FEATURE Data Centres
power – making them of interest to data centre operators. And in April, the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) announced plans to transform its Moneypoint site in County Clare into a fl oating offshore wind farm allowing higher volumes of renewables to be connected to the electricity grid.
Partnerships between data centre operators
and renewable power companies are also becoming more common. For example, Amazon and Facebook have agreed deals for Irish wind farms to power their data centres. Facebook’s deal with Brookfi eld Renewable Partners will see an onshore site developed in County Tipperary to provide solar and wind power. In addition to powering Facebook data centres and other projects, the site will have the capacity to supply 20,000 Irish homes each year. Similarly, Amazon’s wind farm projects are projected to add 229 MW of renewable energy to the Irish grid each year. This will reduce carbon emissions by 366,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, and produce enough renewable energy to power 185,000 homes each year.
ENERGY SECURITY: THE RISE OF DEMAND-SIDE SERVICES Despite the great progress that has been made on boosting renewable energy production and supporting the grid, some challenges remain. Renewable energy sources are less stable and predictable than their coal and nuclear counterparts. Here demand-side services can provide a solution, giving data centres greater energy storage capabilities and enabling them to provide power to the grid. Demand-side services involve data centres
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changing their electricity usage from their usual patterns to save on costs and reduce carbon footprint. They take the form of tariff-based schemes where the data centre pumps electricity into the power grid at times of high market demand to support peak-shaving. The services are enabled by uninterruptible
power supply (UPS) technology. This is because today’s UPS solutions have grid support features with the ability to store surplus renewable energy. They also provide fast frequency response services to help mitigate network faults which can become more prevalent as grids move to renewable power generation. This means that data centres can rely on stored renewable energy during peak time, rather than draining the grid. In countries such as Ireland, data centre operators can also sell surplus electricity back to the grid, increasing grid network stability for the country as a whole.
And it’s not just data centres, other power
intensive businesses like manufacturing facilities can also get in on the act – using grid services as part of their sustainability efforts and for generating revenue.
A GREENER FUTURE Increasing Ireland’s reliance on renewable energy is critical if the country is to secure its energy future. And, as signifi cant consumers of power, data centres need to lead in this endeavour. By working with energy companies, project developers and regulators they have the opportunity to develop more sources of local renewable energy. These can be used not only to reduce data centres reliance on the grid but also to add more green power for public consumption via grid service models.
Vertiv
www.vertiv.com Irish Manufacturing September 2021 17
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