Feasibility study on using pipe type cables and CoAxial cables for HFAC power distribution in data centre applications

Abstract

This paper investigates into the power cable used in HFAC Power Distribution Systems (PDSs) and recommends new cable types that could be used to improve the performance. While using the same materials and trying not to increase the weight per unit length, the cross section of the cable has been modified to minimize the losses observed in HFAC applications. With higher operating frequencies, the skin effect of conductors dominate and the cable impedance increase exponentially, overcasting the benefits of using HFAC. Upto now, cables manufactured with DC ratings have been used in AC applications with various de-rating factors to account for the additional impedance. Although this approach has worked well with 50/60Hz applications, when extended to HFAC the PDSs become bulky and heavy, thus not effective and even question the benefits of using HFAC in PDSs. Therefore, a new approach of using different cross sections of cables for HFAC applications is proposed. Optimal sizes could be selected in accordance with manufacturing limitations leaving the fine adjustments to be made with the HFAC grid parameters for extracting the maximum benefits out of HFAC PDSs.