Industrial News Buzz - A power distribution unit is a device used to supply electrical power to multiple equipment.  A PDU receives power from one source and distributes conditioned power through various outputs and cables to other equipment and components within a facility.  

The term PDU can be used to refer to two general classes of power distributions units, those on the floor and rack-based PDUs.  Floor mounted PDUs are much larger than rack PDUs and will be composed of transformers and circuit breakers.  This class of PDU will take high voltage and amperage and reduce it to the levels required for the smaller devices connected to it.  Rack PDUs are much smaller devices which can be mounted onto desks or walls to deliver power to a workstation or series of computers.  Rack PDU is an overall term for a number of different types of PDUs and this article will take a look at one in particular, the intelligent power distribution unit, in a little more detail.  

Different Types of PDUs:

There are generally four different types of rack mounted PDU's.  These include basic, metered, switched and intelligent (or smart).  

- Basic: A basic PDU is exactly what it sounds like.  They are basic power strips designed to distribute correct voltage and current to a number of outlets.  The technology is proven and they are affordable, although they do not have the same instrumentation as other PDUs and cannot be managed in the same way.

- Metered: A metered PDU will meter the power at the PDU level and display it locally, so you can see information relating to the entire PDU.  This kind of device provides real time monitoring of connected loads.

- Switched: These devices provide controlled on/off switching of individual outlets and load metering at PDU level.  Users can power recycle devices remotely and delay power sequencing should they need to.  

- Intelligent: This is the most state of the art PDU with a lot of features which put it ahead of other PDUs in terms of performance but also in terms of cost.

 

Features include remote control via a web browser or command line interface, support alerts based on thresholds set by the user, security plus all the features available in a switched PDU.  An Intelligent PDU can be highly customised.

The Intelligent Power Distribution Unit: 

It's clear from the summary above that an intelligent or smart pdu is the most advanced power distribution device you can get hold of, but is it really worth the extra cost, and in what environment would it be appropriately installed?  One advantage of this kind of device is that it can improve the overall energy efficiency within an office or data centre.  Since the unit can measure power consumption at an individual outlet level, this information can be combined with other known data to figure out the efficiency of any specific server at one time.  This way a server can be decommissioned, redeployed or used for additional capacity ensuring better energy efficiency overall.

In an environment where a lot of servers are being used at once then, an intelligent pdu would be a really handy piece of equipment.  

Intelligent PDU's are fantastic pieces of equipment which enable offices and data centres to use electrical power in a flexible and efficient way.  In the right environment a smart pdu can provide significant benefits in terms of managing power when compared to other pdu types.