C A S E S T U D Y

How much of a comprehensive understanding do data centre organisations have about the causes and risks of arc flash incidents?

There’ s a good level of comprehension in the data centre industry. Arc flash risk when working with electrical equipment has been around for some time now, so there’ s a good understanding of keeping personnel safe.

Referring back to rising power and the continued growth of power-hungry demands for AI, employers and data centres will begin to pay a lot more attention to when and how they carry out energised work.

Standards and education resources are widely available. I believe we’ ll see data centre organisations investing more time in safe practices, especially with the current AI trend.

What are some of the key mitigation strategies used to prevent an arc flash incident from occurring?

First and foremost is understanding and education. Arc flash hazard studies are another option, carried out by third parties. These studies provide information about the type of arc flash energy at each point in the electrical system and identify the type of protective equipment required.

The study will essentially educate the workforce to understand the risk involved when dealing with electrical systems and help them prevent injury.

Another component to help mitigate risk is regular maintenance, including IR scanning. IR scanning enables the early identification of hotspots or anomalies if done often. Regular maintenance and ensuring your infrastructure is in good health is key to avoiding anomalies and downtime.

it’ s exceeding a certain thermal limit or if there’ s a high load that triggers an alarm..

How can data centre owners provide their employees with the safest work environment possible and reduce the dangers of arc flash incidents?

Providing employees with the knowledge required is of utmost importance. You can’ t put anyone into an electrical work environment – especially these highpower situations – and expect them to know how to deal with the risk.

You must educate your clients, your customers, your personnel and everyone that comes within close proximity to electrical equipment. They need to know what they’ re working with and have an in-depth understanding of potential hazards. They also need to be aware of how to manage risk when working on the equipment.

Can you outline some of the safety advantages of electrical busway systems compared to legacy systems?

Legacy systems in the data centre space utilise remote power panels or RPPs. Performing live work like changing breakers can be very risky with legacy systems.

The Remote Plug-In Actuator( RPA) in action

By contrast, Starline Busway is designed for energised insertion. Standards require that the system minimises risk for the user. When you change out a circuit or add or remove a circuit from the busway system, there’ s always a fault path established through ground.

On top of that, busway is also arc flash tested. We do voluntary testing to make sure the equipment is rated, both for energised insertion and for arc flash.

We’ ve also developed a new technology, the Remote Plug-In Actuator( RPA), to further mitigate the risk of live insertion. The RPA allows technicians to remotely activate tap-off units from a distance. So, whenever a user adds or removes a circuit, the RPA allows you to remain outside the arc flash boundary, which makes it extremely safe.

How do you expect to see safety measures within data centres take shape moving forward?

With AI trends, there’ s going to be no slowdown in terms of rising power densities. Power is going to increase for at least another five years, maybe more – and it’ s increasing exponentially from what we’ re seeing in rack power.

An additional strategy involves identifying anomalies within the building management system. A lot of data centres use building management systems to trend current, but there are also environmental sensors out there – for instance, thermal sensors.

With busway systems, you can detect alarms within the end feed – whether

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