ABB, the multinational power and automation vendor, will install a high-voltage direct current (DC) power distribution system by its recently acquired subsidiary Validus DC at a Swiss data center. The installation will be used as a showcase for the technology that has so far failed to gain significant traction in the data center market.

The client is a Swiss provider of hosting and other IT and communications services green.ch that is adding about 16,000 sq ft of space to its 35,000-sq-ft data center in Lupfig, Switzerland. ABB's fully redundant 1MW power-distribution system will support the new space, scheduled to come online in the first quarter of 2012.

green.ch CEO Franz Gr├╝ter said in a statement the deal was very much a result of the hosting company's emphasis on reducing ecological harm. High-voltage DC power systems are considered more energy efficient than the traditional low-voltage AC systems because they do not require as many electrical conversions, which result in energy losses.

"Our company name is a statement for ecology," Gr├╝ter said. "The new DC technology of ABB allows us to fulfill our environmental responsibilities as part of our long-term goals."

Energy efficiency is not the only appeal of using high-voltage DC power in data centers. Mark Murrill, DC power program manager for NetSure, Emerson's DC power subsidiary, said such systems could be more reliable than the traditional ones.

"One main advantage of DC is that there's no single point of failure in the entire system," Murrill said.

Another advantage, which applies especially to environmentally conscious customers, is it is easier to integrate a DC power system with a renewable energy source, such as wind or solar, since all renewable-energy systems output high-voltage DC power, Murrill added.

Despite the advantages, the data center industry has not adopted at any significant scale the technology that has been adopted by the telecom sector many years ago.

Murrill said he was not aware of any deployments of high-voltage DC in data centers at a significant scale. One of the key hurdles to widespread adoption, in his opinion, is a lack of technical standards.

"There are lots of labs and proof of concept type sites going on but there are no commercial deployments, per say, because there are no industry standards yet set. That's really the state of high-voltage DC today."