Powering the future of data centres, uninterrupted performance, unrivalled quality.

At Socomec we are powering the future of data centres today through our unrivalled expertise in critical power management. Our focus on product quality and expert advice delivers cost-effective, high availability power solutions.

Our specialist UK-based account teams have the time and expertise to understand customer challenges and offer intelligent solutions. We have 3000 employees, 12 production sites and spend 8% of our €725m turnover on R&D. Our UK-based service teams deliver outstanding 24x7 customer support and expert technical advice. We help our customers increase efficiency without compromising power quality. We also have a real commitment to net zero, our products built to last for 20+ years and our solutions are designed to have a low environmental impact.

Data centre power has never been more important. We are critical power specialists, our market leading range of critical power and monitoring solutions deliver outstanding uptime.

The rapid growth of High-Performance Computing (HPC) has increased the pressure on data centre systems by driving unprecedented demand for capacity and power at scale.? Today’s technologies, require significantly more power than traditional data centre workloads and increasingly this power is in short supply.

Grids across Europe are struggling to upgrade their infrastructure to distribute power at the scale required for today’s data centres. Where power is available, it is expensive, so operators need to ensure that they are using it as efficiently as possible. In addition, there is increasing pressure to minimise the environmental impact of data centre power usage. Both these factors are causing operators to seek every possible opportunity to reduce power consumption.

Delivering consistent, uninterrupted power to data centres is essential to ensure the availability of applications for businesses, entertainment, communications and government services. This dependence on data centres has recently been reinforced by the UK government’s decision to classify Data Centres as Critical National Infrastructure. Today's data centres need sophisticated power solutions that blend energy-efficient technologies with smart management systems to deliver the uptime that the market needs.

The impact of data centre demand on power

Unprecedented data centre growth has reshaped power consumption patterns. New applications create complex load profiles that have greater fluctuations and require higher power densities. According to a recent report by Goldman Sachs, AI is poised to drive a 160% increase in data centre power demand by 2030. This is not the only growth driver, there is also significant expansion in Cloud computing and data centres are evolving their power systems to support this scale.

Balancing performance with energy efficiency

Data centre operators must balance the demand for greater capacity with the need to ensure energy efficiency. They have already invested heavily in the transition to renewable energy, but they also need to reduce energy usage especially through efficient cooling.

Power infrastructure designs now use advanced technologies to monitor and manage systems instantly. These maintain a careful balance between delivering power for high density computing environments and optimising energy use. The focus has changed to environmentally responsible solutions that handle growing power needs without sacrificing efficiency or reliability.

Ensuring Uptime with Critical Power Management

The supply of power to both IT and cooling systems can be interrupted for many reasons, including:

Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) failure

UPS failure is a leading cause of downtime in data centres, often due to ageing hardware, human error and improper implementation of bypass procedures during maintenance.

Most large data centres have more than one UPS, so if one fails the other takes the full load.? Notwithstanding this, if a UPS fails, the consequences can still be significant and costly. The reliability of the UPS system can be improved by adopting a modular approach, building the system with multiple independent power modules such as Socomec’s Modulys range. While the failure rate of a modular UPS is extremely low, the internal failure rate of the UPS system depends on the number of power modules and the meantime between failure (MTBF) of each module. The only way to achieve greater reliability is to use power modules with a very high MTBF and very low failure rate. At Socomec, the failure rate of our modular UPS is very low because of our unique fault tolerant platform. The internal design has an architecture with no single point of failure. This inbuilt redundancy reinforces reliability, bringing the MTBF to several millions of hours.

Avoiding downtime with Static Transfer Switching

The implementation of Static Transfer Systems (STS) in a data centre ensures the continuity of power to sensitive loads for critical applications. In the event of a fault or loss of source, it provides power continuity by switching from one source to another without an outage. Keeping the power available to a load is critical, however it is also essential to establish the cause of a fault, to manage it in an effective way.

The Socomec STATYS range of STS incorporates more than 30 years of experience in its design and 4 generations of STS. The thousands of hours of operation and the many units installed have improved the detection and qualification of faults. It maximises availability by guaranteeing transfer, without overlap of the sources as well as fault isolation in the event of a downstream short-circuit.

Enhanced redundancy with Catcher architecture

STS technology makes it possible to achieve high levels of power availability while keeping costs under control. When used in combination with Socomec’s Modulys UPS in a Catcher configuration this approach offers a similar level of availability while being more efficient and less costly in terms of capital. Catcher architecture is currently used by large and medium-sized data centres as an alternative to traditional 2N architecture.

The Catcher model stands out for its ability to optimise redundancy while limiting investment costs. It uses a flexible approach, making it easier to adapt to the specific needs of data centres. This flexibility is particularly advantageous for expanding facilities as it enables better UPS sizing and offers simplified maintenance.

?

Advanced power monitoring and analytics

There are multiple benefits to closely monitoring power in a data centre, from efficient energy usage to prevention of downtime and accurate metering of power consumed. Effective power monitoring allows data centre operators to identify energy-hungry equipment, optimise server utilisation and implement more efficient cooling strategies. By tracking power usage in real-time, data centre managers can make informed decisions to reduce energy waste and lower operational costs.

Power monitoring also plays a vital role in detecting potential failures before they occur, enabling rapid responses to power anomalies and predicting the need to failover to backup systems. These measures significantly reduce the risk of unexpected outages and maintain high availability.

As energy costs rise and consumption grows, the need to reduce waste and control usage becomes more important. Power monitoring enables better efficiency by identifying opportunities for energy savings, enabling accurate billing for power usage and justifying investment in more efficient equipment.

Socomec’s market-leading monitoring technology helps identify inefficient power usage and unnecessary consumption. Our clients typically reduce their energy usage by 15-20% after deploying our power monitoring solutions.

Conclusion

Modern data centre power infrastructure has evolved significantly to support HPC workloads. Advanced UPS systems, sophisticated monitoring solutions and intelligent power management technologies deliver unprecedented reliability and can significantly reduce energy consumption. Socomec have a full portfolio of market leading UPS, STS and Power monitoring solutions to help data centre operators ensure uninterrupted performance, through exceptional uptime. We are powering the future of data centres today through our unrivalled expertise in critical power management.