by Shane Henson — April 22, 2013—Echola Systems, a designer and manufacturer of custom Layer1 optical switches, recently announced it has extended its line of smart power distribution products with a new 380V Direct Current (DC) Smart-Switched Power Distribution Unit (PDU) for green data centers.
The DC power distribution is making a comeback, thanks to major advances in power electronics since Edison and Tesla made power distribution practical in the late nineteenth century, the company notes. Today, 380V DC power distribution has a lower total cost of ownership compared to a three-phase AC (alternating current) power distribution because DC distribution is more efficient, more reliable, and requires less space, less cooling, less copper, no load balancing, and lower equipment cost, explains the company.
Echola Systems’ DC series, SPDU-D3xx, PDU leverages its patent-pending shared hybrid relay switching technology to switch high-voltage DC power safely, says Echola Systems. It also facilitates safe installation of equipment by switching outlets to “off” at the time of installation, thus preventing contact-arcing issues. Like other Echola Systems’ AC PDUs, DC PDUs also support energy monitoring through Web, SNMP and Telnet/SSH interfaces.
The SPDU-D3xx series PDU production will start in the fourth quarter of this year, but SPDU-D308, the eight-outlet 1U model, is available now for demo, says Echola Systems. The DC PDU will be available in vertical (Zero U) as well as horizontal (1U) rackmount form factors, with ratings ranging from 7.6 kW to 22.8 kW.
