Janus: Standard 48-Hour Diesel Backup Is Probably a Data Center Relic
Brian Janous · Under the hood of data center power demand · Jun 13, 2024 · at 19:09
Brian Janus, former Microsoft energy executive, discusses historical redundancy practices and backup requirements with host Shayle Kann.
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“I will say that backup is probably a bit of a relic because when we first started building these data centers, 15 years ago, most of them were relatively small. They were five or 10 megawatts. They were connected at distribution voltage. So the standard was put in 48 hours of diesel fuel to manage downtime and outages. Most of these data centers today are connected at very high voltage. You know, they're connected at the highest voltages, and so the reliability is much higher. So there probably is some flex in there in terms of what data centers actually need.”
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