Power Tip #2: Avoid Overloading Phases Within a PDU

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Gento

While three-phase PDUs provide higher power capacities, they do require planning before server deployment. An unbalanced power draw on one or two of the three phases of the PDU creates stranded capacity which increases wasted electricity. Additionally, this scenario can lead to a cascading failure condition upstream. PX3 PDUs actively monitor balancing between phases and if configured correctly can alert you or your team when phases are unbalanced beyond a certain threshold. As a best practice it is important to have all three phases as balanced as possible to minimize unanticipated disruptions and wasted electricity.

Setup Power Factor (PF) Thresholds – to prevent downtime.

These thresholds are disabled by default and can be enabled from Inlet > Thresholds > Edit Thresholds. For a detailed explanation of how PX3 calculates the unbalanced current percentage, please here.

Example of Inlet Data Points Illustrated Below.

To learn more about how to avoid overloading phases within a PDU watch our previously recorded webinar, here.