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繁體中文Reshaping Data Center Cooling with ebm-papst EC Fans
11/24/2025In today's era of global digitalization, data centers, as the core carriers of digital infrastructure, have their operational stability and energy efficiency directly determining the pace and quality of the entire society's digital transformation. Cooling systems typically account for 30% to 40% of the total power consumption in data centers, making improved cooling efficiency, reduced harmonic interference, and intelligent operation and maintenance key issues for the green and sustainable development of data centers. Traditional data center cooling systems, to achieve the high-intensity and uniform heat dissipation required by server racks, usually employ an "air wall" design, where multiple fans are densely arranged in parallel to create a forced cooling airflow. However, while multiple fans in parallel provide sufficient airflow, they also bring significant electrical challenges—when multiple AC fans start and operate simultaneously, it is easy to generate high-order harmonic superposition, causing the total harmonic distortion (THD) to quickly exceed the grid's permissible limits. This not only leads to problems such as voltage distortion, equipment overheating, and circuit breaker false tripping in the electrical system, but also significantly increases the load and energy consumption of the power supply network. To address this problem, the traditional approach is usually to add external harmonic filters to the system for power factor correction. However, external devices mean additional installation space, wiring costs, commissioning cycles, and potential failure points, which undoubtedly increases system complexity and operating costs in data centers pursuing high density, modularity, and rapid deployment. Against this backdrop, ebm-papst, leveraging its decades of expertise in ventilation technology, has launched a revolutionary EC (electronically commutated) fan with built-in active filtering technology, fundamentally changing the way data center cooling systems are built:
- Integrated Active Filtering for a Simple "Plug-and-Play" Experience: ebm-papst integrates active power factor correction (PFC) and harmonic filtering functions into the fan drive system, completely eliminating the need for external filter installation and commissioning. The fan automatically achieves efficient harmonic suppression and power factor compensation after being connected to the power grid, without any additional settings or parameter adjustments. This highly integrated design significantly simplifies the deployment process of data center cooling systems, especially suitable for the rapid construction and expansion needs of prefabricated and modular data centers.
- THD(I) ≤ 5% across a wide load range, setting a new benchmark for energy efficiency and power quality. This series of fans ensures that the total current harmonic distortion (THD(I)) remains stably below 5% across an extremely wide load range (10% to 100% input power), far below the limits specified by international standards (such as IEC 61000-3-2). This feature not only significantly reduces harmonic pollution from the fans to the power grid but also improves the power quality and operating efficiency of the entire power supply system, providing solid support for the optimization of the data center's PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness).
- Extremely low harmonic current output, supporting disturbance-free parallel operation of multiple fans. Even under operating conditions where traditional fans are prone to harmonic distortion, such as near-zero load or low load operation, ebm-papst EC fans maintain extremely low harmonic current output. This ensures that when multiple fans are operating in parallel, they will not cause system oscillations or false triggering of protection devices due to the superposition of harmonics, achieving high reliability and stability of the fan wall system. Cooling system designers can therefore configure the fan array more freely without over-designing or adding filtering equipment to address harmonic issues, opening up a new perspective of flexibility and scalability for data center cooling architecture.
In addition to breakthroughs in electrical performance, ebm-papst places ventilation technology within the grand vision of comprehensive digitalization of data centers. As an expert in the field of ventilation, ebm-papst consistently upholds its core principle of "continuously bringing digital added value to customer applications," driving the evolution of cooling systems from "energy-consuming units" to "intelligent nodes": the inherent speed control characteristics of EC fans allow them to be linked with temperature sensors and data center management systems to achieve on-demand cooling, avoiding energy waste caused by overcooling; through integrated communication interfaces (such as BACnet, Modbus, EC-SpeedCon, etc.), the fan's operating status can be uploaded to the monitoring platform in real time, enabling remote start/stop, speed adjustment, and energy efficiency analysis; furthermore, combining big data analysis and artificial intelligence algorithms, the system can perform deep self-learning based on IT load change trends and historical environmental temperature data to achieve predictive maintenance—issuing warnings before fan performance degradation or potential failures occur, scheduling maintenance resources in advance, and maximizing the continuous operation of the data center.
On the path of continuous evolution towards larger, higher-density, and greener data centers, ebm-papst EC fans, with their inherent "low harmonic characteristics" and external "digital interfaces," not only solve the problem of harmonic mitigation in multi-fan parallel operation but also integrate the ventilation system into a data-driven intelligent operation and maintenance network. It is not only an improvement in cooling efficiency but also a key enabler for data center infrastructure to move towards higher reliability, better energy efficiency, and stronger intelligence. ebm-papst is continuously unleashing the unlimited potential of data centers with its quiet, efficient, and intelligent ventilation solutions, injecting a continuous stream of green power into the global digital process.
