Active Power introduced its PowerHouse products at Datacenter Dynamics (DCD) New York, March 12, 2013, at the Marriott Marquis.

The redesigned modular power infrastructure solution provides a lower acquisition cost, faster time to deployment, and superior monitoring, controls, and analytics software versus a conventional data center electrical room.

Rated from 240 kW to 960 kW, the new PowerHouse products integrate all critical physical infrastructure components into a purpose built enclosure. Components can include Active Power’s CleanSource® UPS or CleanSource® High Density UPS products; diesel generator; Smart Display; PowerHouse OS analytics and controls software; automatic transfer switch; switchboards; lighting; air conditioning; and regulatory and safety devices.

“Active Power has deployed more than 60 PowerHouse systems worldwide since 2006,” said Doug Milner, president and CEO, at Active Power. “With this latest set of products in the PowerHouse line, we have leveraged that field experience to introduce a redesign that reduces cost and deployment time while providing enhanced management and control functionality. These products deliver unmatched power density, reliability, and total cost of ownership to data centers. We believe these inherent customer benefits uniquely position Active Power to compete and gain share in the rapidly expanding modular data center market.”

Benefits

PowerHouse benefits include:

  • Lower Capital Cost – PowerHouse lowers overall electrical infrastructure capital expenses by as much as 25 percent versus a conventional build[1] due to its optimized design, factory construction, integration, and testing prior to deployment. This approach lowers overall project expenses by reducing costs associated with field wiring, site preparation, and project management. In addition, the system’s compact size and robust enclosure provide greater deployment flexibility and allow operators to reduce the size and cost of their land and building. 
  •  
  • Rapid Deployment – A virtually off the shelf product ready in as little as 10 weeks from order, PowerHouse is already designed, engineered, and tested and can be built in parallel with customer site preparation. As a result, the system can be up and operating 60 percent faster[2] than a conventional brick-and-mortar deployment – reducing total time from more than a year to 30 weeks or fewer.
  •  
  • Superior Management and Control – Real time analytics and system controls are available via the Smart Display, a brilliant full color touchscreen user interface. The software ties together all critical elements of PowerHouse and provides a single unified perspective of the entire system. PowerHouse OS, built on the best-in-class IO.OS platform from IO, takes this critical data and provides historical reporting capability, trending, and useful analytical tools.
  •  
  • Highly Efficient – PowerHouse features Active Power’s CleanSource UPS or next generation CleanSource High Density UPS. At up to 98 percent efficient, these products are the ideal UPS foundation product for the newly redesigned PowerHouse. Their wide ambient temperature operating range and battery-free design further reduces cooling losses for PowerHouse. 
  •  
  • Flexible and Highly Scalable – Customers have the ability to mix and match UPS and generator sizes to tailor to specific applications. Systems can be combined to achieve higher power capacity and/or Uptime Institute Tier II-IV availability.

“We set out to dramatically enhance the value and technical differentiation of PowerHouse and enable customers to better manage the infrastructure supporting their data center power requirements,” said Todd Kiehn, director, Modular Infrastructure Solutions for Active Power. “What we’re delivering is a modular product that’s rapidly deployable at a competitive price, provides out-of-box reliability, and a tremendous amount of useful intelligence via our software platform. This is a timely and compelling solution that will help data centers achieve their availability, efficiency, and budget goals.”