Key Areas to Examine for Data Center Efficiency

Are you struggling on where to start your energy efficiency efforts? Look to these four key areas for improvements.

• Cooling: Typically the lowest hanging fruit.
  
• Water: Don’t overlook the use of water, due to its scarcity in certain areas. Water is related to energy as well.
  
• Electrical Design: Recent engineering innovations offer new efficient options.
  
• Incentives: Help offset improvement or development costs of energy efficiency.

Measuring Efficiency

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is the most popular industry metric for measuring the energy efficiency of data centers. Today, there appears to be an arms race for the lowest PUE. Even if you aren’t one of the select few with the operational flexibility to participate, you can measure your PUE and work to improve efficiency relative to your own data center site. The industry group, The Green Grid, has many resources available on PUE.

You may also consider to take some data center training / certification - Energy and Cost Management for Data Center.

Green Cooling Techniques

ASHRAE’s latest version of TC 9.9 drastically expanded the recommended and allowable temperature and humidity ranges with the approval of the major server manufacturers. It is estimated that an energy savings of 2-4% can be realized for each degree Celsius the temperature is raised in a data center. It seems raising the temperature is low hanging fruit, but I have seen very few do it to date.

Another undisputed, easy and inexpensive energy saver is hot or cold aisle containment. Preventing the mixing of cold and hot air results in a higher return air temperature that yields an increased efficiency of the cooling system. Many systems exist ranging from hard containment systems to simple refrigerator curtains that you might see in a meat locker. Have a limited budget? Hot or cold aisle containment provides a compelling financial argument for adoption.

Free cooling is now a critical consideration–with either air-side or water-side economization. The new temperature and humidity ranges offered by TC 9.9 make free cooling feasible for a large part of the year in any location, and when designing a new data center or expanding an existing facility.
Liquid cooling has been talked about a great deal of late, with liquids being far more efficient at expelling heat than air. The approach requires some modification of the server so that it can be submerged in the liquid, but studies have shown positive results.

Evaporative cooling is another energy efficient technique, especially applicable in dry climates. However, evaporative cooling often sparks a debate over the use of additional water, especially in water-constrained areas.

Water Efficiency

Water is a topic that is gaining increased attention and will continue to do so in the future. I once heard a “futurist” say that “water is the new oil.” In evaluating evaporative and other cooling techniques, many (myself included) have made the mistake of evaluating only the amount of water used in the respective cooling systems.

In order to determine the complete hydro-footprint of a system, you must also look at energy usage and how much water is used in the production of that energy. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) published a study that analyzed how much water is used in the production of power per kilowatt-hour on a state-by-state basis. While not perfect, it provides a basis for analysis from an authoritative source. After taking the amount of water used in the production of energy into account in a particular geography, evaporative cooling can have a smaller hydro-footprint (use less total water) than a chilled water system due to the amount of energy saved.

There have been a few projects of late that use either sea water or ground water for cooling, which is very efficient as it effectively eliminates the need for much of the cooling equipment. A site in central Nebraska is pursuing this tactic by using irrigation wells with a volume of 1,000 GPM at 52⁰F as the source of groundwater for cooling and re-injecting the water back into the aquifer. This is not only very energy efficient, but uses little to no water for cooling, saving on both capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenditures (OPEX) through the elimination of much of the cooling equipment. The net impact addresses both the energy and water efficiency of the equation for a very energy efficient, and therefore sustainable, cooling solution.

Highly Efficient Electrical Solutions

Major efficiency gains have been made in recent years in electrical equipment that can improve your data centers’ PUE. There are multiple manufacturers of UPS’ that are reaching efficiencies of 96-98 percent at less than 50 percent load. This is important if you utilize A and B feeds to your equipment for redundancy.

Another trend is for the UPS to operate in a by-pass mode, which eliminates the losses through the batteries. Many are not yet comfortable with this mode of operation, but it is another efficiency gain to consider in optimizing performance. Higher voltage and DC power are also evolving trends that provide efficiency gains that bear mentioning.

 

Energy Efficiency Incentives and Rebates

Whether designing a new, energy efficient data center or upgrading your existing facility, there are many incentives available to help defray the cost and improve your ROI.

Power companies are commonly providing incentives based upon your performance compared to a baseline building or a baseline piece of equipment. Plan to include the power company as early in the design phase as possible, to maximize the financial benefits. Some require approval of the incentive prior ordering the equipment.

Additional Considerations

There are additional considerations beyond those mentioned above in optimizing your mission critical facility’s efficiency.

• System modularity is an accepted practice that affects efficiency. Implementing modular and rapidly expandable designs in lieu of installing full density on day one typically results in higher efficiency through higher equipment utilization. This saves on CAPEX and OPEX, making for a smart business decision.
  
• Cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power (CHP), has gained in popularity and can be as high as 60-80% efficient compared to the typical 30% efficiency of normal power plants.
  
• Peak power shaving can also be achieved through thermal storage. This is done by creating ice at night when power rates are lower and utilizing the ice for cooling during the day.

Measure, Improve, Monitor and Repeat

Regardless of the selected energy efficiency measures in your new or existing data center, make sure you measure your initial or existing condition so you have a baseline. After your improvements are made, measure again to determine your new condition and your ROI. In the case of a new data center, perform a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis to guide your decisions. You should continue to monitor your efficiency and make improvements to improve your PUE relative to your initial condition. As a reminder, measuring your outcomes against those in the industry under different operating conditions may not provide an apples-to-apples comparison.

Design & Operate a Data Center for Energy Efficiency

2-day Training Seminar on EU Code of Conduct for Data Center Energy Efficiency (2012) The Best Practices for Designing an Energy Efficient Data Center

Overview

In response to the rising challenges facing data centre operators, owners, systems designers, equipment manufacturers and customers, the European Commission have introduced the Code of Conduct for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres. The Code aims to raise awareness of the issues and opportunities and to recommend best practice solutions. We introduces the Code, the benefits it brings, the levels of commitment required, the technical background to the best practices, data collection and reporting together with real examples. This 2-day training seminar enables individuals working in data centres to improve cost and energy efficiency. The ongoing development of the Code encompasses topics associated with new data centre planning, design and development, and the tuning and operation of existing facilities. All sections are conducted by Chartered Engineers (CEng) and help you to approach best practices in designing and operating energy efficient data centers by our further technical programs.

Registration Detail Date To Be Announced (2-day) Time 10:00am - 5:30pm Venue 10th Floor,Central Building, 1 - 3 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong Target Audience CIO, CTO, IT Directors, Data Center Operations / Facilities Managers, Data Center / ICT Consultants and E&M Engineers Fee Normal Rate: HK$6,500 (Early Bird Rate: 10% Discount) (Two refreshment breaks will be provided.)

Enrollment Online Registration or Download Application Form Exam and Certification All content cover an accredited syllabus necessary to sit the British Computer Society (BCS) "Intermediate Certificate in EU Code of Conduct for Data Center" exam through Prometric (www.prometric.com). However, taking the course does not offer a guarantee of passing. Extra examination fee required. Individual CPD / completion certificate can be granted by our experienced Chartered Engineers (Available upon request).

Should you have any enquiry, please feel free to contact us at 3796 3026 / info@stmedia-asia.com

Day 1 Content - Define, identify and list data center best practice sections - Power distribution in data center - the power tree - Optimizing the data centre requirements - Area of responsibilities (physical building, mechanical & electrical plant, data floor, racks, etc.) - Efficient cooling 1 (hot / cold aisle containment, raised floor, ceiling height, airflow control, etc.) - Efficient cooling 2 (CRAC settings, arrangement of cable trays, cabinets and cooling plants, etc.) - Efficient cooling 3 (air free cooling, water free cooling, mechanism of absorption chiller, etc.) - Interactions and interdependencies of various systems - Standby UPS - Standby ferro UPS - Line interactive UPS - Double conversion on-line UPS - Delta conversion on-line UPS - Temperature and humidity control - Factors affecting data center energy consumption Day 2 Content - Resilience level and provisioning - Data center efficiency and Uptimes Tier levels requirements - ASHRAE 2011 common environmental guidelines - ETSI EN 300 019 Class 3.1 - Select and deploy of new IT equipment - Data centre utilisation, management and planning (software, IT and M&E) - Physical building layout (site selection, water sources, use of economizers, etc.) - Lighting control (EU standards, LEED, BREEAM, etc.) - Monitoring (energy use & environmental reporting, etc.) - Items under consideration (rotary UPS, mechanical UPS, etc.) - Minimum practices for data center energy efficiency - Metrics used to measure data center energy efficiency

Delivered by Experienced Speakers Mr. Joe Tang Having more than 10 years experience in mission critical design, Mr. Tang was working on numerous projects involving data centers, disaster recovery sites, trading floors for multinational financial institutes and data centre providers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, South Korea and India. He is specialized in the areas of master site planning, mission critical infrastructure design, single point of failure study, cause and effect analysis and integrated system test. Mr. Tang is now working in a multi-disciplines consultancy providing sustainable design and green initiatives to different sections in Asia Pacific. Mr. Tang is also: - A Chartered Engineer of Engineering Council (CEng) - A Member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET) - A Corporate Member of Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineering(MCIBSE) - A Member of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (MASHARE) Ir Joson Chan Ir Chan had started his career as part-time lecturer since 2001 and has been served in various territory institutes. He majors in teaching subjects in electrical engineering, project management, sustainable engineering and facility engineering for critical services. Ir Chan is a permanent members of CNet Training professional data centre training team. Ir Chan has gained extensive experience within different aspects of infrastructure projects and as a Senior Engineer in an E&M consultant firm, mainly involved in the data centre / financial institutions MEPF design projects and working with companies such as Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, etc. He is now working in an international theme park and resort to maintain facility support of critical facility and Network Communication Centre. He unites learning with this key career experiences, allowing delegates to gain essential insight into real-life working and scenarios. Ir Chan is also: - A Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) - A Fellow of Society of Operations Engineers (FSOE) - A Chartered Engineer of Engineering Council (CEng) - A Member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET) - A Corporate Member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (MHKIE) - Grade H0 and C0 Registration of Electrical Worker of the HKSAR Government Ir K.T. Poon Ir Poon has more than 10 years consultancy experience in data center design and build, operation management, energy and cost management projects both in Hong Kong and China. He was also working for a design and installation of a facility management system in an international school in Hong Kong with a subsystem of an energy management system. Ir Poon is a part time lecturer in various tertiary institutes. He also teaches facility management, business strategic management of the distance learning courses (both degree and master degree) offered by overseas universities. Ir Poon is also: - A Corporate Member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (MHKIE) - A Chartered Member of the British Computer Society (MBCS) - A Chartered Engineer of the Engineering Council, U.K. (CEng) - European Engineer of the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (Eur. Ing.) - A Chartered Information Technology Professional of the British Computer Society (CITP)

Recent Participants Come Form...

Airport Authority Hong Kong Fujitsu Hong Kong Limited Asia Satellite Telecommunications Ltd Johnson Controls Hong Kong Limited Citic Telecommunication CPC Group Leigh & Orange Limited CTM (Macau SAR) Meinhardt (Hong Kong) Limited EMSD, HKSAR Government Mizuho Corporate Bank Limited Elixir International Limited Sociedade De Jogos De Macau Facilities Analysis & Control Limited Welcome Air-Tech Limited And More...

© 2012 Strategic Media Asia Limited T (852) 3796 3026 | F (852) 2184 9978 | www.stmedia-asia.com Room 1303, Leighton Centre, 77 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Best Practices for Green Data Center Design & Operation

Right-sizing the physical infrastructure system to the load, using efficient physical infrastructure devices, and designing an energy-efficient system are all techniques to help reduce energy costs. A successful strategy for addressing the data center energy management challenge requires a multi-pronged approach that should be enforced throughout the lifecycle of the data center.

Best Practices - Data Center Engineering for Efficiency

System design

In datac enters, system design has a much greater effect on the electrical consumption than does the efficiency of individual devices. In fact, two datacenters comprised of the same devices may have considerably different electrical bills. For this reason, system design is even more important than the selection of power and cooling devices in determining the efficiency of a data center.

Floor layout

Floor layout has a significant effect on the efficiency of the air conditioning system. Ideal arrangements involve hot-aisle/cold-aisle configurations with suitable air conditioner locations. The primary design goal of this floor layout approach is cool air and warm air segregation.

Proper configuration of server software

When configuring servers, many data center managers are not careful about how they configure the powerrelated software. Power-economizer modes should always be selected to ensure more efficient operation of the server.

Location of vented floor tiles

In an average data center, many vented tiles are either placed in incorrect locations or an insufficient or excessive number of vented tiles is installed. By using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the datacenter environment, the designer can optimize datacenter cool air flow by “tuning” floor tiles by varying locations and by regulating the percent of vents that are open at any given time or can optimize CRAC (Computer Room Air Conditioning) unit locations.

Rightsized physical infrastructure components

Of all of the techniques available to users, rightsizing the physical infrastructure system to the load has the most impact on physical infrastructure electrical consumption. There are fixed losses in the power and cooling systems that are present whether the IT load is present or not, and these losses are proportional to the overall power rating of the system. In installations that have light IT loads, the fixed losses of the physical infrastructure equipment commonly exceeds the IT load. Whenever the physical system is oversized, the fixed losses become a larger percentage of the total electrical bill.



Strategic Media Asia (SMA) Limited (www.stmedia-asia.com)

SMA enables individuals working in data centres to improve cost and energy efficiency. Our training seminars and workshops encompass topics associated with new data centre planning and development, and the tuning and operation of existing facilities. Service providers and equipment manufacturers will take a particular interest as the workshop takes into account the full range of technologies used in the data centre environment and its impact in how procurement decisions are made.

IT, Project and Facilities Managers, Designers, Consultants, etc. who are responsible for highly critical systems, like the UPS and CRAC systems, etc., in Data Centre and IT equipments are highly recommended to attend.

Should you have any enquiries, please visit www.stmedia-asia.com/trainings.html or www.stmedia-asia.com/events.html

Green Data Center Engineer Certification Program - Organized by The Society of Operations Engineers (SOE, Hong Kong Region)

The Green Data Center Engineer Certification Program
4 – 20 July 2012

Introduction

In the 2011-12 Policy Address and the 2012-13 Budget, the Government will thoroughly support the conversion of industrial buildings into data centers and the accommodation of data centers in Tseung Kwan O which attract capital investment from global institutions. SOE, who expertizes in mission critical facility / services, supports the policy and first launches a comprehensive program for Green Data Centre in Hong Kong.

The certified program provides a technical knowledge and “green theory” for engineers who are involved in creating sustainable and energy efficient data centre (E&M) / plants or exploiting the role of telecommunication in helping deliver green operation and business practices to other areas of organization such as Tendering & Procurement. It also introduces other efficiency metrics and international standards such as PUE/DCiE (The Green Grid Energy Measuring Tools), Carbon Footprint, TPL accounting, end-to-end life cycle cost, TCO, etc.

Program Outline

(1) Introduction of Green Data Centre
(2) Concepts and trends of Green Data Centre
(3) SWOT analysis of Green Data Centre
(4) Green elements and Risk Analysis of Green Data Centre
(5) Green Implementation Plan
(6) Building a Green Data Centre team
(7) Evaluation life cycle cost for Green Data Centre
 

Speakers:     Ir C.K. Chan, CEng, CEnv, FSOE, FIplantE, MIET, MHKIE, CSME, REW H0 C0

                     Ir Herman Poon, CEng, Eur. Ing., CITP, MBCS, MHKIE

Venue:          Society of Operations Engineers (Hong Kong Region)

                     Unit 2, 3/F, Winsum Industrial Centre,

                     588-592, Castle Peak Road, Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Date:            4, 6, 9, 13, 16, 18, 20 July 2012 (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)

Time:            7:00pm - 10:00pm

 

 

Registration Fee and Certification Detail 

 

HK$4,000 (Member) and HK$4,500 (Non-Member) including course materials, course assessment and certification

 "Green Data Centre Engineer" certificate will be awarded for those participants who completed the course assessment OR CPD certificate will be issued to students with attendance over 70%. Green Data Centre Engineers are eligible to enroll higher level courses by SOE.

 Please contact Ms. Connie Mui at 3188 0062 or email: connie@soe.org.hk OR download the pdf file for registration -  http://www.soe.org.hk/pdf/11062012/11062012a.pdf

Data Center Redundant Capacity - Where Can I Add Load?

One of the key power usage metrics that we often requesting is Available Redundant Capacity (ARC). We don’t always ask for it using this name. More simply, we want to know “Where can we safely add new IT equipment without overloading and potentially bringing down my facility?”

Cut Data Center Energy Bill in Six Ways

"People are looking at data center efficiency, whereas five years ago it wasn't an issue," says Adam Fairbanks, Bluestone Energy, a company that retrofits old data centers to make them more energy efficient and to qualify for utility rebates (many utilities are required to help pay for data center projects that will reduce energy use; if a project can be proven to cut energy draw by 20%, the utility might pay for as much as half the cost of the project). "Today any new data center build gets scrutinized by the CFO as well as facilities and IT."


Where lowering a company's carbon footprint was a big driver for such projects a few years ago, because of the economy, environmental concerns have gotten pushed back and today they're a matter of reducing operating expense, Fairbanks says. "Money drives the majority of the projects we work on," he says.

Fairbanks shares some of the most popular methods his clients have been using to cut energy costs in a power-guzzling data center:

• Turn the thermostat up. The common wisdom around how cold a data center needs to be has changed and an ASHRAE committee has revised the upper limits of its data center temperature recommendation up to 70-77 degrees. "People have said that's conservative, and many equipment manufacturers have said that up to 90 degrees is OK for their products," Fairbanks says.
   
  However, you have to be able to manage the movement of air before you can raise temperatures, he warns. If the air is not coming through the floor properly (due to excessive wires in the way or something) or air is swirling around, you won't see efficiencies.
  
  And you still have to cool computing equipment, even with a set point of 90 degrees. A server left running by itself uncooled would probably fry itself, Fairbanks says. "At one data center I was at recently, we did a thermal scan, where we measure and map temperatures all over the facility. One rack was at 110, which is a danger level," he says. With the proliferation of blade racks, such high cabinet temperatures are becoming more common, and there's a tendency to put all the racks in one corner of the data center, which creates one huge hot spot.

• Upgrade the HVAC. "About 30% of the power used by a data center is consumed by cooling," Fairbanks says, and the average data center is over-cooled by three or four times. A new cooling system also causes less stress on day-to-day operations than bringing in other types of new equipment. "If you put in new servers and power units, you have to rewire half the data center and move things around and it's higher risk than changing the HVAC," he says. "If you have a backup HVAC system for redundancy, you can flip over to the backup while you install the new system and achieve payback quickly."

• Use cold and hot aisles. This method of laying out a data center such that cold air used to cool computers is kept separate from the hot air they generate has been around for years, but has become more widely adopted this year.

• Try blanking panels. Server racks often have holes in the back of the cabinet, especially racks that are not full of blades. The cold air that is pushed up through the floor into these rack can escape out of the holes and into the hot aisle, causing the air conditioning system to run less efficiently. A blanking panel closes over the holes so that cold air is used exclusively to cool the servers in the racks.

• Virtualize. "There's often a conflict between the business units that own the racks and the IT staff that want to use virtualization," Fairbanks says. But here's an incentive: his company has qualified data centers for utility rebates through virtualization projects, since reduced power supplies are required for fewer servers.

• Get cooling and heating equipment to work together. Some inefficiencies are caused by CRAC units that operate independently and often fight each other, Fairbanks notes. Heating systems can conflict with air conditioning and humidifiers sometimes defeat the purpose of dehumidifiers. Bluestone offers software that has sensors and controls that monitor temperature and humidity all over a data center and aggregate information from all the units to a central point that monitors and manages all the set points. The company also provides fan trays that pull air from the floor efficiently into racks where wires or other obstacles are impeding the flow of air.

Adopted from http://www.wallstreetandtech.com

Data Center Facilities Design & Infrastructure Engineering

Two-day Workshop for Data Center Design (TIA-942 and Tier Standards), Cooling & IT Strategies

Overview

The workshop is designed for executive and data centre owners, managers and operators to enrich their relevant knowledge in data center E&M and facilities management. We provide an introduction of the critical infrastructure system that supports typical data centres and environments. It also prepares you to fully understand the main components that facilitate data centre design & build, operation and management by exploring the standards of TIA 942 and Tier. All sections are conducted by Chartered Engineers (CEng) and help you to approach best practices in designing and operating energy efficient data centers by our further technical programs.

Registration Detail Date 26 & 27 October 2012 (Friday - Saturday, 2-day) Time 10:00am - 5:30pm Venue 10th Floor,Central Building, 1 - 3 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong Target Audience CIO, CTO, IT Directors, Data Center Operations / Facilities Managers, Data Center / ICT Consultants and E&M Engineers Fee Normal Rate: HK$4,700 (Early Bird Rate: 10% Discount) (Two refreshment breaks will be provided.)

Enrollment        Online Registration or Download Application Form (Attached)

Should you have any enquiry, please feel free to contact us at 3796 3026 / info@stmedia-asia.com

Day 1 Content - Data Centre Overview and Definition - Data Centre Standards (TIA and Tier) - Data Centre Network and Structure - IT Strategy - Cabinet Layout - Raised Floor System - Telecommunication Backbones, Redundancy, Sizing and Planning - Fiber and Optical System Design - Fiber and Optical Cable Components - Copper System Design and High Speed Ethernet Day 2 Content - Copper Cabling Components - Cable Distribution, Layout and Management - Cooling - Cooling Topologies, Chiller, CRAC, Cooling Towers, Hot / Cold Aisle, etc. - Power - High / Low Power, Switch System, UPS, Transformers, Fuel Tanks, Generators, etc. - Earthing / Grounding and Bounding - Electromagnetic Interference / Electromagnetic Pulse (EMI / EMP) - Environmental Management System (EMS) - Fire Protection System - Physical Security

Delivered by Experienced Speakers Mr Joe Tang Having more than 10 years experience in mission critical design, Mr Tang was working on numerous projects involving data centers, disaster recovery sites, trading floors for multinational financial institutes and data centre providers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, South Korea and India. He is specialized in the areas of master site planning, mission critical infrastructure design, single point of failure study, cause and effect analysis and integrated system test. Mr Tang is now working in a multi-disciplines consultancy providing sustainable design and green initiatives to different sections in Asia Pacific. Mr Tang is also: - A Chartered Engineer of Engineering Council (CEng) - A Member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET) - A Corporate Member of Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineering(MCIBSE) - A Member of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (MASHARE) Ir Joson Chan Ir Chan, a holder of Bachelor of Building Services Engineering, has endorsement units in Technical Services and Power Electronics, holds an Endorsement Certificate in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, a Higher Certificate in Electrical Engineering, a Certificate in Electrical Engineering and is an Environmental Officer. He has gained extensive experience within different aspects of infrastructure projects and as a Senior Engineer in an E&M consultant firm, mainly involved in the data centre / financial institutions MEPF design projects, working with companies such as Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and HSBC to name a few. He unites learning with this key career experiences, allowing delegates to gain essential insight into real-life working and scenarios. Ir Chan is also: - A Fellow of Society of Operations Engineers (FSOE) - A Chartered Engineer of Engineering Council (CEng) - A Member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET) - A Corporate Member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (MHKIE) - Grade H0 and C0 Registration of Electrical Worker of the HKSAR Government Ir K.T. Poon Ir Poon has more than 10 years consultancy experience in Data Center design and build, operation management, energy and cost management projects both in Hong Kong and China. He was also working for a design and installation of a facility management system in an international school in Hong Kong with a subsystem of an energy management system. Ir Poon is a part time letcturer in various tertiary institutes. He also teaches facility management, business strategic management of the distance learning courses (both degree and master degree) offered by overseas Universities. Ir Poon is also: - A Corporate Member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (MHKIE) - A Chartered Member of the British Computer Society (MBCS) - A Chartered Engineer of the Engineering Council, U.K. (CEng) - European Engineer of the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (Eur. Ing.) - A Chartered Information Technology Professional of the British Computer Society (CITP)

Recent Participants Come Form

Airport Authority Hong Kong Facilities Analysis & Control Limited Asia Satellite Telecommunications Limited Fujitsu Hong Kong Limited Citic Telecommunication CPC Group Johnson Controls Hong Kong Limited Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, HKSAR Government Leigh & Orange Limited Welcome Air-Tech Limited And More...

© 2012 Strategic Media Asia Limited T (852) 3796 3026 | F (852) 2184 9978 | www.stmedia-asia.com Room 1303, Leighton Centre, 77 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Measuring Data Centre Efficiency by The Green Grid Tools

The Green Grid has finally released an online tool allowing data centre operators to compare efficiency, sustainability and resource consumption against the benchmarks set out in the Data Centre Maturity Model (DCMM).

The free-to-use tool will help measure various facets of a data centre, including power, cooling, compute, network and storage, and rate it against peers and industry best practices.

Measuring Green Credentials

In addition to the PUE / DCiE, the green Grid has also develop other metrics and benchmarks. "We developed the Data Centre Maturity Model to be the world’s most comprehensive single resource for setting data centre operators on the path to maximum sustainability and energy efficiency,” said Harkeeret Singh, the head of the Green Grid’s technical work group.

“The new online benchmarking tool builds on this work by providing users with clear assessment criteria that enables them to measure against current best practice, as well as a five year roadmap for the industry.”

While the Green Grid’s self-assessment tool will undoubtedly aid companies looking to improve their green credentials, it has taken more than a year after the DCMM was first announced for it to arrive. The previous method of measuring a data centre’s performance consisted of inputting information into a spreadsheet.

The industry consortium began testing the online tool last October, touting the inclusion of a “graphic equaliser” style feature.

“Once they have entered their data, users get access to their own personal DCMM equaliser, a model that enables them to determine their levels of maturity and identify the ongoing steps and innovations required as part of their strategy to achieve greater energy efficiency and sustainability improvements in the data centre,” Singh said.

“The Data Centre Maturity Model Tool will finally enable data centres to demonstrate credible proof that they leading the [IT] industry – and, perhaps, their rivals – in resource efficiency and sustainability.”

Adopted from http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk

Strategic Media Asia Limited is currently delivering an accredited training in Data Center Energy & Cost Management. The sysllabus is approved by The British Computer Society (BCS, www.bcs.org.uk) and the training content is largly related to The Green Grid Metrics, Measuring Power and Energy Consumption and Cost Control. You may find more informaiton from www.stmedia-asia.com/trainings.html

 

Towards a More Energy-Efficient Data Center

We recently saw the European Commission recognize 27 IBM Data Centers for energy efficiency. The commission, the executive body of the European Union, was going by the EU’s Code of Conduct for Data Centers, and we’re not 100 percent sure what requirements that entails, but we do know it’s A Good Thing.

In fact, as IBM officials said in a press statement, the honor represents “the largest portfolio of data centers from a single company to receive the recognition.”The idea is to reduce energy consumption “in a cost-effective manner without decreasing mission critical data center functions,” IBM officials said, using certain established best practices.

Great. What might those be?

Speaking broadly, IBM officials rattled off a list of general areas where one can find energy efficiencies in contact centers — energy-efficient hardware, free cooling, cold aisle containment and the like.

A bit more specifically, IBM officials said, one factor that weighed heavily in their winning the EU award is that many of their data centers support cloud computing. This isn’t only to save energy, of course, as the cloud is in high demand these days for its efficiencies, flexibility and profitability and other good common-sense business reasons.

Analytics are a huge part of IBM’s energy-saving success. The company uses Mobile Measurement Technology, an in-house product of IBM Research, using “thousands of sensors to record and analyze temperatures and air flow to detect hot and cold spots,” company officials explain, to get energy flow insight leading to the intelligence that lets IBM “efficiently cool data centers with a high measure of security and reliability and significant reduction in cost.”

The company believes in replacing older hardware equipment with more energy efficient servers, consolidating servers: fewer and more efficient servers = lower energy usage.

So that’s Big Blue’s overall approach. Solid, basic principles at work: Use the most energy-efficient servers you can find because they’ll save you money in the long run; consolidate your server needs; use analytics to find where you can cut down on costs within the data center itself; and take advantage of cloud computing where possible.

Bully for IBM. Does anybody else use a different approach?

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) issued a white paper titled “Best Practices Guide For Energy-Efficient Data Center Design” in March 2011. It addresses energy efficiency across the enterprise, breaking down its recommendations in seven areas.

Information Technology (IT) Systems

This is a good place to start because “IT equipment loads can account for over half of the entire facility’s energy use.” The white paper identifies rack servers as a major culprit, saying they account for “the largest portion of the IT energy load in a typical data center,” taking up lots of space, and drawing full power even when running at 20 percent use or lower, which according to the paper is, in fact, most of the time.

The FEMP recommends looking for servers with variable speed fans, as they can adjust to how much power is needed to actually cool the server. Throttle-down devices are helpful as well, reducing energy consumption on idle processors via “power management.” Use multi-core processor chips where possible, and consolidate your IT system redundancies — “consider one power supply per server rack,” instead of power supplies for each server.

Grouping equipment with similar heat load densities and temperature requirements means you can cool them more efficiently, the paper says, pointing to virtualization as another way to find efficiency.

Environmental Conditions

Yes, these matter. The FEMP cites the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and Network Equipment Building System, which has published recommendations for “environmental envelopes” for inlet air for IT equipment. Done correctly, it can help reduce overall energy consumption, and the recommendations are presented in the paper with cool charts and graphs we really can’t do justice to here.

But bear in mind that variable speed fans in servers are guided by internal server temperature, so if your data center’s using inlet air conditions higher than what’s recommended, well, the fans aren’t going to do the best job they can saving you money.

Air Management

Another important yet frequently overlooked area. Basically, what this refers to is the way you configure the center to get rid of as much air mixing between cool and hot as possible. You have lower operating costs if the hot air being expelled from the equipment isn’t recirculated to the machines again. The cooling air needs to be delivered to the servers as efficiently as possible.

No, it’s not a horribly sexy aspect of data center efficiency, but the money you save is.

The paper talks about cable congestion reducing total air flow, and allowing hot spots to develop. It recommends greater under-floor clearance, of at least two feet for raised-floor installations, and having a “cable management strategy” to minimize air flow obstructions, with possibly a cable mining program, involving the removal of abandoned or inoperable cables. Aisle separation’s a good idea too, with cool air aisles on one side of a row of servers and hot on the other. Those flexible plastic strips you see at supermarket refrigeration sections can really help here.

Cooling Systems

Probably one of the first things you thought of when you thought of data center energy efficiency, but as we hope you’ve seen by now, other considerations play a considerable part. The most common type of system here for smaller data centers would be a direct expansion (DX) system, CRAC units readily available off the shelf. Rooftop units are not pricey and work well, too.

Central air handler systems provide better performance, the paper notes, observing that they can “improve efficiency by taking advantage of surplus and redundant capacity to improve efficiency.”

Chilled water systems are another option, with a high-efficiency VFD-equipped chiller with condenser water reset recommended by the FEMP as “the most efficient cooling option for large facilities.”

There’s much more in the paper about other options for cooling systems.

Electrical Systems

Keep in mind both initial and future loads here, the FEMP white paper warns, adding that efficiencies can range widely from manufacturer to manufacturer. Use uninterruptible power supply systems for backup power, and for maximum efficiency determine exactly what equipment actually needs UPS and which doesn’t.

Demand response is voluntarily lowering energy usage during peak demand, and your utility will probably offer you some incentive to sign up for a program like that. Many companies simply switch to backup power during peak times and pocket the savings from the lower rates.

Using DC power distribution will save conversions, but it’s expensive to install since it’s still not widely-used. And consider savings you can find with lighting — think about what space really needs to be illuminated all day and what space doesn’t. Zone occupancy sensors can really help you reduce your lighting costs and overall energy costs.

Other Energy-Efficient Design Opportunities

The FEMP paper provides a few more things to think about:

• On-Site Generation. With a constant electrical demand this option can make sense. They’re an alternative to grid power. Some places let you sell self-generated power back to the grid, which lowers capital expenses.
• Co-Generation Plants. This is using a power station or similar technology to help produce electricity, and its waste heat can run a chiller to provide cooling.
• Standby Losses. Reduce these, and use waste heat from the data center to minimize losses by block heaters. Here’s one place solar panels might make sense.
• Waste Heat. This can be used to provide cooling — nifty irony there, no? Done correctly, the FEMP says, using absorption or adsorption chillers, your chilled water plant energy costs can be cut by at least 50 percent. Adsorption chillers require less maintenance than absorption models, but are new to the U.S. market.

Data Center Metrics and Benchmarking

You do this to track performance and see where you can find improvements. The paper provides links to various benchmarks.

Measuring Power Usage Effectiveness and Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency is a good place to begin benchmarking, not that they represent the entire, overall efficiency of your whole data center, as the paper says, but rather the “efficiency of the supporting equipment within a data center.” Which is still quite a lot.

Energy Reuse Effectiveness is another area for productive benchmarking, as is the Rack Cooling Index and Return Temperature Index, your Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning System Effectiveness and the Airflow Efficiency, not to mention the Cooling System Efficiency.

On-Site Monitoring and Continuous Performance Measurement is an important area to benchmark, and the paper provides resources to assist with this as well.


Adopted from http://news.thomasnet.com

EU Code of Conduct for Data Centers, A Toothless Guard Dog?

The EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres, as a practical set of guidelines designed to improve energy efficiency within the data centre industry, bringing vendors and data centre operators together and developing good practices for reducing the energy consumption of data centres, has now made up 12 percent of data centre expenditure.

Few Adopters?

The code is voluntary, and has faced persistent criticism over the small number of organisations that have publicly embraced it. Some have argued that unless more people adopt it, it may have to be embodied in mandatory regulations.

However, according to, Zahl Limbuwala, the Chairman of BCS-Data Centre Specialist Group, the code’s best practices have had not just a significant impact in the EU but much further afield also.

"There are very few data centre people in the EU now that have not heard of the code and most speak positively of it’s goals and effect on the industry."

"Telecity group are one data centre operator that has proven implementing the code’s best practices has made and continues to make good business sense!"

The code was never about regulation or legislation or about forcing businesses to comply, it’s was about making an impact on the ever growing use of energy to ensure it gets used efficiently rather than wasted.

For more green data center training and technical seminars in Hong Kong, please visit http://www.stmedia-asia.com/trainings.html