In my time at larger companies, DC power seems to be one of the weakest links in the reliability chain. Even planned maintenance often goes wrong ("well we started the generator test and the lights went out, that wasn't supposed to happen. Sorry your racks are dead").
Usually the root cause appears simple - a dead fan, breaker set to the wrong threshold, alarm that didn't trigger, incorrect component picked during design phase, or whatever else that gets the blame - things it would seem to a software guy that good processes could mitigate.
Can any electrical engineers elaborate on why power networks fail (in my experience at least) so frequently? I guess failure modes (e.g. lightning strike) are hard to test, but surely an industry this old has techniques. Is it perhaps a cost issue?
Usually the root cause appears simple - a dead fan, breaker set to the wrong threshold, alarm that didn't trigger, incorrect component picked during design phase, or whatever else that gets the blame - things it would seem to a software guy that good processes could mitigate.
Can any electrical engineers elaborate on why power networks fail (in my experience at least) so frequently? I guess failure modes (e.g. lightning strike) are hard to test, but surely an industry this old has techniques. Is it perhaps a cost issue?