MONITORING & METERING COOLING ENERGY COSTS
Countries and organisations are urgently seeking ways to reduce their greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions – and one of the most obvious solutions is through energy efficiency. Vaisala explains how cooling efficiencies can be implemented at energy-hungry data centres and the dramatic cost savings and improvements that are made possible by accurate measurements
I
t has been estimated that the world’s 18 million data centres used 200-250 TWh in 2020,
which represents about 1% of global electricity consumption. This heavy power requirement is driven by IT infrastructure (approximately 60% ) and the associated cooling and air-conditioning systems (around 40%). To-date, energy efficiency improvements at data centres have managed to decouple growth in data traffic from energy use. IT equipment is becoming more efficient, but also cooling systems must be tightly monitored and controlled to minimise energy consumption. With energy costs spiralling, the drivers for optimising the energy efficiency of data centres are both environmental and financial.
EFFICIENCY IS NEEDED The USA currently has 2,670 data centres, followed by 452 in the UK, 443 in Germany, and significant numbers in China, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France and Japan. However, the energy costs of data centres and other IT-based activities are facing stricter regulatory measures as governments seek resilience in energy supplies and progress towards Net Zero. In Singapore, for example, data centres are responsible for around 7% of electricity consumption and a moratorium on new data centres has only just been lifted. In Ireland, a recent report estimates that 29% of total demand will come from data centres by 2028. In the UK, consultancy firm Carbon3IT estimates that data centres account for at least 12% of UK electricity consumption. In the future, existing and new data centres
will need to be more efficient. Cryptocurrencies are imposing enormous
energy demands. Bitcoin mining, for example, is increasingly being undertaken by new large data centres, some of which use cheap energy from fossil fuels. It has been estimated that Bitcoin mining alone uses more energy than some countries – including Norway, Argentina,
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the Netherlands and Pakistan. While the construction of new efficient
hyperscale data centres has helped to lower the rate of growth in energy consumption, with more data being stored in the Cloud and with the development of more IT-based resources such as AI, machine learning, self-driving cars, etc. it is commonly accepted that energy demand may grow significantly.
THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING COOL With cooling and air-conditioning (A/C) responsible for around 40% of energy usage, it is clear that this non-IT infrastructure has to be managed as efficiently as possible. However, accurate temperature and humidity control is also vital for the correct functioning of IT equipment. “In many modern facilities 99.999% uptime
is expected; representing annual downtime of just a few minutes. These extremely high levels of performance are necessary because of the importance and value of the data and processes being handled by the IT infrastructure,” explained Industry Expert Anu Kätkä from Vaisala. “Low humidity increases the risk of static
electricity, and high humidity can result in condensation. Incorrect or fluctuating temperature can also harm IT devices or shorten their lifetime. It is therefore extremely important that monitoring and control systems are supported by sensors that are stable, accurate and reliable in the long-term. Vaisala devices are capable of temperature measurement accuracy as high as ±0.1˚C and humidity measurement up to ±0.8% RH which is an optimal fit for the data centres.” Highlighting the importance of accurate sensors,
one of Vaisala’s customers has estimated that a mere 1˚C in overcooling could increase annual cooling energy costs by up to 8.5%. “To put this into perspective, the increased energy costs for a small data center would be
over 0.4 million Euros over 10 years, and for a large data center it would cost over four million Euros,” Kätkä added. In addition to its complete range of sensors for
data centres, Vaisala is also a world leading manufacturer of meteorological monitoring equipment, which is important because many data centres employ economisation; measuring the outdoor environment to enhance the optimisation of indoor conditions and to improve energy efficiency.
EFFECTIVE MEASUREMENTS Traditionally, air cooling is employed in data centres, but as rack densities increase, liquid cooling solutions are becoming popular because they are much more effective at removing heat. To support this trend, Vaisala has developed a new high-quality sensor for measuring cooling/ heating liquid temperatures. “The new Vaisala TMI110 is an immersion
temperature transmitter, supplied with a calibration certificate and offering excellent response time with accuracy of ±0.1˚C. We are happy to include this product in our portfolio, because customers can now source all of their most important sensors from one supplier – air temperature, humidity and differential pressure sensors for rooms and ducts, outdoor weather sensors, and now immersion temperature sensors for cooling systems,” Kätkä explained.
LOWERING ENERGY COSTS By tightly controlling ventilation and cooling systems with accurate, stable sensors, data center managers can lower energy costs, reduce their carbon footprint and future-proof their sector as the demand of GHG emissions reduction intensifies.
Vaisala
www.vaisala.com
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