Data Center Basics
How a Data Center Gets Its Power: Utility Feeds, UPS, Generators, PDUs, and A/B Distribution
The first article in our Data Center Basics series follows electricity from the transmission line to the server: the substation and switchgear, the UPS and its batteries, the diesel generators and their permits, the PDUs and busway that carry power to the rack, and the A/B feeds and redundancy ratings that keep it all running. It covers how colocation and hyperscale operators build the same chain differently, and what happens when it breaks.