4 ms·
You're probably thinking of power factor, which is usually not a big deal for datacenters. All of your power supplies are going to have active PFC, and anything
by murderfs 1y ago
You're probably thinking of power factor, which is usually not a big deal for datacenters. All of your power supplies are going to have active PFC, and anything behind a double conversion UPS is going to get PFC from the UPS. The biggest contributors are probably going to be the fans in the air conditioning units.
- Animats 1y agoThis isn't about power factor. That's a current vs. voltage thing within one cycle. It's about demand side ramp rate - how fast load can go up and down. Ramp rate has been a generation side thing for a century. Every morning, load increases from the pre-dawn low, and which generators can ramp up output at what speed matters. Ramp rate is usually measured in megawatts/minute. Big thermal plants, atomic and coal, have the lowest ramp rates, a few percent per minute. Ramp rate demand side, though, is a new thing. There are discussions about it [1] but it's not currently something that's a parameter in electric energy bills. [1] https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2012/data/papers/0193-000178.pdf https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2012/data/papers/019...
- hinkley 1y agoFor factories it’s both, but if by “this” you mean the article, I agree. Bursty traffic is the problem they’re most trying to solve. It’s akin (but other side of the coin) to when NAS hardware learned to stagger drive spool up during power on to avoid brownouts. Startup current on spinning platters is ridiculous. You have to do something to buffer, and you can do it on the supply or demand side. Or for large problems, both.