Flexible Busbar Solution for High Current Density Applications

As power demand usage at datacenters and other facilities like nuclear power plants, battery energy storage systems, telecommunications and industrial facilities increases exponentially, the use of cables both in the primary and secondary medium voltage and low voltage has become difficult to design and implement. These power distribution systems at facilities need to be designed with multiple parallel cables, rigid bus bar system or flexible bus bar systems. There has been significant attention given to these systems, now as these have advantages and limitations. There has been progress on the system and component design of these systems as well as attention given to the maintenance and operation. This paper discusses the advantages and limitations of cable connections, rigid bus bar connection and flexible bus bar connections for high current density applications. UL standards for the certification of these systems are being developed. The systems are tested to several IEC standards for attributes like insulation resilience, cable fixing suitability, electrical characteristics, flame resistance. Flexible bus bar systems offer an excellent solution for point to point connections in power distribution. Future developments on these system may see its application extended to provide load distribution capabilities.