18 RETHINKING DATA CENTRE POWER INFRASTRUCTURE https://www.tesgroup.com/ Issue 2 2024 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com Rethinking Data Centre Power Infrastructure for the AI Era The rapid growth of AI being integrated into our digital landscape is reshaping how power is designed, delivered, and managed inside modern data centres. What was once a rather linear challenge - securing capacity and distributing power - has now become more complex. Higher rack densities, constrained delivery timelines, and the need for more efficient and resilient power is now pushing traditional power infrastructures to their limits. Across Europe, operators are recognising the importance that power has become in constraining data centre growth. But the question is more on how quickly it can be deployed, efficiently managed, and how reliably it can support AI-focused workloads over time, rather than just how much power can be secured. The Power Challenge Behind the AI Boom The AI boom presents a unique opportunity for the data centre sector, with around £2.2 trillion expected to be spent on AI data centres between now and 2029. However, this development will need the industry to adapt to its power and its availability. The electrical power path from the grid to IT workloads must now manage more complex protection strategies and increasingly dense environments, and with this, operators are under pressure to improve efficiency and gain a clearer visibility in how power is being consumed. This has accelerated the move towards higher-density distribution designs engineered for improved efficiency. These methods also demand an increased level of coordination between power electronics, protection systems, and control platforms. Traditional Methods but Emerging Challenges Despite the evolving demands, many data centres continue to deliver using fragmented power systems assembled on site. Switchgear, transformers, UPS systems, and monitoring platforms are often designed and manufactured in isolation, then integrated under extreme time pressure during construction. The risks associated with this approach are becoming more visible, with long lead times, shortages of specialist talent, and complexity of commissioning evident in the process as the common causes for delay. Each additional interface increases the likelihood of errors at a time when the speed to market is more critical than before. Fragmentation also limits optimisation. When power systems are not engineered as one system, opportunities to streamline conversion stages or embed smarter monitoring from the outset are often missed. The result is infrastructure that works, but harder to operate, scale and adapt as load profiles change. The New Way of Thinking: Integrated Power Delivery From this, our industry is beginning to adopt a different model that recognises the shift to modular, off-site construction. TES Group is at the forefront of this transition, delivering integrated, off-site manufactured power distribution systems for large-scale data centre projects across Europe. Rather than assembling electrical infrastructure separately on site, TES Group designs and manufactures completed power systems as a unified platform. These modular electrical rooms and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ0NzM=