Redundancy by Design

Phoenix NAP puts special emphasis on its power design. Employing a system with available 2N distribution to meet the needs and requests of clients, four 10 megawatt feeds are delivered from utility substation transformers to the facility along two different geographic paths.

And that is just the start of the redundancy.

• Two medium voltage uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units are fed by three sources; two redundant utility feeds and an N+1 backup generator system
• Each client rack is redundantly fed from two power distribution panels (PDBs) on separate distribution paths

All of this adds up to one thing — true A and B power distribution from the substation to client racks.

Medium Voltage

Medium voltage distribution is a key aspect to the design and operational philosophy of Phoenix NAP. Namely, to maximize efficiency and cost effectiveness, in order to pass along the benefits to clients.

A typical 480 volt service entrance duct bank usually requires multiple conduits, a sizable concrete footprint, thousands of feet of wire, and many terminations. Since Phoenix NAP uses medium voltage, that same configuration would require one conduit, a small concrete footprint, hundreds of feet of wire, and few terminations.

Medium voltage also requires fewer duct banks, limiting the chances of cross-duct overheating.

Less copper required=cost savings that Phoenix NAP can pass on to clients.



Figure 1
Sources: U.S. Geological Survey, [2007], [Mineral commodity, Copper] statistics in Kelly, T.D., and Matos, G.R., comps., Historical statistics for mineral and material commodities in the United States: U.S. Goelogical Survey Data Series 140, available online at http://minerals.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/copper.pdf

U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries; January 2009 available online: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/2009/mcs2009.pdf