Verizon Tests Power-Reduction Tech

Lineage Power Corp. and Verizon are partnering to test two new technologies that significantly decrease the amount of electricity used by information and communications technology (ICT) equipment.
 
To power this equipment, communications carriers, wireless operators, Internet service providers and large enterprises convert electricity from commercial alternating current to direct current. The existing conversion process is inefficient, resulting in both the over-consumption of energy and the unnecessary creation of heat. The new technologies, which will be tested in five of Verizon’s central office facilities, address that issue.

The technologies, part of Lineage Power’s Total Efficiency Architecture, involve specially designed rectifiers and software that will increase the efficiency of the AC/DC conversion process up to 97 percent.

Earlier this week, Lineage Power announced that it has been awarded a $2.4 million U.S. Department of Energy research and development grant that will fund the design, engineering, removal and installation costs, as well monitoring and research, associated with the tests of the new technologies.

ICT facilities account for approximately 3 percent of all U.S. electricity use. Rapid growth in the U.S. data center industry is projected to require two new large power plants per year just to keep pace with the expected demand growth.