Energy Efficiency, its Benefits and Methods to close the Efficiency gap

R. Malik 1 and S. Barthel 2

IBM Research Triangle Park, NC, 2 Poughkeepsie, NY
1

Abstract:
In an age when the fuel shortage, global Processors, Memory and I/O devices,
warming, and reduction of carbon energy consumption was not the issue.
footprint are becoming urgent issues, it That era is behind us, and the new
is important that all appliances, industry Mantra is “Go Green”. Today
equipments and other heavy usage this requirement is not being imposed by
machinery operate as efficiently as EPA or DOE or by any agency but by
possible. It is for this reason that power the customers. Every customer wants to
technology is becoming an important know the exact energy consumed by a
field of specialization as most of the system he is buying. The marketing
heavy machinery operates on AC or DC folks are flooded with the request to
electrical power. Various energy provide the actual load profile in
efficiency initiatives such as Green Grid addition to the efficiency from 20 % to
Initiative by Data Center operators, 100% of the load. The Power Supply
Climate Saver Computing Initiative designers are being asked to improve
(CSCI) by electronic equipment efficiency as high as the technology will
manufacturers, and efforts by large permit. The things have changed so
corporations to reduce the consumption much in the last few months that power
of energy are becoming the topic of efficiency has become the top priority
intense debate. Many corporations are instead of the cost. What has changed in
announcing energy saving methods not such a short time? One, the processor
only for the equipments but also for their and memory power demand has
facilities under the banner of “Going overwhelmed the system to a point that
Green.” It is not GHz Processors or TB it is hard to be cooled by air cooling. Not
of storage which is the hot topic of only it could not be cooled, the energy
conversation among technology experts cost is almost reaching 30% of the cost
all over the world but tons of carbon of the infrastructure. There is a message
emitted into the atmosphere. Not long here – “Either solve the customer
time back, every expert in the industry problem by efficient systems or lose the
was designing electronic equipment for business
the best performance from the

What is Efficiency?
The most common definition of Power which includes AC – DC power supply,
Efficiency is the ratio of Output Power DC – DC regulators, power connectors’
to Input Power. This is applicable for a loss and copper path loss in the system
standalone power supply. This efficiency from AC plug to the system load nodes.
term is being used by various power The overall efficiency of an IT load is
supply vendors to market their products. the ratio of the IT load power consumed
What is important is the overall to the AC power drawn from the AC
efficiency of the whole power system power source. Sometimes, the efficiency

978-1-4244-1874-9/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE 417

Authorized licensed use limited to: TEI OF SERRES. Downloaded on December 7, 2008 at 07:00 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 of 48V DC or 380V DC input power 2. Number of Power Stages
supplies that does not account for the efficient motor designs for cooling, Low
AC – DC efficiency is used as a Power Processors, memory architecture,
marketing tool. As the customer pays for ASICs, I/O systems, and system on a
the AC energy drawn from the AC grid, chip. Designing efficient power systems
and not from DC rectifiers, therefore, it is a straight forward approach where the
is very important that the overall improvement can be easily verified by
efficiency of the power system should be monitoring the input power drawn from
measured and reported. The overall an AC outlet for a particular load. The
efficiency could be well below 70% paper will describe different methods to
which means that 30% of the energy is improve overall power system
wasted in the power system and the efficiency.
customer pays for it. The challenge for
the power industry is to achieve overall Factors Affecting the Efficiency and
90% efficiency which is possible within methods to address these:
the bounds of cost and technology 1. Wide range of AC line voltage
available today. Thus there is a 20% gap operation
in an average efficiency and the desired 2. Number of Power Stages
efficiency. As power system is the low 3. High Voltage Distribution
hanging fruit which can be had by 4. Voltage Regulation
minimum effort with the existing power 5. Digital Power Management
technology. Other methods such as 6. Load Profile
virtualization, load optimization, 7. Redundant Power Systems
optimized cooling, and low leakage 8. Semiconductor Device Technology
devices require exotic solutions such as 9. Motors and Fans

1. Wide Range of AC line Operation

Most of the power supplies are designed
for the wide range of AC line input Range of AC input. Data Centers in US
from 90 – 265V AC. . Not only has this should start using 277Vac or 480Vac
wide range of operation cost initial extra input for high efficiency. These voltages
money to the customer but also higher are being used for electronic ballasts for
electric cost while operating at the lower lighting and motors. This high AC input
voltage. The efficiency at a 100V AC voltage will have a great impact on
operation is generally 3% lower than at overall efficiency as this will eliminate
200V as shown in chart below. This the need of PDUs which require initial
costs extra $2.00in initial cost plus 3% investment plus 2 – 3% loss in
higher utility bill. Generally higher the efficiency. Therefore, industrial
AC input voltage, higher will be its equipment such as used in data centers
efficiency. Therefore, a power supply and industrial environment should be
should either be designed for the voltage operated at the highest AC input voltage
where the efficiency is high or a suitable to achieve highest efficiency at the
architecture be selected so that the lowest cost. With the existing power
efficiency curve is flat over the wide technology, it can be achieved.

418

Authorized licensed use limited to: TEI OF SERRES. Downloaded on December 7, 2008 at 07:00 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 The most efficient systems in nature are for best of breed power systems for high
found to have only one cycle of line and 70% for low line is possible.
processing, and therefore power systems The efficiency can be improved by using
are no exception. Every extra stage of 480V distribution line from the
processing introduces inefficiency. substation for energy intensive
Consider the case of a data center. The applications such as Data Centers and
first stage is a PDU which steps down industrial equipment. The high voltage
the AC voltage from 480Vac input to AC input can be used to provide a
208/117Vac for 3% loss in efficiency. configurable multi-output power supply
Then there is a UPS with 10% loss in where the processors and the low voltage
efficiency, then an AC – DC regulator DC – DC regulators can be powered by
with 10% loss in efficiency and then an optimally configured voltage
ultimately DC – DC regulators with an available from the multiple output power
average efficiency loss of 10 – 15%. supply.
Therefore, an overall efficiency of 74%

3. High Voltage (HV) Distribution

Some of the companies are investigating regulator efficiency improvement due to
the possibility of distributing 380 – 400 high voltage redundancy, the
VDC at a rack level initially, and then inefficiency of the UPS and high current
migrate to the whole data center as and connectors is avoided. The additional
when high voltage DC standards are benefit will be that AC –DC assembly
available. High efficiency and the lower could be in a separate enclosure with
cost will be the main advantages of high free air cooling or minimum cooling thus
voltage DC distribution. The higher saving the power consumed for cooling
overall efficiency is achieved by using the AC – DC rectifier. Taking all the
480/400V AC line voltage directly for factors such as DC high voltage
the AC – DC rectifiers, and the using redundancy, high voltage distribution
ORing diodes for redundant modules at etc. into consideration, an additional 3
high voltage. In addition to AC – DC 5% gain in efficiency can be achieved.

4. Voltage Regulation
A tightly regulated switcher generally 800W/in3 compared to best of 25W/in3.
operates in the most inefficient manner The power industry can work with Hard
over the full range of input voltage and Disc drive manufacturers and DC – DC
output current. If the application requires regulator designers to relax the input
tightly controlled voltage, a switcher will voltage regulation requirements. For
not be able to operate in zero volts or example, a 12V output regulation could
zero current switching mode over the very well be -5% and +20% without
full range of voltage and current. The impacting the reliability of the DC – DC
operation further away from zero current regulators, fans or hard discs. If a
or zero voltage trajectories will result in significant improvement in power
higher power dissipation. On the other density and efficiency of a power system
hand if the regulations limits are relaxed, has to be made, the voltage regulation
it is possible to achieve 96% efficiency limit needs to be relaxed.
with incredible power density of

419

Authorized licensed use limited to: TEI OF SERRES. Downloaded on December 7, 2008 at 07:00 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 5. Digital Power Management
50
Energy Efficiency Optimization
40
Input Power
30
20
10
0
-6 -5 -4 -3 -2
Chop
Boost Boost
Voltage Freq Freq
Digital Power Management
Input voltage
Currently, digital power management
and control technology is available at an
affordable price. The technology allows
configuration of a switcher in a way to
force the power supply to draw
minimum power from the AC source. A
digital power management system can
change various modes of operation to
achieve the highest efficiency possible
based on demand. This feature of
changing the parameters in real time is
not available in today’s analogue power
systems. For example, a power supply
might be operating almost near no load
condition but a high frequency zero
voltage switcher for this load condition
shall dissipate lot of power and cause
unnecessary heating of the devices. A
digital system can track operation of the
power supply under different operating
conditions and thus shall be able to
change the mode of operation to
6. Load Profile
Most of the power supplies are designed
as if all the components are supposed to
operate at worst case condition. The net
result of this general purpose over-
design is lower overall efficiency at
lighter loads and at a higher cost. This
Authorized licensed use limited to: TEI OF SERRES. Downloaded on December 7, 2008 at 07:00 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
minimize the power dissipation. Also,
the system could be running an
application that requires very low power.
Under such a condition dropping some
of the phases shall improve the
efficiency dramatically. Most of today’s
power supplies use synchronous
rectification which results in an overlap
of MOSFET and body diode conduction.
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Sync This overlap period is a function of the
Dead time Turn off Operation Phase
system load and a digital circuit
control Redundancy on demand drop
x monitoring the input power shall
Minimum
Input Power Point continue to vary the dead time in real
Input Power Ambient Temperature time until the lowest input power
operating point is obtained for a
particular load condition. The AC line
varies worldwide from one location to
another. A real time digital monitoring
circuit shall set the Boost voltage at a
value draw the minimum power from the
AC source and still maintain the output
voltage regulation. The digital power
management can also configure the
output voltage of the multi-output power
supply to feed the DC –DC regulators in
a system to achieve the best overall
efficiency of the power system. Also,
based on input power drawn, the digital
control can run fans in the system at the
lowest duty cycle to reduce power
consumption. All the above and many
more features are being incorporated in
server power supplies to improve the
overall efficiency.
loss in efficiency is not confined to
power system alone but to the whole
data center whose cooling and wiring
needs have to be configured based on the
power label on a system. If the load
profile is realistic, then CRACs, air
420
 handlers and chillers can be operated in industry estimates could be improved if
a way to consume the least amount of the system load could be accurately
electric power. With today’s technology, predicted and the cooling equipment
it is possible to have a realistic load such as chillers and CRACs could be
profile for the IT equipment thus savings operated at the bare minimum load
millions of dollars in power and cooling condition rather than operating at its
costs. The overall efficiency considering maximum operating point which is very
the power drawn by the infrastructure inefficient.
which could be as high as 63% by some

7. Redundant Power Systems

A redundant power system has a lower could supply the full load with a safety
efficiency at lighter loads than a non- margin. AS and when the operating
redundant system because of overhead power supply fails, the idle power
such as bias power and control power supply could immediately pick up the
redundancy in each power supply. This load without any interruption. Another
problem can be resolved by configuring way could be to have redundancy at
the power system for minimum power High voltage such as 380V and then a
need, and thus reduce power full system could be powered by this
consumption in power supplies that are 380V redundant system bus. Such an
not required to provide the load. One approach could be very beneficial for
such method could be to turn off Rack mounted systems with an
redundant power supplies for load efficiency gain of 5 -7%.
condition so that a single power supply

8. Semiconductor Device Technology

The most commonly used technology for lower capacitance/mm2 but costs more
power MOSFETs is vertically diffused than a vertically diffused device.
silicon. The main disadvantage of this However, it is possible to fabricate such
technology is to achieve the lowest Rds devices for 5V DC input where the
(on) for a given real estate. However its lower Rds (on) comparable to vertically
main disadvantage is higher inter- diffused devices can be achieved at a
electrode capacitance which is comfortable price. It means that a lower
responsible for higher switching losses. bus voltage such as 5V is needed to
To overcome this deficiency new device achieve high efficiency for DC – DC
fabrication technology with the lowest regulators at a system level. The other
inter-electrode capacitances is required. advantage could be that operating a DC
One of the techniques used is to use –DC regulator from 5V input will
laterally diffused devices or some require fewer phases at a higher duty
geometry with the lowest inter-electrode cycle thus improving the efficiency and
capacitances. Such a device can achieve cost.

9. Motors and Fans

The fans are an integral part of a Power consume extra power thus causing the
system and the IT load. Not only these overall drop in efficiency. The industry
fans have a very short life but also is working to improve the power

421

Authorized licensed use limited to: TEI OF SERRES. Downloaded on December 7, 2008 at 07:00 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 efficiency of the fans by 20% which will the convection cooling or free cooling
help to improve the power supply as should be sufficient to improve overall
well as system efficiency. More and efficiency. The design of the DC motors
more fans are being used in PWM mode is almost quarter century old, and the
where a desired airflow profile can be power drawn for producing a given
created for minimum power draw by the airflow is very high. Some fan motor
fans. Also, the system fan power instead companies are trying to improve this
of a separate power system fan can be technology by using better magnetic
used for air movement inside the power materials and winding structures. The
supply thus saving the power consumed expectation is 50% less power required
by the power supply fan. For an efficient by these fans and motors compared to
power system, very little airflow is today’s technology.
required and for some power supplies

Efficiency and Its Benefits

Efficiency now and Modified overall Efficiency

95

90 AC 98 92 85 7 6 .5
BOOST CHOP VRM
85
AC - DC D C -D C
80

75
P o w e r S y s te m - To d a y
70
% Efficiency

65

60

55 AC - DC D C -D C

50

45 AC 98 97 95 9 0 .0
40
BOOST CHOP VRM
Overall 220V Efficiency - now Modified Overall Efficiency Overall low Line Efficiency

35
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

% Load
M o d ifie d P o w e r S y s te m

Conclusion:
Energy Cost Dollars Lost/year by customer due to Power system Inefficiency
The proposed techniques used in the paper
are being pursued to achieve the overall
Industry
Lost Dollars
Modified efficiency target of 90%. Some of these
Lost Dollars
10.0%
techniques are already being used in existing
40.0%
Utilization Energy Cost products while other techniques are being
60.0%
Utilization Energy Co designed for products to be announced in the
90.0%
near future. The power technology is once
again being looked upon as a core
Utilization Energy Cost Lost Dollars technology by the corporation as the bottom
line of the company to some extent depends
on how a power system is architected and
how much money it can save for the
customer. This paper is an effort to
highlight the benefits of using high efficient
systems compared to the usual low cost
power systems where the overall efficiency
rarely hardly 65 – 70%!

422

Authorized licensed use limited to: TEI OF SERRES. Downloaded on December 7, 2008 at 07:00 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.