Personal view of the Datacenter Jedi
Table of Contents
After working in the data center industry for almost 25 years you might imagine that I have a view on datacenters and sustainability.
Data centers are designed, build and operated for availiability.
With the current focus on sustainability, it is very important to find the right balance between availability and sustainability
Arjan Westerhoff
There is a lot of focus on sustainability within the ICT and data center industry right now given its tremendous growth and impact.
However, a world without the ICT and data centers is unthinkable given the digital world that everyone is constantly using. Whether it is an online order, treatment in the hospital, the availability of electricity and water or being able to do the shopping, all this is no longer possible without our digital world.
There are a lot of people right now thinking and talking negatively about data centers which is very unfortunate.
Around 2000 when the “first” data centers went into operation, they consumed a lot of energy for cooling, for example. Energy was plentiful at that time at a low price, so there was no focus on saving energy.
Energy saving is now an indispensable part of the industry and huge strides have been made in saving energy of the data center infrastructure. Think of cooling and electrical systems.
In addition, the ICT equipment has become much more efficient. According to the International Energy Agency, the energy consumption has remained the same against a higher utilization of this ICT equipment, in other words, the ICT equipment has become much more efficient. Problem, however, is that there is insufficient to no data available on the actual utilitization / efficiency of this ICT equipment. This will remain difficult to measure. I personally expect much more attention to the Energy Re-use and IT efficiency together with water usage in the coming years.
Lots of energy and water is used within data centers, question however is this because of the data center itself or the IT equipment and do we need so much IT equipment?
It would be good to be more aware of our own digital footprint.
Measurement & Reporting
There is an old saying: “Measuring is knowing”
The question, however, is whether what you measure is correct, can it be compared to the industry standard?
After that, there is another question: what are you going to do with it?
For many years mainly only one metric was applied, the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and now there are more data center metrics to get a better picture about the sustainability of the data center infrastructure. The ISO/IEC 30134 is an important standard for this.
In recent years the exact application of the metric’s has been improved resulting in more insight which was of great importance.
From a technical point of view, there should be plenty of measurement. However, it is important that the measurements are read out automatically instead of manually to avoid not only errors but also possible differences in measurement times. In addition, it is very important to have an up-to-date overview of the measurement instruments, to maintain them and the measurement system properly in order to avoid measurement and metric errors
Part of the ISO50001 Energy Management is the preparation of a measurement statement. This briefly describes the measurement instruments, location, type, whether they are to be included in or excluded from the calculation. Furthermore, the measurement statement should include a Single Line Diagram so that it is visually clear where exactly the measuring instrument is installed.
Energy Efficiency
When you talk about data centres, you are almost immediately talking about energy efficiency. Rightly so, since a lot of energy is consumed in data centres.
However, the question is, where do you start? Especially in existing data centres, this is not always easy, as availability must be guaranteed at all times.
Ultimately, energy efficiency in data centres is a concatenation of several steps that need to be gone through.
During my time at Schuberg Philis (Project infographic), we went through these different steps and we are currently following an improved version, the phased approach of energy efficiency at the company I currently work for.
Important here is that the whole should be looked at, it may consist of different sub-projects, however, the aim is that these sub-projects fit together and ultimately achieve the maximum savings.
At its core, this approach can be applied in any data centre that uses a chilled water distribution system. When DX cooling is used, this approach will need to be deviated from.
Energy efficiency only can be achieved following a phased approach of energy efficiency.
Water
More and more data center companies take energy and water consumption in their data centers seriously. Important here is to find the right balance in both energy & water consumption. Data center organizations are asked if they could not stop using water their our cooling installations. Of course that can be done, the question is whether this is ultimately desirable.
Should we consume water for our cooling system or not? A lot of energy can be saved when cooling is done with the evaporation of water. So is it preferable to stop consuming water, resulting in increased energy consumption?
Many datacenters have the majority of their energy usage, covered with renewable energy. The last percentages for renewable energy cannot always be obtained due to, for example, the lack of renewable energy in a country. In addition, however, we do have location-based energy generation and distribution. The renewable energy coverage concerns a “billing process”. Ultimately, energy does come from non-renewable energy sources. However, these non-renewable energy sources consume a lot of water in many situations. If we stop using water for our cooling systems, not only would electricity consumption increase, the generation of the amount of electricity would then indirectly lead to higher water consumption. Not in the data center itself, but at the energy supplier in the power plant. This is also called the embedded water of electricity. More information about this can be found at the World Resources Institute.
“It is therefore very important to be able to put the various energy flows in a datacenter in the right context”.
Each data center therefore needs to determine what the optimal energy balance and consumption should be, this depends on various factors such as design, local weather conditions but also topics like how the energy has been generated outside the datacenter boundary.
It should be noted that potable water is not used at a power plant and in most cases potable water is used in a data center, so there is a difference in the water consumption.
Back to the water consumption of data centers. In many cases, drinking water is consumed for the cooling systems which provides cooling through evaporation. There is a simple explanation for the use of potable water in adiabatic cooling systems. For years, more than enough water was available at a low price. In contrast, applying bore-hole water, for example, is not straightforward, more water treatment is required in many situations which also could result in an higher energy usage used by the pumps which need to push the water through sand packs for filtration, for example.
The focus on water consumption is relatively new, there is a greater scarcity of water in many places.
Should we stop using water in data centers or should we look to the local circumstances and find the right balance between using energy and water ?
The possibility of striking a water source and starting to use that water for the cooling systems is regularly raised as a possibility. However, is it wise if each company is going to strike its own water source, pump up the water and then treat it. It remains to be seen whether it is ultimately better from a technical point of view and control by competent authority, I personally think not.
In addition to the above, ASHRAE A1A is very interesting. Important development to save energy and I look forward to the developments what this means for energy and water consumption, as well as the possibilities to use heat from a data center usefully somewhere else.
Conclusion:
Could it possibly be that using water for cooling in data centers is indeed more sustainable than currently suggested by many people? By definition, this cannot simply be determined it seems to me. There will have to be an assessment of what the local climate impact is with any given choice.
It may therefore be that in one place no water needs to be evaporated for cooling a data center and in another place in the world where sufficient water is available it does.
When a profile is drawn up showing the water demand and water scarcity per month, it can be determined what the most desirable way of cooling could be.
Liquid cooling
Liquid cooling, probably one of the most interesting topics for a data center from a technical point of view. It’s not new at all, IBM started with liquid cooling back in the 60s and still, there is a lot to learn and to improve. Since a couple of years, liquid cooling is getting a lot of attention and there are a couple of good reasons for that. It does also reminds me back to the pilot I did back in 2017 together with Asperitas connecting their first module to the cooling infrastructure of the data center I managed.
Since 2017, I have followed the discussions on liquid cooling from the sidelines but before 2024 I will be more involved in this and will update this page regularly.
These days it’s all about AI. When I think of AI, it’s about liquid cooling. The problem however is the “chicken and the egg story”.
The data center industry is waiting for the IT industry and the IT industry is waiting for the data center industry. More and more I get the question which international standard can be applied for liquid cooling. For now and the next years, there won’t be standard yet. First the industries need to get really started with liquid cooling, only than an International Standard will be developed.
Refrigerants
Besides energy and water consumption, there is obviously more to improve in data centres and one example of this is refrigerants.
For many years, refrigerants were used in cooling systems that had a major impact on the environment. More and more refrigerants are no longer permitted. The aim is to bring down not only the Global Warning Potential (GWP) of the refrigerants but also the amount of PFAS.
This topic will be updated soon with more information
ESG reporting
For some time now, data centers have been in the spotlight when it comes to sustainability. Rightly so, by the way, because this new growing industry not only consumes a lot of energy but can also have a major impact on the energy transition required in many countries.
Personally, I believe in transparent reporting in the area of sustainability. The ISO/IEC 30134 is really useful for this. Only with proper reporting are we able to become more sustainable in our own industry and also serve as an example for other industries.
However, what amazes me is that at the moment a lot of attention is paid to reporting and “other things to do with the outside”. Currently, I am approached almost weekly about required ESG reporting by various companies,
What strikes me is that there seems to be less and less focus on the actual technical modifications (read opportunities) needed in data centers to save energy.
Shouldn’t we all just go back to basics ? A phased approach to continuous improvements?
The question, then, is whether all conditions are met for the cooling plant (generally the largest energy consumer besides the customer IT energy) to function optimally.
Equinix explained these phases in the following eBook if you want to know more.
These are just some simple steps which can be taken, there is a lot more you can do.
Of course we need the transparent ESG reporting, especially now with the EED and Taxonomy for example but let’s not forget the real work which needs to be done to become more energy efficiency and sustainable
Hyperscale datacenters
A hyper-scale data centre is a type of data centre mainly used by companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon.
A hyperscale data centre is many times larger than a normal data centre in all facets. This applies both to the area required, energy and water consumption and many other aspects.
The impact of a hyperscale data center is therefore many times greater than that of a normal data center. A typical data center can not be compared with a hyper scale data center
Legislation
With the huge need for more data centers, it is good that more regulations are being applied to data centers.
After many years of lack of clarity on how to measure and publish data center KPI’s, we desperately need regulations that refer to international ISO standards such as the ISO/IEC 30134.
Only by applying these standards and regulations is the data center industry able to do the right thing in a world of increasing need.
So yes, I am therefore a big fan of regulations to improve the industry.
However, it is important that the policy for this is drawn up by people with the right background and who can oversee the whole thing.