Efficiency Opportunities for Data Center Cooling

1. Efficiency Opportunities for Data Center Cooling Semi-therm February 23, 2010 Santa clara, california Capturing efficiency opportunities in data centers has become a business imperative, allowing managers to extend the capacity of existing facilities, drive down costs, and deliver environmental quality benefits. Mark Bramfitt, P.E. markbramfitt.com

2. Data centers are impacting the environment with unsustainable growth • Cooling efficiency opportunities • The long view Topics Engineering – first principles Utility vantage point – includes public policy Impact – what can you do markbramfitt.com

3. What do Data Centers Look Like? markbramfitt.com

4. Unity Load Factor No other utility loads look like this! markbramfitt.com

5. DC Classifications Utility Scale: Co-location, cloud and research Enterprise Closet Federal EPA estimates that data centers consume ~2% of US electricity, and is on pace to double every five years. markbramfitt.com

6. Where Are They? markbramfitt.com

7. Utility and DC Drivers Utilities Data Centers • Regulatory Compliance • Reliability • Risk Management • Load Growth • Competitive Rates • Load Management • Renewable Resources • Energy Efficiency Services • Smart Grid • Reliability • Capacity • Low Rates (Opex) • Capex Avoidance • Carbon Content markbramfitt.com

8. Why Bother Looking at Cooling? Typical data centers have PUE of 2: half of energy use is for support equipment Best in class DCs have PUE of 1.2 or so, largely by adopting best practices for cooling Managing IT energy use turns out to be much tougher! markbramfitt.com

9. Use more efficient equipment (all) • Use equipment more effectively • Make use of ambient conditions (cooling) Energy Efficiency Doing the same work with lower energy use markbramfitt.com

10. Premium efficiency equipment (chillers, pumps, fans) • Free cooling – use of ambient conditions • Variable speed drives to match load • Airflow management/containment • Liquid cooling strategies Data Center EE – Cooling First two are best at build, next three are outstanding retrofit opportunities markbramfitt.com

11. Free Cooling Use of ambient environment to cool data centers. Typically air-side only, but condenser cooling can be a great strategy alone or in tandem with air-side. The Green Grid has a great on-line tool that calculates potential energy savings for implementing air-side economizer: http://cooling.thegreengrid.org/namerica/WEB_APP/calc_index.html markbramfitt.com

12. 6000-8000 hours of free cooling in Bay Area • Payback is well under a year for new construction • Retrofit difficult and not as cost-effective (2-3 year payback) • Separating DC from building system, installing package units • Title 24 will likely mandate air-side economizer for all new DCs Free Cooling Economics markbramfitt.com

13. Yahoo, NY – “Chicken Coop” design uses building design and prevailing wind • Microsoft, Dublin – Should use 100% outside air, but has DX backup • HP, England – reports only 20 hours of mechanical cooling • UC Berkeley and Stanford Research DCs – planned Wholly Ambient Cooling Industry leaders are building centers with no mechanical cooling whatsoever markbramfitt.com

14. Airflow Management Great retrofit strategy for isolating hot and cold aisles. VSDs on CRAC units modulate supply flow to match equipment needs. markbramfitt.com

15. Airflow Management The ultimate in “close loop” cooling, containerized data centers markbramfitt.com

16. Fully Containerized DC Concept A conceptual design from Microsoft, who along with Google are leaders in large-scale containerized data center deployment. markbramfitt.com

17. “Close Loop” Strategy: move heat through liquid, from as close to the source as possible markbramfitt.com

18. Developing Technologies Solid State Data Storage Liquid Cooling Strategies Virtualization 2.0 – Server Management Virtualization 2.5 – IT Workload Management Passive Cooling Strategies for IT Equipment Modular Airflow Isolation Optical Data Storage Virtualization 3.0 – Holistic Data Center Change in Power Delivery Voltage Heat Recovery On-Site Generation Cooling Storage Systems markbramfitt.com

19. Liquid Cooling – Last Mile Proposed in 2003, this represents an “almost fan-less” morphology. CPU is effectively directly coupled to a liquid cooling system. Only secondary components are cooled using air. markbramfitt.com

20. Thermal Storage • Permanent load shifting • Thermal energy storage may lower capex and reduce oppex. markbramfitt.com

21. Typical portfolio elements: • Education and training • Technical and analysis support • New construction incentives • Retrofit incentives • Retrofit/purchase rebates • Services (air flow management) Utility Programs & Services Utilities throughout US are initiating and expanding energy efficiency programs for IT and data centers markbramfitt.com

22. Utilities can be regulated to deliver cost-effective services with lower environmental impacts. Why… Energy efficiency, renewables, demand response, smart grid? Energy efficiency programs have helped keep per capita electricity consumption in California flat over the past 30 years markbramfitt.com

23. Challenges IT industry not accustomed to thinking about efficiency IT mangers not rewarded or penalized for energy use Entrenched designs and operating schemes markbramfitt.com

24. Opportunities Manage your own growth profile – take control of capacity needs Dramatic short-term cost savings achievable with proven technologies and measures Time is now to “reset” the IT energy use growth curve IT’s role in delivering environmental improvements are immense US leadership in IT industry, and by extension… markbramfitt.com

25. Interchange Mark bramfitt, p.e. 3055 Gough Street, #100 San Francisco, CA 94123 Phone 415.407.6291 mark@markbramfitt.com information technology utilities data centers  energy efficiency demand response  smart grid program design  trainingstrategic engagement impact markbramfitt.com