How is the ITIC Curve Standards used in Testing and Validating Data Centers?
Data centers built for AI and hyperscale workloads are connecting to grids that are less stable than what the industry planned around a decade ago. Server power supplies now have to survive voltage sags, swells, and dropouts that used to be rare events — and proving they can do it requires ITIC Curve Testing, the industry’s standard voltage-tolerance benchmark. Doing that testing correctly takes an AC power source or grid simulator built to reproduce those disturbances precisely and repeatably, at the power levels real racks and power shelves actually run at.
What does the ITIC Curve Define?
The ITIC Curve (Information Technology Industry Council Curve, previously known as the CBEMA Curve) has defined the voltage-tolerance envelope for IT and server equipment since 2000. It maps how far an AC voltage can swing from nominal — and for how long — before equipment is expected to malfunction or sustain damage, across three regions:
- Prohibited Region — overvoltage/surge conditions that risk damage
- No Interruption in Function Region — the operating window where equipment should keep running normally
- No Damage Region — deeper sags or brief interruptions that shouldn’t cause damage, even if function is momentarily lost
Field conditions don’t always stay inside these lines. Utility switching transients and generator/UPS transfer events can spike well past the curve’s published boundary, so a capable test source needs headroom into the prohibited region — not just the standard sag/swell/dropout sequence.
Why ITIC Testing Has Become Non-Negotiable for AI Infrastructure
- AI workloads strain the grid. Dense GPU and accelerator racks pull spiky, high-current loads that stress both the incoming utility feed and on-site backup systems.
- New sites often sit on weaker grids. Land and power availability are pushing builds to locations with less consistent incoming power quality than dense metro infrastructure.
- Every backup transfer is a disturbance event. Utility-to-UPS-to-generator transitions are themselves voltage events the power supply has to absorb without a hard reset.
What an AC Power Source Needs to Do for ITIC Qualification
ITIC testing isn’t a single reading — it’s a programmed sequence of voltage events run against a live power supply or power shelf while watching for output droop, reset, or shutdown. That means the source has to:
- Step magnitude and duration precisely, synchronized to the AC waveform rather than averaged RMS
- Reach into the prohibited region with short, high-magnitude events to establish design margin
- Recover and repeat cleanly across single-, split-, and three-phase configurations at real rack power levels
A regenerative grid simulator is built for exactly this — running the full sag/swell/dropout/transient sequence natively and feeding unused energy back to the grid instead of burning it off as heat.
Our Grid Simulator and AC Power Source Lineup for ITIC Testing
- RGS Series Regenerative Grid Simulator — a 2-in-1 grid simulator with optional 4-quadrant AC/DC load, scaling from roughly 12 kVA to 1.296 MVA+. A built-in 200 µs-resolution digitizer/scope captures the sub-millisecond swell, dropout, and ringwave points on the curve directly, without a separate measurement setup.
- GSZ Series Regenerative Grid Simulator with PHIL — pairs ITIC-style transient generation with real-time Power Hardware-in-the-Loop grid modeling. Available in 30 kVA/kW blocks, parallelable to 550 kVA/kW, with higher-power systems reaching 1.1 MW+.
- AGX Series All-in-1 Regenerative AC/DC Source — an AC source, DC supply, current source, AC/DC load, and PHIL interface in a single chassis, delivering up to 24 kW per 4U and a total range of 6 kVA to 1.296 MVA+.
- SmartSource Suite — our browser-based control platform for building and executing complete ITIC sequences (sag, swell, dropout, ringwave, custom waveform) with repeatable, precise sequencing.
Phase-to-phase and channel-to-channel galvanic isolation across these platforms also supports asymmetric, phase-imbalanced disturbance testing — closer to how an actual utility fault behaves than a symmetric three-phase event. And because the RGS, GSZ, and AGX Series share a common control architecture, an ITIC sequence built for component-level PSU qualification scales forward into full power-shelf and rack validation without switching platforms.
How ITIC Compares to Other Immunity Standards
The ITIC Curve isn’t the only voltage-immunity benchmark in play for data center power. ERCOT’s Low Voltage Ride-Through requirements and SEMI F47 define their own voltage-versus-duration limits for grid-connected generation and semiconductor equipment, respectively. Overlaying the three shows meaningfully different voltage levels and allowable durations depending on the standard — but the same underlying test method: apply an abnormal AC voltage condition for a defined duration and verify the equipment rides through it. A test source capable of one is generally capable of all three, with the right programming.
Rounding Out a Full Data Center Power Test Plan
ITIC Curve testing is one piece of a broader power quality qualification. We also support harmonics and flicker compliance (SmartTS-HFI Test System), voltage dips and short interruptions (EPTS Series, up to 100 A/phase), and BBU/energy storage validation for the DC side of the power chain.
FAQ
What does ITIC Curve testing check for?
It verifies that a server power supply stays within the industry’s voltage-tolerance envelope — riding through sags, swells, and interruptions without malfunctioning or sustaining damage.
What’s involved in running an ITIC Curve test?
A test engineer programs a sequence of sags, swells, dropouts, and transients onto the power supply’s AC input, then monitors the device under test for droop, reset, or shutdown at each step. Our RGS and GSZ Series grid simulators generate these sequences directly, with SmartSource Suite handling the programming.
What kind of equipment is required?
A programmable AC power source or regenerative grid simulator with fast, precise control over voltage magnitude and duration, along with instrumentation to confirm each applied event and the response of the device under test. Our RGS, GSZ, and AGX Series are built for this, spanning bench-scale power up to megawatt-class rack testing.
Is ITIC Curve testing mandatory?
No — it’s not a regulatory requirement, but it’s the standard industry reference for confirming reliable operation on real-world, imperfect grid power.
How is the ITIC Curve different from SEMI F47?
The ITIC Curve covers general voltage tolerance for IT and server equipment, while SEMI F47 is a narrower standard focused on voltage sag ride-through for semiconductor processing tools.
Summary
ITIC Curve testing capability is available on our AGX Series All-in-1 Power Source, RGS Grid Simulator family and the AZX Series All-in-1 AC/DC Power Source, and GSZ Series Regenerative Grid Simulator.
Speak with an Applications Engineer
Planning an ITIC test program for AI server PSUs, power shelves, or rack-level PDUs? Our applications engineers can help configure the right AC power source or grid simulator for your voltage, power, and phase requirements — from bench-level qualification to megawatt-class rack validation. Explore our Data Center Power Test Solutions or contact our sales team.
For additional information, please contact sales@pacificpower.com.