Data Center Power

The Challenge

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Architecture Changes

Moving from centralized AC to distributed DC distribution simplifies the power delivery chain — fewer conversion stages, reduced equipment count, and more direct energy flow from source to load. But that simplification concentrates more energy on the DC bus, which raises the stakes for everything that monitors and protects it.

Monitoring Challenges

Reliable 800V DC data center power requires continuous monitoring across three critical points: the main DC bus, distribution feeders, and critical loads at the rack and row level. Without that visibility, stable operation and balanced power delivery aren’t achievable — and problems don’t surface until they’ve already become failures.

DC-Specific Limitations

Most DC equipment ships with limited built-in monitoring capability. Combined with the high-voltage constraints and safety considerations inherent to 800V DC environments, this creates a hard requirement for dedicated external measurement infrastructure — hardware that’s purpose-built for the application, not adapted from AC-era designs.

Protection Challenges

Fault response in a DC power system has to happen in microseconds. High-speed circuit breakers depend on accurate, real-time electrical data to execute trip logic before damage propagates. As 800V DC deployments grow in scale and complexity, protection coordination becomes harder — and the cost of getting it wrong gets higher.

Additional Challenges

Beyond fault response, reliable 800V DC data center power requires solving for electrical isolation between high-voltage bus and control electronics, signal integrity under dynamic load conditions, and safe maintenance access at the rack and row level. Each demands hardware engineered with DC architectures specifically in mind.

A Complete Solution: 59 LLC + Knick Interface

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Solving 800V DC power distribution at the system level requires two distinct layers of capability — architecture design and measurement. ASI brings those together through partnerships with 59 LLC and Knick Interface.

 

59 LLC — System-Level Architecture

59 LLC works with data center developers and operators to design scalable DC power architectures from the ground up. Their focus is on reducing complexity and streamlining implementation — integrating rectifiers, energy storage, and distribution into coherent systems engineered for long-term reliability. The target is five-nines availability: infrastructure that stays up.

Knick Interface — The Measurement Layer

Knick Interface provides the high-isolation measurement backbone the system depends on. Their voltage and current transducers deliver microsecond level and 3-port galvanic isolation — keeping downstream control electronics safe during fault events while supplying the precise, fast signals that breaker coordination and protection logic require.

Knick’s transducers aren’t adapted from lower-voltage designs. They’ve been proven in demanding DC environments — including rail traction power systems that share key parameters with high-voltage data center architectures — and are available as commercial off-the-shelf products ready for immediate deployment and future expansion.

What the Partnership Delivers

• Reliable voltage and current signals for real-time protection systems
• Accurate breaker coordination and fault detection at microsecond level
• High galvanic isolation that protects controls and personnel at 800V DC and above
• COTS hardware that simplifies integration and reduces qualification time
• A complete architecture and measurement solution — not two separate vendor conversations

Where AmeriChem Systems Fits In

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Measurement devices and system architecture are the foundation. Turning them into a deployable, tested, and documented installation is a different scope of work — and that’s where ASI comes in.

Controls & Monitoring Integration

Knick’s transducers produce the signals. ASI integrates those signals into a complete controls and monitoring package — wiring, PLC programming, panel fabrication, and plant-level communication — so the measurement layer connects directly to the protection systems and operators that depend on it. The same approach ASI applies to automation work across industrial applications translates directly to the data center environment.

See our Automation Capabilities for more on controls integration.

Custom Skid Fabrication — Power and Cooling

Some data center applications require more than electrical integration. ASI fabricates custom process skids for both power distribution support and liquid cooling — including cooling distribution units (CDUs) for high-density compute environments where air cooling no longer keeps up. When a project needs mechanical and electrical infrastructure designed and built to spec, that’s a single-source scope for ASI.

See our Custom Process Systems page for CDU and process skid capabilities.

UL-Certified Panel Shop

ASI’s facility carries UL certification for panel fabrication. For data center projects where electrical panel certifications are a hard project requirement, that removes a qualification step and keeps the documentation package clean from the start.

Engineering Documentation

Every ASI project ships with full engineering documentation: P&IDs in AutoCAD Plant 3D, 3D models from AutoCAD Inventor, electrical schematics from AutoCAD Electrical, and a complete data book after shipment. For data center builds where documentation is as much a deliverable as the equipment itself, ASI’s process is built around that expectation.

ISO 9001 certified. 30+ years of custom fabrication experience. Equipment installed in 36 states and 22 countries.

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