Datacor aims to improve the sustainability and energy consumption for local data centers

Datacor, the Romanian integrator of intelligent communications and infrastructure solutions, aims to offer more sustainable and energy efficient solutions for data centers in 2021 and to encourage companies to align with new technologies for cooling solutions.

“Lately, more and more attention is being given to reducing electricity consumption. Many companies wish to comply with environmental directives or to become certified as green companies, but most organizations just want to reduce operating costs. Data centers are large consumers of electricity and the consumption for their cooling has so far accounted for about 40% of the total consumption of a data center,” said Iulian Banu, Product Manager of cooling solutions at Datacor.

In the current pandemic crisis, energy efficiency has become a growing concern in the industry, due to the demand for increased processing capacity, and the trend towards IT centralization has significantly increased the energy consumption of data centers. Due to increasing energy consumption and administration costs, the energy efficiency of data centers has now become an important part of the cost reduction strategy. In addition, energy efficiency is approached both as a cost-saving strategy and as an act of environmental responsibility for companies.

“Although the industry has made great efforts to reduce and offset energy consumption, including the adoption of renewable energy, more work can be done towards a more sustainable and carbon-neutral future. Our goal is to adapt the integrated solutions we offer, to optimize sustainability, and to encourage data center operators to work more efficiently and economically in terms of energy consumption, helping to protect the environment,” said Cristian Bilegan, Chief Marketing Officer at Datacor.

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Among new technologies that help data center companies save money and reduce their carbon footprint while operating at an accelerated pace, the main solutions are:

1. Using new technologies that ensure cooling continuity

Newly developed equipment has the potential to continue to operate even if some components fail (controllers, fans, sensors) or if the equipment restarts after a power outage. Such equipment uses a new valve that ensures a constant flow of coolant, even if changes in the coolant pressure (PICV – Pressure independent control valve) occur in the system. Also, the use of parallel or double supply solutions with ATS or ultracapacitors ensures the continuity of the cooling process.

2. The use of artificial intelligence (AI)

Starting from the network of several equipments that share their sensors and thermal load and continuing with the use of algorithms that optimize the operation of equipment components or that can calculate with an accuracy of ± 5% the energy consumed, equipment controllers have become more and more intelligent, to control the operation of components and web replication and to monitor the energy efficiency of equipment.

3. Air containment solutions for both warm and cold aisles

This innovation has an important role to play in increasing energy efficiency and achieving a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) coefficient that is as low as possible. Cold aisle closure and the use of sensors in special slots to regulate the airflow through the floor and the cooling capacity of air conditioning equipment are specially designed for such applications.

4. Relaxing the temperature and humidity control interval

The new ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) recommendations allow increasing the temperature and humidity control range, primarily due to the evolution of IT equipment that is no longer sensitive to high temperatures or low humidity, but also due to the desire to make electrical consumption more efficient.

Data centers waste energy by operating at a cooling power well below what is required. Instead, an efficient thermal optimization program could contribute to savings of more than 10 MW of cooling energy – the equivalent of $10 million in cost savings or more than 20,000 tons of CO2.

As companies emerge from the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, other challenges will remain, such as pollution and the need to reduce the negative impact on the environment.

With the lifting of restrictions, many economies expect to enter a recession, and public sector companies and organizations will be under pressure to reduce costs by reducing energy consumption. A data center that ensures maximum performance and optimal energy efficiency will be an important element for the economic balance sheets of companies, but also for the environment.

Moreover, 25 data centers, cloud providers and 17 partners have recently signed a commitment to make European data centers climate-neutral by 2030, in a significant effort to ensure the long term sustainability of the industry. The European Commission will also monitor twice a year the progress made towards achieving climate-neutral data centers.