EDITOR’S CHOICE
EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
BENDER
ELIMINATE DATA
CENTRE POWER
SHUTDOWNS
AND ENSURE
MAXIMUM
AVAILABILITY
Continuous power monitoring systems
from Bender UK are designed to monitor
and provide early warning of developing
earth faults, removing the possibility
of unnecessary power interruption and
unplanned shutdown.
Tier 3 and 4 data centres are designed with
redundant power from source to socket,
to cater for any eventuality resulting from
a single failure. But power outages in data
centres can still occur. Redundant designs
are deemed to be concurrently maintainable
but switching off systems even for periodic
inspection and testing carries with it the
restart risk.
Bender residual current monitors (RCM) are
used to monitor earthed systems (TT and
TN systems) for fault currents or residual
currents. They continually monitor insulation
levels, providing early warning of earth
faults and notifying the end user before the
shutdown threshold is reached.
Continuous monitoring also enables
data centres to fulfil the requirements for
regulatory checks without shutting down
the power. This enables the data centres
to provide continuous, reliable service
to customers and removes the risks that
accompany even the most meticulously
planned restart.
Downtime in colocation data centres is
especially difficult, as a large number of
customers’ data is located in one data hall.
Bender UK’s residual current monitoring
solution reduces the headache involved
with having to agree and organise a single
maintenance shutdown period that pleases
all your customers.
other tests during periodic inspection and
testing can be carried out either with power
on or with minimum disruption at circuit
level.
Bender UK continuous residual current
monitoring enables the data centre operator
to meet these regulatory requirements
without power shutdown.
BS7671:2018 651.2 states: “…Where a
circuit is permanently monitored by a
residual current monitor (RCM) or insulation
monitoring device (IMD) it is not necessary
to measure the insulation resistance if the
functioning of the RCM or IMD is correct…”
Why monitor residual current in a data
centre environment?
Due to the nature of the loads installed in
data centres, use of residual current devices
(RCDs) is not recommended because of
their nuisance tripping problems. By using
Bender technology to monitor the RCD, any
deteriorations are detected very early on
before the shutdown threshold – ensuring
reliability and allowing for smooth running
of your data hall.
It is particularly important to examine
the detail of power system performance;
to detect and evaluate fault currents,
equalising currents and insulation faults in
a finely granulated way. Insulation faults,
stray currents, overloaded N conductors
due to harmonics or asymmetrical loads,
interruptions of PE and N conductor and also
EMC influences can interfere with the entire
current supply system and have an impact
on the operation.
Meet the requirements for periodic
inspection and testing (PIT) without
shutdown The impact can range from triggering several
protective devices, and unexplainable
malfunctions of protection or IT systems to
fire damage or even injury to personnel.
Power shutdown during periodic inspection
and testing is intrusive and provides only a
snapshot of the status of a power system. All The advantages of Bender RCM technology
have been proven through its use in large
data centres in Europe, delivering safer
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and more reliable systems and greater
availability by providing advanced warning
on developing insulation faults. Another
benefit is the ability to pinpoint the location
of an earth fault.
Continuous residual current monitoring
using Bender RCM technology enables
effective monitoring of power infrastructure,
as well as cabling it also monitors the status
of connected equipment including servers.
Bender technology also enables the
operators and users to tailor the system
to meet their individual requirements –
supplying a bespoke solution. The RCM
threshold response value and the time delay
can be adjusted to precisely match the
requirements of each individual location,
which means that known sources of errors
and transient faults can be masked. If a
residual current exceeds a defined threshold
value, the RCM system sends a warning to
the building control system, identifying
problems and issues before they become
critical.
Residual current monitoring instantly alerts
the control centre if a problem begins to
develop, equipping the operators to take
action before the problem becomes critical.
Data from the RCM system can feed into a
normal PC or laptop on site, or to your data
centre infrastructure management software.
Data can also be monitored remotely using
the internet to securely log in and check the
status and performance of one or multiple
sites.
To find out more about how Bender
UK can safeguard data centre
availability and identify issues
before they become critical visit
stand D953 at Data Centre World
or go to www.bender-uk.com/
solutions/data-centres