Monitoring, metering and power quality analysis for data centers
CENTO is a core of your industrial IoT ecosystem
Modern data centers require high availability of engineering infrastructure, as it is the basis for constant availability of information services for use by customers. The flip side of such availability is increased power consumption of infrastructure components. Monitoring of power consumption and loads prevents the failure of system elements and creates a basis for optimizing the energy consumption of the facility as a whole. Since energy costs account for a significant share of data center operating expenses, investments in energy efficiency pay off quickly.
Metering systems monitor the level of energy utilization by the main consumers – IT and telecommunication equipment – and also help to allocate a portion of energy resources used to maintain engineering systems, taking into account redundancy. Calculation of the Power Utilization Efficiency Ratio (PUE) allows assessing not only the “quality” of systems operation, but also the available capacity reserve for data center development.
Controlling power quality in data centers is not just a whim of efficient managers. Practitioners strongly recommend quality control not only on suitable external networks, but also inside the branches, guaranteed and uninterrupted power supply, protected by UPS. Continuous quality control of “clean” networks detects interference from power supplies that are on the verge of failure and records oscillograms of transients that threaten expensive IT equipment.
SATEC BFM II-based solution is relevant for organizing dispatching and billing of facilities with many tenants (multitenant billing) and is in demand not only in data centers that lease their infrastructure (Collocation), but also in corporate computing centers that have no need for direct electricity billing, but accounting of their own consumption is necessary for property management or control of contractors.
The experience of operating modern data centers shows that such facilities almost never remain static power consumers. The constantly changing, and not only growing, load from IT equipment requires support departments to understand periods of high or low load, as well as their correlation with the consumption of engineering infrastructure, which also depends on environmental conditions. Ignoring consumption schedules leads to unexpected failures or incorrect timing of system maintenance.
Collocation and enterprise data center solutions
The BFM II meter is a modular measuring device: it monitors up to 54 single-phase circuits simultaneously and is mounted on a din-rail. The built-in Ethernet port is used for connection to the company’s information networks (the basic configuration includes RS-485 and USB in addition to Ethernet), and the sensors are detachable current transformers that can be easily mounted on outgoing lines without disconnecting the load. It is possible to connect additional remote signaling and control modules to the BFM II meter, and thus to receive additional information about the state of the server rack (temperature, humidity, door opening/closing), as well as to exert a control effect.
The device supports standard data transfer protocols: Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-101/104.
Devices with similar functionality in terms of metering are available from other manufacturers, but their measured parameters are not so accurate (error of 2% compared to 0.5% in BFM II) and are suitable only for internal metering. Comparisons show that the cost of monitoring one circuit with SATEC BFM II is the lowest on the market.
CENTO software package is used for power metering, dispatching of engineering systems and power supply system, equipment diagnostics, power quality control and registration of emergency events. Thus, the data center receives a complete solution that covers the whole range of tasks of the department responsible for the stability of engineering systems.
Check how CENTO works in real life
With clear visibility, accurate metering, insightful analytics, and effective planning,
your resources and equipment will be utilized more efficiently.
Mining
Automated metering, monitoring and control system. Decrease in the purchased power volume. Cancelled daily scheduled rounds and reduced response time to emergencies.
Metals
Legacy systems replaced. Unified control, diagnostics, and data for 210 facilities.
Energy
Secure PQ monitoring inside isolated network. Real-time data, full internal control.
Data centers
Energy metering and power quality analysis. Integrated monitoring for critical infrastructure and uptime.