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. Efficiency Opportunities for Data Center Cooling MARK BRAMFITT, P.E. 1 markbramfitt.com

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

What do Data Centers Look Like? 3 markbramfitt.com

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

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. 5 markbramfitt.com

Where Are They? 6 markbramfitt.com

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 Utility and DC Drivers 7 markbramfitt.com

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! 8 markbramfitt.com

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

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

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. 11 markbramfitt.com The Green Grid has a great on-line tool that calculates potential energy savings for implementing air-side economizer: html

Free Cooling Economics 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 12 markbramfitt.com

Wholly Ambient Cooling Industry leaders are building centers with no mechanical cooling whatsoever 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 13 markbramfitt.com

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

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

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

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

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

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. 19 markbramfitt.com

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

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

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

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

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… 24 markbramfitt.com

MARK BRAMFITT, P.E GOUGH STREET, #100 SAN FRANCISCO, CA PHONE Interchange information technology  utilities  data centers  energy efficiency  demand response  smart grid  program design  training  strategic engagement  impact 25 markbramfitt.com