DATA CENTRES & CABLE MANAGEMENT
The industry responds to demand from data centres for sustainable, stable and secure cooling
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Data centres across the globe are becoming increasingly focused on sourcing sustainable solutions to reduce the impact of their operations on the environment, without compromising on performance
ith a global digital dependency on everything from medical scans, customer records and laboratory research to shopping deliveries,
streaming and communication, 24/7 uptime has become an essential part of society. The stability and security of the data stored on the servers in data centres across the world is paramount and as we transfer more of our lives to the cloud, we become increasingly reliant on their ability to perform. But at what cost? It is no secret that data centres consume significant amounts of energy, particularly in relation to cooling. Put simply, an overheated server will not serve, and so understanding how to cool the cloud has become a critical success factor for the industry. Working with cooling experts, data centre operators are able to employ sophisticated, automated optimisation tools to run alongside the highest efficiency equipment, to deliver the most efficient solutions yet. The success often lies in appointing a cooling expert who can offer design and development on both mechanical and software systems from an early stage. An important action for any data centre to take towards reducing its carbon footprint lies within the cooling product selection. Installing cooling solutions that operate using low, or lower GWP refrigerants has become the norm in most European data centres. Suppliers who struggle to deliver performance using these refrigerants will be instantly discounted and this where we have seen how this pressure from the industry has led to a more determined and considered approach to sustainability from manufacturers across the board. Beyond the environmental impact
of refrigerant leaks, the next factor for consideration is energy efficiency. With an estimated (and some would say conservative) 40% of a data centre’s energy expenditure apportioned to cooling the servers, suppliers
are constantly innovating and improving their products to deliver increased efficiencies without compromising on performance. Ahead of the curve on this one, Airedale has long been a pioneer of free-cooling technology. Free-cooling is the process of using external ambient temperature to reject heat, rather than using the refrigeration process. If used within an optimised system, free-cooling can provide significant energy savings. It can take effect when the difference between the outside supply and return temperatures is as little as 1°C. This means that, in a 24/7 data centre with a typical room temperature of 24°C, over 95% of the year can be spent with free-cooling active. With efficiencies maximised at product level, and without a wholesale change in cooling technology, the next step for companies such as Airedale is to consider the cooling solution at system level, as opposed to individual units, and this is where the application and implementation of controls becomes central to effective and efficient operations. An example of how this could be employed is the Cooling System Optimiser solution from Airedale. This is a sophisticated controls package that delivers optimal performance across entire chilled water cooling systems in large data centres, in response to industry demand for sustainable, stable and secure cooling as facilities move towards complex variable flow primary-only chilled water systems. Leveraging the benefits of single-loop water cooling systems as well as remaining compatible with a primary/secondary water system setup, the system is designed to ensure data centre cooling equipment like chillers and CRAHs work in harmony to deliver required cooling, maintain redundancy levels and increase resilience, all at the lowest possible energy outlay. The solution has been developed in response to operators struggling to correctly optimise variable flow chilled water systems with traditional Building Management Systems (BMS). As chillers and CRAHs get larger, reflecting
the growth in data centre facilities in general, chilled water systems need robust, intelligent controls in order to manage and optimise dynamic supply / demand in real time. This system creates an additional controls layer in between the product controls and the BMS, using PLC-based deterministic controllers to “stretch” intelligence across chillers and CRAHs to ensure that operational decisions are taken based on the system as a whole rather than what data inputs the individual product is receiving. AT CRAH level, additional sensors are deployed in order to ensure conditions at rack level are the basis for cooling decisions. The number 1 priority for the Cooling System Optimiser is maintaining the white space within SLA by keeping server inlet air temperatures stable and within defined parameters. Beyond that, redundancy and energy use are then optimised. By operating in harmony, CRAHs can eliminate hot spots and reduce their fan speeds to deliver energy savings. At chiller level, additional controllers are added to each control cabinet, with a multi- master controller managing communications across the created chiller network and between chillers and CRAHs. The chillers are programmed to operate in unison, ensuring water flow / temperature reaching CRAHs is exactly what is required, not what the chiller is designed to produce. Free-cooling and chiller staging is also managed and optimised. Reece Thomas, controls product manager at Airedale noted: “Whilst the BMS has an important role to play as a holistic monitoring and reporting tool, it can lack the ability to fully optimise precise, complex systems. We have developed the Cooling System Optimiser in response to demand for a deterministic control system that can proactively manage the three most important things in any data centre cooling system: resilience, redundancy and energy use.”
Reece continued: “The energy saving benefits of the system are very tangible. For example, at part load conditions it ensures that the system flow rate and temperature exactly match the requirements of the white space, which is critical for managing energy consumption. Likewise, utilising data from the CRAH units is pivotal to ensuring they deliver air at the correct volume and temperature and doing so in unison.
18 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER MARCH 2023 Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
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