How to increase energy efficiency of DPC? TADetails

What DPC it is possible to call energy efficient

The energy efficiency of DPC can be described an indicator of PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness is efficiency of use of energy). It is not difficult to calculate it: it is only necessary to separate power requirements of IT infrastructure to all energy coming to DPC. Ideally the indicator will be equal to unit.

However experts point to imperfection of this indicator in recent years. It is unclear, what PUE means — peak value or annual average what methods of its measurement how to consider gradual filling of an object, quality of management of operation, issues of relationship with the supplier of resources (the choice of power according to project values, effective use of power lines, a support on network resources or local generation) what situation with management of the park of the IT equipment, whether is not present the outdated, idle or idling equipment in its structure? One digit is not able to answer all these questions.

"Moreover, the coefficient can show the return result — the system architect of division of IT of Division of Schneider Electric company Ilya Tsarev tells. — For 100% the loaded module of DPC, a half of the equipment in which it is inefficient, "heats air", really actually without servicing a business challenge of the owner of this platform, will have the best instant PUE value, than the next module loaded for 50%, but incorporating only effectively used IT equipment".

Therefore experts suggest to take a broad view of a problem and to consider the whole complex of questions proceeding from which it is possible to judge energy efficiency. It is important to operate only the equipment necessary here and now, quickly disconnecting or even taking out of service all superfluous — both in IT, and in an engineering part of DPC.

Besides, effective management of engineering infrastructure of DPC, with timely transition to the optimal modes of operation of systems electro-and cold supply according to change both internal conditions of data center (loading), and external is necessary (climate, change of rates and conditions of the competing suppliers of resources).

Other question — maintenance in machine halls of DPC of an order and optimal conditions for air flows, lack of leaks, cold losses. Of course, accounting and control of use of the place in the machine hall and also energy resources are important.

How to provide high reliability of power supply at a design stage and constructions of data center

At a stage of planning it is important not to miss with the choice of the platform with good availability of the electric power. The place with a chronic power shortage and systematic power off will be an error.

"For important and large DPCs it is better to find a connectivity on one beam of a power supply directly to distribution substation of a large object of generation, at least to different substations — Ilya Tsarev advises. — Where it is justified by the scale and economy of an object, it is necessary to look for connectivities to networks of high tension (110/220 kV), passing local networks of medium and low tension. For data centers of the high level of responsibility own generation (diesel or gas power plant) should be planned and constructed".

At design it is important to remember questions of cost and availability of energy resources, climate of the area of construction (including — a microclimate directly on the platform), construction and materials of the building of DPC, energy efficiency of separate components of its systems, and, in particular, right selection of quantity and power of its queues (modules).

Experts note that modern flagship products of the leading vendors of the uninterruptible power supply units (UPSU) for DPC except high rates of reliability, as a rule, have very good indicators of energy efficiency. Plus — a possibility of the flexible choice of the modes in the range "the maximum reliability — the maximum energy efficiency".

"For example, the Schneider Electric Galaxy VX UPS, in addition to usual much the mode of double conversion of the electric power and the ECOmode mode, has the innovation ECOnversion mode combining reliability and the continuity of a power supply of the first with energy efficiency of the second of the modes. Initially being guided by the similar equipment it is possible to provide both reliability of a power supply, and cost reduction on losses and withdrawal of parasitic heat from power supply systems" — Ilya Tsarev says.

At a stage of construction it is worth to remember about quality of materials and installation works. The untight volume of the turbine hall, except obvious problems regarding fire safety, will lose the expensive cold. Will lead errors in laying of communications or installation of the locking regulating equipment to non-optimal operation of pumps and compressors of the systems of cold supply. Negligent installation of the systems of power distribution will provide excess percent of losses in them.

What are methods of increase in energy efficiency of already operated DPCs

It is worth beginning with carrying out complex audit which is better for charging to a third party. Both the expert organizations, and the leading vendors, for example, of Schneider Electric deal with similar issues. Audit means collection of information about a status of DPC in general, its separate systems implemented practicians and operating procedures. Following the results the company receives the detailed report on the revealed problems and "bottlenecks".

"From our practice I can remember such universal problems of data centers of customers leading to unproductive losses of resources in DPCs as non-optimal settings of temperatures in the systems of cold supply, errors at installation of pipelines of the systems of cold supply, negligent installation of a raised floor and pollution of space under it, errors in selection and arrangement of ventilating panels of a raised floor, thoughtless use of steam humidifiers, use of filters on a permanent basis in the "net" chill systems, frequent neglect use of stubs and sets of isolation of air flows in server cabinets" — are listed by Ilya Tsarev.

The basic principles of management of air flows in data center

There are several basic parameters which need to be observed for preserving of the greatest productivity and efficiency of DPC.

The first — it is impossible to mix hot and cold flows. It kills performance and efficiency of the systems of cold supply. It is necessary to give cold directly to loading (a raised floor, air ducts, line conditioners), to take away heat — in the isolated volume directly from loading (cabinets with "pipes", exhaust doors). Besides, it is worth separating "hot" and "cold" corridors, to execute containerization as CACS/HACS/RACS.

The second important point — maintenance of flow rate close to optimal. It provides an exception of effect of air starvation for the racks located too close to the conditioner and also effect of a suction of air from the machine hall under a raised floor in the same place. On the other hand, as specialists note, as a rule operation of fans of the conditioner on maximum speeds of rotation is not required.

The third point — keeping of sufficient performance of conditioning systems of the machine hall by air. In particular, there should not be points of overheating "starving" and deprived by air is resistant because of the neighbourhood, for example, with high density loading.

"Modern methods of the solution of the specified problems is application of regulated ventilating grates of a raised floor and also so-called "active raised floor" — Ilya Tsarev explains. — The last resort is optimal for halls with dynamic high density loading, together with hall conditioners actively delivering required air volumes to the consumers who increased the expense, including — in the automatic mode, on pressure sensors and temperatures. An example of such solution is the active floor of Uniflair from Schneider Electric".

The fourth important point — lack of excess obstacles to the movement of air. Despite evidence of this point, many founders of DPCs repeat the same wrong scheme: cooling through a raised floor, communications through a raised floor. Influence of such solution on energy efficiency and cost of creation of the turbine hall crucially: the efficiency is worse, the solution is more expensive.

"It is possible to assume that roots of such error go from an esthetics from the field of construction of residential and public buildings — all communications should be laid is reserved — Ilya Tsarev allows. — However DPCs — not a residential or public, but production facility in which other principle works — all crucial communications should be in the public eye for operating and free control of their status, repair and service".

"Green" DPC: whether eco-friendly approach is profitable

This option became very popular and in the West, and in Russia. Practically all averages and large data centers in our country are under construction using this or that kind of freecooling. Also there is a natural trend of the movement of DPCs and "mining hotels" to regions with recognized "green" hydraulic power. It becomes, however, not owing to care of "a carbon trace", and on call of a purse (for example, 2 with small ruble for kWh in the Irkutsk region rich with large hydroelectric power stations).

"Any "green" idea extended in the West, like heating of city quarters using DPCs or a pursuit of the platinum certificate of LEED, without reckoning with capital costs, will become immediately popular in Russia as soon as she is supported by the same whip of administrative restrictions and penalties, and gingerbread of tax benefits and subsidies, as well as in the West. Time of rough delights and experiments concerning this or that "become green" technology without economic basis passed in Russia — including because of growing of this segment of the market" — Ilya Tsarev explains.

In what feature in power supply of the virtualized and cloud environments

Here a lot of things depend on hardware base on which Wednesdays are constructed. Experts note the general trend on convergence and hyper convergence of hardware solutions for cloud environments with considerable unification and consolidation regarding a power consumption. Emergence and development [1] of Open Compute Project (OCP) — industry association and the system of the technical standards optimizing both hardware IT, and engineering solutions for the benefit of hyper convergent architecture for implementation of large-scale cloud environments became the answer to this trend, in particular.

"Schneider Electric is an active participant both OCP, and some competing and regional projects (Open 19, Scorpio). Interesting feature of such solutions is decentralization of the systems of uninterrupted power with leaving of transformers and batteries on the rack level, modularity of construction of the equipment of a power supply of a rack, a possibility of active and operational reconfiguration of a power supply on the power, the scheme of reservation and battery life — Ilya Tsarev details. — At the same time the solution is expected also very high density applications, up to 25 kW on a rack. Thus, IT infrastructure can be scaled or a rekonfigurirovana rapidly with the minimum restrictions from the system of regular power supply or the systems of placement of the IT equipment".

As it is correct to organize quality control of power supply and the heat sink

Here the whole complex of actions is necessary. Both organizational, and technical. The first is about implementation of a number of procedures and the practician in work of a duty shift (magazines of watches, bypasses, checking of metering equipment and so on). At technological level use of the profile hardware-software platform will be required.

"It is possible to give the EcoStruxure IT platform from Schneider Electric as an example — Ilya Tsarev tells. — It represents the monitoring system optimized for use in DPC, schedulings and managements. Thanks to a broad set of sensors, controllers and corresponding modules of the software the duty shift of data center can timely obtain the complete information about succession of events in it. Systems capabilities allow to obtain, if necessary, information on a status, temperature, consumption of a power supply from each unit and from each block of sockets. In need of detailed quality control of the electric power can be applied both regular means are the UPS, and separate specialized devices which can be installed in any interesting place of an object — as on inputs "from the city", and at especially sensitive specific IT equipment".

Examples of creation of energy efficient DPCs

One of the most successful cases on "classical" DPCs in Schneider Electric call work with DataLine company on data center of NORD-4 in Moscow. It is one of the largest commercial DPCs in Russia with the confirmed Uptime Institute Tier III on the project and the platform.

"The task to develop the system of cold supply of DPC with heatsurpluses to 16 MW, on the classical solution "chiller-fankoil", in particular, was set for our company — Ilya Tsarev remembers. — At the same time it was necessary to achieve the best indicators of energy efficiency of a system, than on average at that time (2013) on the market, having approached popular then solutions with air economizers and thermal wheels. Such task was carried successfully out thanks to a number of technical solutions: to transition on made winter-proof (in comparison with standard solutions on chillers) the heat carrier, to some increase in the delta of the heat carrier from standard values, optimization of topology, diameters, the number of filters and the locking regulating equipment on pipeline network of a system for reduction eventually a power consumption of pumping groups, application of energy efficient series of fankoil and chillers with freecooling".

The diesel power station which is built in the DPC building as a part of 16 DGU big powers was the second system in which design specialists of Schneider Electric were engaged. Use of a large number of separate axial fans for air supply to DGU on cooling and burning was the conservative solution at its design. However detailed job analysis of systems, calculation of air flows and volume of the given air, scrupulous work together with the customer on the choice of DGU, a general architecture and arrangement of the equipment allowed to refuse separate fans due to use of complete potential of fans of DGU, having increased energy efficiency of the solution and having lowered capital costs of the customer.

Example of "green" DPC which scheme remains exotic for the domestic market however has interesting perspectives in Russia, there was a small reserve DPC of the Greek provider Lamda Helix constructed on the river Louros in Greece.

"The heat sink is provided using a river water from the mountain river which temperature poorly changes within a year. Water gets pumps from the river, water-water where there is a selection of excess heat from an internal circuit of DPC moves in the heat exchanger. As standby system there is a monoblock chiller with air cooling. Thus, almost all the year round a system works without use of compressors of the chill systems. A part of problems with constancy of the river environment is solved because the water intake of DPC is placed behind a dam of small hydroelectric power station" — Ilya Tsarev tells.

Experts consider that taking into account existence in Russia of a huge number of the rivers and small hydroelectric power stations and also transport and manufacturing enterprises with the equipped exits to the rivers, similar projects can become popular and in our country.