrical design considerations crucial for modern data centers. With a focus on high-level strategies rather than detailed design practices, students will gain a solid understanding of the principles required to design resilient, efficient, and scalable power systems tailored for critical data center applications. The course covers the foundational aspects of data center design, including defining functionality requirements, evaluating power system resilience, and considering redundancy strategies.

Students will learn about key design inputs such as uptime requirements, IT process criticality, service continuity levels, cooling loads, and modularity. The course also delves into advanced topics like grid connection strategies, UPS system technologies, generator reliability, and MV/LV power distribution architectures. Emphasis is placed on comparing redundancy topologies (e.g., N, 2N, N+1), optimizing load balance, and integrating innovative design features for both medium and low-voltage systems.

Through this course, participants will develop a comprehensive understanding of how to optimize data center electrical designs while balancing reliability, scalability, and total cost of ownership (TCO). While the course focuses on conceptual design considerations, it lays the groundwork for making informed decisions critical to ensuring high availability and performance in data center environments.

Note: Detailed design tasks such as equipment sizing, calculations, and software simulations are outside the course scope.

What you’ll learn

• Learn core principles for optimal data center design, including defining functionality needs and initial power system considerations.

• Explore power system resilience principles, grid connection strategies, and emergency power plant design for MV and LV distribution systems.

• Identify critical inputs like uptime, IT process criticality, service continuity levels, electrical rack needs, and cooling load considerations.

• Examine redundancy topologies (N, 2N, N+1) and innovative UPS solutions for handling grid interruptions and ensuring high availability.

• Understand key factors in load balance calculations and how they impact the accuracy of data center electrical designs.

• Learn about MV and HV grid connection options, HVMV substation operations, and specifying transformers and equipment.

• Study emergency power plant design, generator connections, redundancy strategies, and generator monitoring/testing practices.

• Explore MV topologies, switchboard technology, protection systems, MV Automatic Transfer Switches (ATS), and power monitoring techniques.

• Understand LV distribution alternatives, UPS configurations, battery systems, and optimizing main LV switchboard and distribution design.

• Learn methods for optimizing reliability, availability, and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) during data center operations.

Who this course is for:

• Electrical Engineers and Designers: Seeking to enhance their knowledge in medium and low voltage power system design, protection, and reliability analysis, particularly in data center and industrial applications.

• Data Center Operators and Facility Managers: Interested in optimizing system reliability, scalability, and total cost of ownership through advanced monitoring, maintenance strategies, and failure analysis considerations.

• Consultants and Project Managers: Working on large-scale infrastructure projects, who need a holistic understanding of power distribution, redundancy strategies, and energy efficiency to deliver optimized solutions.

• Maintenance Teams and Site Operators: Responsible for maintaining high-availability environments, with a focus on manual operation skills, emergency response, and predictive maintenance practices.

• System Reliability Analysts: Looking to deepen their understanding of reliability assessments, contingency analysis, and the impact of design decisions on system performance and downtime.

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