在一个未透露名称的数据中心，ZBB与Universal Electric 合作试验、运行一套380Ｖ直流系统，以确定该系统的效率、经济性和环境影响。
ZBB将提供EnerStrore V3液流电池和EnerSection控制系统，该数据中心配备了光伏和风电。高压ＤＣ直流储能系统被认为比低压交流系统更高效，而光伏的输出为直流，经过变流设备才能变成交流。
Energy storage company ZBB Energy has partnered with Universal Electric to deploy a 380V DC system at an unnamed customer's data center to be used as a “multi-year demonstration” for customers and as a way to determine efficiencies, and economic and environmental benefits of the set-up.
In such a set-up, 380V DC (direct current) power is fed directly to IT equipment power supplies instead of being stepped down in voltage and converted to AC (alternating current) first, as the overwhelming majority of data centers have traditionally been set up to do. Feeding high-voltage DC power directly to IT reduces the amount of conversions electricity has to go through, also reducing electrical losses conversions cause.
ZBB president and CEO Eric Apfelbach said data centes were a new marekt for the company, which is supplying energy storage for the showcase data center – operated by a large financial-services firm – set-up with Universal Electric.
“We see this type of distributed storage and integrated power architecture as a complementary vertical market to the commercial building space, and believe that this type of 'smart' DC micro-grid application with telecom and data centers will become a standardized construction approach ,” Apfelbach said.
ZBB will provide its EnerStore V3 flow battery and EnerSection power and control center with inputs for photovoltaic and wind energy sources. In addition to being considered more energy efficient than low-voltage AC solutions, high-voltage DC is a common form of electricity such renewable sources output.
The set-up at the customer's data center is an “energy lab”, dedicated to integrating renewable energy, energy storage and grid power for mission-critical sites. The facility will use power from all three sources.
In August, Universal Electric, maker of the popular Starline busway solution for power distribution, launched a 380V DC version of the busway product at the DatacenterDynamics conference in Washington, D.C.