Achieving Discrimination of Circuit Breakers in Computer Rooms - High-reliability environments need selective coordination to avoid downtime caused by main breaker nuisance tripping

摘要

You may have experienced a short circuit on a 15A to 100A branch circuit that also tripped the main breaker in that same panelboard, resulting in widespread downtime. This short circuit may have affected an IT cabinet, trader's desk, glass-making process, operating room, or other critical loads. This common occurrence causes millions of dollars in business losses every year. Data processing centers are affected as well. They typically have numerous lines of businesses fed from each computer room panelboard that would experience downtime if such an event occurred. With this problem in mind, a top 10 U.S. bank formed a design team with EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Inc. and a major circuit breaker manufacturer and set out to overcome this downtime vulnerability. The bank was early into the design of its new corporate data centers.