Electrical equipment makers GE and Validus have teamed up to market integrated DC power infrastructure systems for data centers and telecommunication facilities. The latter firm's new DC Data Center System - an end-to-end power and cooling solution - includes GE-manufactured electrical components.

The companies are touting DC systems as more energy efficient and cheaper to deploy than the more traditional AC systems. According to a GE statement, the system enables a 2.5-MW data center to use 25 percent less energy than a similar AC-powered facility uses. GE is also promising a 50-percent reduction in equipment cost and a 20-40-percent reduction in the cost of installation.

Other benefits are the system's smaller physical footprint, fewer single points of failure and a smaller heat output.

Greater efficiency is reached by way of reducing the number of conversions electricity goes through between its point of entry into the facility and DC-powered servers and other IT equipment. A "typical"AC system transforms, rectifies and inverts electricity five times before it reaches the servers, according to the GE statement.

When going through Validus's DC system, power is rectified and converted twice to provide 48 VDC or once to provide 380-570VDC.

According to a 2008 report on a study of DC power in data centers conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, it takes about 0.9 W of power to support power conversion for every watt of power used for data processing in an AC system. It also takes between 0.6 W and 1 W to cool the conversion equipment.

"Results were measured and documented from two sets of DC delivery systems, and compared to two sets of AC delivery systems,"executive summary of LBNL's results read. "In both cases, the DC delivery system showed a minimum of 5% to 7% efficiency gains without significant optimization over two AC distribution systems that are 'best-in-class'and much more efficient than most systems found in today's data centers."

Typical configuration of a Validus DC system