Integrated DC power infrastructure
Global electrification and automation company ABB announced the launch of Infinitus, a new direct-current (DC) solution designed to address rapidly increasing electricity demand from AI data centers. Building on its collaboration with NVIDIA announced in October last year, ABB also plans to accelerate development of an 800 V DC power architecture for gigawatt-scale AI data centers.
Infinitus is the industry's first integrated DC portfolio covering the entire data center power infrastructure, from power source to rack. Based on solid-state transformer (SST) technology, it reduces the footprint of data center power infrastructure and improves energy efficiency to meet rising power density and computing requirements.
ABB is the only electrification solutions company producing both the world's first IEC-certified solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) and the industry's first static medium-voltage uninterruptible power supply (UPS). These technologies underpin its broad portfolio across data center power infrastructure.
Infinitus comprises five core solutions: a medium-voltage powertrain supplying stable, resilient electricity; DC power and power quality solutions that convert alternating current (AC) to DC and reduce power conversion stages within the white space; DC distribution that provides high power density and reliable supply in confined spaces; DC power protection that safeguards operating personnel and AI equipment from DC overcurrent; and cooling optimization that reduces energy consumption through variable-speed drives and motors.
ABB designs solutions around customers' power requirements, facility layouts and energy mixes, providing energy efficiency and power supply optimized for each data center. Combining existing AC systems with DC flexibility allows the solutions to serve different power architectures while providing the efficiency, reliability and scalability required by AI data centers. A particular focus is enabling high-density, high-efficiency power delivery for next-generation AI chips.
Key components are scheduled to enter production within the next 12 months. The first DC-based data center using the full Infinitus portfolio is expected to be built and operating within two to three years.
Deployment and industry adoption
Giampiero Frisio, president of ABB's Electrification business, said: "Having led DC technology across a range of industries for more than 25 years, ABB is now working closely with chipmakers, hyperscale customers, supply partners and industry organizations to establish standards for high-efficiency DC architectures and drive wider adoption."
Frisio added: "Infinitus is the first portfolio to provide the key components needed for all data center architectures, from DC-based systems to AC/DC hybrids, enabling efficient power delivery to next-generation AI chips. In the future, other power-intensive industries, including large-scale manufacturing, renewable energy and marine industries, could achieve energy efficiency improvements comparable to those in data centers."
The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects global data center electricity demand to more than double from current levels by 2030. Power requirements per rack for next-generation AI chips are expected to rise sharply from around 200 kW today to more than 1 MW, increasing the need for DC architectures that can reliably support high-performance computing while improving energy efficiency.
ABB expects approximately 25% to 40% of new data center capacity built in 2030 to adopt DC distribution. An 800 V DC distribution system can eliminate unnecessary power conversion stages in conventional AC systems, reducing heat losses and the space occupied by power infrastructure.
According to a report ABB recently published with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), DC distribution can improve energy efficiency by more than 5% while increasing the space available for computing racks. The analysis indicates that improving energy efficiency by 5% at a 500 MW data center would make an additional 25 MW available for IT loads, creating potential additional annual revenue of more than $300 million, or approximately 400 billion won. Annual energy savings at a data center campus of that size would be sufficient to supply all of Washington, D.C., with electricity for about one week.
Original Korean article: mfgkr.com
English brief by Korea Wind Intelligence, koreawindintel.com
