Sunlight Demonstration Description
Sunlight Series Forti – Your Solutions for Data Centres
Key Features
(1) High Uptime
(2) Protect IT equipment
(3) Personnel safety
(4) IEC 61439-1 & 2
(5) IEC 61641
Achieving High Uptime in Data Centres
Reliability of the power distribution system in data centres contributes to overall system stability which is crucial to maintaining high uptime in data centre operations. This is important for operation of sensitive IT electronic equipment in all data centres.
The Introduction of NECs
Neutral Earth Contactors (NECs) play a critical role in data centres to improve reliability and protect both personnel and those sensitive IT equipment.
A Neutral Earth Contactor (NEC) is an electrical device (i.e. can be Circuit Breakers) used in electrical systems to establish or disconnect the connection between the neutral and earth conductors. NECs ensure the safety of electrical systems by providing a defined path for fault currents. If an imbalance is detected, indicating a fault, the NECs can disconnect the circuit, protecting the safety of operators, preventing potential damage to equipment and minimizing downtime. NECs also provide a properly grounded system that minimize EMI (electro-magnetic interferences), which can adversely affect the performance of sensitive equipment in a data centres. LV Switchboards supporting downstream uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) have NECs to ensure continuous supply of neutral current during a transfer from normal power source to emergency or back-up source. This is achieved by providing temporarily overlapping closure of both the normal and emergency neutral conductors before disconnecting the normal neutral.
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The Challenges of Overlapping Neutral
The temporarily overlapping of neutral lasting more than the design intent can trigger circuit protection devices such as breakers and protection relays upstream etc that lead to interruptions in the power supply and potentially causing downtime. Redundant power systems (UPS, backup generators) which are designed to handle power fluctuations might kick in, if the neutral overlap lasts longer than the system can handle, potentially triggering an unwanted failover, especially if there are issues with neutral return paths during such transitions. Longer neutral overlap might lead to irregularities in the voltage levels and introduce electrical noise, which can affect sensitive equipment or cause power quality issues and compliance issues in critical environments especially in data centres.
Sunlight’s Solution to Managing Overlapping Neutral
Sunlight has designed a type-tested proven panel system that complies IEC 61439-1 & 2 with that serves as a robust and reliable system to achieve high uptime by managing NEC and its overlapping neutral not more than 100ms. The 100ms limit come from testing and real-world scenarios where allowing an extended neutral-earth connection beyond this period could result in dangerous conditions, such as unbalanced currents or improper grounding. This time frame might reflect the sys tem’s tolerance for brief, controlled overlaps, and the time it takes for protection devices to detect and interrupt. This 100ms time frame is now increasingly specified and accepted by data centre owners and operators, electrical engineers, and consultants as a threshold standards. Sunlight had successfully designed a proven NEC system by programming an ATS controller to provide overlapping closure of the NEC, but for not longer than 100ms.
ATS Controller
Q3 NEC – Overlapping Neutral
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