The DC-DC Transition

Nineteen-piece flagship series on the AI power stack + 800V DC transition. 13 main essays (power-chain framework, arc behaviour, protection, retrofit, cooling co-emergence, standards, vendor economics, ten-year view) + 6 supplements A-F covering transition tax, hybrid architectures, voltage ceiling, SST vendor dynamics, sidecar rack, connector wars.

The essays

The real reason data centres are going DC (and it's not capacity alone) (1/13)

Two architectures wearing the same name (and how the industry is converging) (2/13)

The architecture map (where every stage lives, who builds it, what's standardized) (3/13)

Arc behaviour, protection, and how insurance is catching up (4/13)

Grounding, bonding, and DC ground-fault protection at 800 VDC (5/13)

Battery integration at 800 VDC: how the UPS architecture rebuilds (6/13)

Retrofit versus greenfield: the DC-DC decision framework (7/13)

800 VDC and liquid cooling are becoming one architecture (8/13)

Power quality, harmonics, and grid interaction at 800 VDC (9/13)

Standards evolution: OCP, IEC, NEC, IEEE, and the 2028-2029 convergence (10/13)

Vendor economics: who wins the 800 VDC transition (11/13)

Commissioning, skills, and operational readiness at 800 VDC (12/13)

The ten-year view: where 800 VDC data centres land by 2028, 2030, and 2035 (13/13, series close)

Supplements

The Transition Tax: where the 800V DC capex premium lives (DC-DC Supplement A)

Hybrid Forever: why most large AI-oriented facilities will run mixed AC/DC through 2035+ (DC-DC Supplement B)

The Voltage Ceiling: 1500V DC and the MVDC question (DC-DC Supplement C)

The Solid-State Transformer: perimeter-conversion supplier dynamics (DC-DC Supplement D)

The Sidecar Power Rack and the OCP-spec ecosystem (DC-DC Supplement E)

The Connector Wars: rack-to-rack interface engineering (DC-DC Supplement F, series close)