The Raritan Blog

Power Tip #2: Avoid Overloading Phases Within a PDU

Jessica Ciesla
July 23, 2020

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.