Investigative Report on Electrical Commissioning in HPC Data Centers

The Energy Efficient High Performance Computing Working Group (EE HPC WG) has assembled a small diverse team to write a short investigative report on electrical commissioning. The purpose of the investigative report is to evaluate the need for electrical commissioning guidelines specific to High Performance Computing (HPC) data centers given their unique IT equipment load densities and power profiles. It is the consensus of the team that special electrical commissioning guidelines are needed and the EE HPC WG will author the initial guidelines. The scope of the guidelines will include the static and dynamic electrical aspects of commissioning practices that are specific to high performance computing and more importantly, cover the transient aspects of electrical commissioning. The fluctuating nature of many compute nodes can dramatically influence generation, transmission, and distribution of electrical power. HPC data center lessons learned and best practices will be examined and used to enhance the electrical commissioning guidelines. The primary audience for the guidelines is facility engineers and operators of HPC data centers. The guidelines will also be applicable to others that support HPC data centers, ranging from utilities and their electrical grid infrastructure to IT equipment manufacturers whose machines are being commissioned at the end of the process.