Taking Tower Maintenance to a Higher Level.

Drone-based inspections increase worker safety and operational efficiency. 

There are approximately seven million miles of transmission and distribution lines that stretch across the U.S. which, for the most part, are decades old. In the West, the pressure is immense for utilities to keep the power flowing without contributing to wildfires. This year marks one of the worst wildfire seasons in history. As of late summer 2021, a total of 6,540 fires have been recorded in California, burning over 1,161,027 acres (405,000 ha) across the state. Colorado, Idaho, and Montana are also suffering from unprecedented wildfires. 

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Flywheels - taking energy storage beyond the limitations of existing technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely upended the definition of business as usual, highlighting the need for a newer, different way of thinking. 

This especially rings true for today’s enterprise, cloud, and colocation facilities handling the data explosion caused by remote workers, virtual classrooms and events, telemedicine, video streaming, social media, and a myriad of other processes. And, as 5G rolls out, AI, ML, and IoT data will further challenge the IT infrastructure.

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 Energy Storage and the Smart Grid -  Energy storage systems (ESS) combine energy-dense batteries with bidirectional, grid-tied inverters and communication systems to allow interface with the electric grid, provide valuable services and are programmable to run in various grid-support modes. 

Grid-support services enable further penetration of intermittent resources such as solar.

Recently, U.S. utilities and system integrators have initiated several demonstration pilot programs to prove energy storage viability and its potential impact on the grid.

Also, organizations such as the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) are evaluating the efficiency and cycling performance capabilities of energy storage batteries.

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Why It’s Time to Add Software-Defined Power to the Software-Defined Data Center

The Ability to Better Provision and Utilize Power in the Data Center Saves Money and the Planet 

We are a decade into the software-defined data center (SDDC) concept, driven by virtualization and the increased utilization of compute, storage, and networking through shared platforms. While that journey has proved to be successful, it is not yet comprehensive. A critical foundational element is missing: infrastructure management. In order to achieve maximum efficiency and efficacy in a virtualized ecosystem, data center managers must enable software to intelligently manage the facilities themselves. 

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DataBank Solves Energy Storage Unpredictability with Vycon’s Flywheel Systems

DataBank’s UPSs, power distribution units (PDUs), generators, and other power equipment must operate at their highest level. If there’s a power outage, it could mean devastating circumstances for the company’s colo customers, resulting in a loss of trust. “Weather-related power transients are not uncommon, and we require all of our power infrastructure systems to be at the ready at all times,” said Danny Allen, DataBank’s vice president of engineering. 

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Supercomputer center increases data center efficiencies with flywheels

 San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California San Diego has two data centers, one of which is a secure 5,000-sq-ft facility that supports research activities for UC San Diego’s computational research. As one of the largest data centers at the research university, this site handles general hosting for a wide range of research entities and collaboration activities with the UC Health System.

Managing numerous servers for secure data hosting, analysis, and high-compute research is the job of data center manager, Jeff Filliez. Ensuring 24x7 uptime of these data-intensive servers is crucial, as downtime is not acceptable for carrying out critical research and health care collaboration.

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Achieving Carbon Footprint Reduction with Flywheel Technology

Recent technical advances have enabled flywheel energy storage systems (FESS) to become compact and able to support higher-power applications. Due to their proven reliability, low cost of ownership, and favorable green environmental aspects, engineers and managers of data centers, hospitals, industrial systems, electric rail, and microgrid applications are reaping the benefits of clean energy storage that flywheels offer. Full Tech Briefs article