16 January 2020

Ciarán Forde, data centre and IT segment leader, Eaton EMEA

Is the insatiable desire for social media and all things digital creating an environmental villain or could data centres be the actual heroes with the ability to reduce energy consumption and take pressure off the planet’s resources? The approximation for global data centre power consumption stands at 200terrawat hours (TWhrs). This is 1% of the total 20,000TWhr of global electrical consumption.

Bundling data centres in with the overall ICT industry inflates some predictions to 20% of the world’s electricity by 2040 or emissions rocketing to 5%-14%. It demands a closer look and deeper analysis. In 2016 the world produced 13.5Gtoe (gigatons of equivalent energy). That equates to 160,000TWhrs. Currently global energy demand has transport accounting for 28%, buildings 30% and industry 38%. Electricity demand in buildings has risen phenomenally – accounting for nearly 60% of total growth in global electricity consumption. 

With continued population, economic and digital growth, what will stem the tide of power consumption and emissions?

How the data centre is shaping digital transformation

The purpose of the data centre is to be a centralised point for running applications, processing and storing data. Therefore, it is at the very core of continued digital transformation. Digital transformation is all about doing things smarter, quicker, cheaper and of course more efficiently. It replaces higher energy processes and enables process re-engineering, automation and holds the promise of artificial intelligence.

There are a number of trends resulting from the modernisation of the data centre and an increasing focus on digital transformation, including:

Smart buildings: This means digital transformation within the building, smart thermostats and lighting, sensors etc. Adoption could cut power consumption by 10% with cumulative energy savings out to 2040 of 65,000TWh.

Industry 4.0: This refers to digital transformation for industry, e.g. automation, robotics, 3D printing, data analytics and machine to machine communications. This is the essential next step in lowering the energy, materials, time and costs associated with industrial production.

Autonomous vehicles: The combination of continuous connectivity with ‘on’ and ‘offboard’ data processing enables the operation of autonomous vehicles. Estimates show the potential for a 25% reduction in energy consumption of road freight.

eCommerce: It has been shown that online only shopping reduces a shopper’s carbon foot print by 50%.

Cloud computing: By placing IT assets and applications in the cloud, we can reduce power consumption by 25% compared to less efficient, legacy, private data centres.

The modernisation of the data centre

Data centres are behind all these technological trends aiming to improve efficiency and reduce our environmental impact. This rings true with the projection that whilst the IT workload of global data centres is set to triple from 2017 to 2020, the corresponding electrical consumption will rise by a fractional 3%.

This makes the data centre environment the most efficient of all electrical environments. More efficient than the traditional electrical generation facilities and distribution infrastructures that feed the power. If that were not enough to give data centers hero status, understanding the impact of ‘frequency response’ and ‘demand response’ capabilities latent in every major data centre can push this idea even further. Consider a data centre designed with its UPS back up power and on-site generation, where the critical IT load is only 30% of the available back up power. That means that globally there is a staggering 466TWh of available energy either stored or available. It waits vigilantly but idly for that instance when grid power might fail, and the back-up is needed. It begs the question: is that efficient? Could those critical power assets be more productive? As it happens, with the right UPS technology, such as an ‘Energy Aware UPS’, this power can be used in two very impactful ways. The first is ‘demand response’. A mechanism exists in the energy markets whereby grid operators can take advantage of secondary power sources. No longer the old model of a power generation plant ‘piping’ power in one direction to the consumer. But a bidirectional model whereby power is both supplied to and drawn from customer stored or generated power.

The second is ‘frequency response’. As opposed to raw power, another bidirectional relationship can exist but, in this case, it is to help the grid operator manage the grid frequency and keep it within its tight regulatory and operational limits. This control is essential for the stable operation of the grid. UPS’s are ideal in this scenario; their stored power can rapidly be directed to support the grid and internal critical systems. This fast frequency response has one incredible benefit. It can ‘green the Grid’. To have a green grid, operators must adopt renewable energy sources like wind and solar. These sources are by nature variable.

So the presence of these sources on the grid could potentially destabilise it. Enter the data centre UPS. Its rapid frequency response mitigates against destabilisation, allowing for greater levels of renewables onto the grid. Levels such as 30-70% become achievable. So, although data centres consume electrical energy, they also hold the key to decarbonising electricity. They become part of the solution and not part of the problem. It is time to take a fresh look and set about transforming our views on the data centre power network. We need to see clearly how it enables the digital transformation which is lowering our environmental impact. With the support of data centre operators and the electrical utility industry, the data centre power network can greatly help to decarbonise our electricity.

By Ciarán Forde, data centre and IT segment leader, Eaton EMEA