Embedded Data Centers: Designing Better Energy Efficiency Programs

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Embedded Data Centers:

Designing Better Energy

Efficiency Programs

Robert Huang, Cadmus

Silicon Valley Leadership Group – Data Center Efficiency Summit November 5, 2014

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What are Embedded Data Centers (EDCs)?

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Type Square Feet # Physical Servers Number in U.S.

Server Closets Less than 100 Less than 5 1.4 million Server Rooms 100 to 999 5 to 24 1.3 million Localized Data Center 500 to 1,999 25 to 99 66,000 Mid-Tier Data Center 2,000 to 19,999 100 to 499 10,000 Enterprise Data Center At least 20,000 At least 500 7,000

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EDCs in Commercial Buildings

Typical office building’s DC is:

23%

of annual energy costs

Efficient office building’s DC is:

40-50%

of annual energy costs

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EDCs are….

• Ubiquitous

– 50% of all servers in the U.S. are installed in EDCs

– Found in 50% of small and medium business customers at PG&E

– CBSA found 250 EDCs in 230 commercial buildings*

• Hard-to-Reach

– 50 calls per completed survey with EDC Manager

• Uninterested in EE

• Limited Savings per Site

– Size

– Opportunities not the same

* Preliminary results

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Importance of EE to EDC Managers

Never 35% Rarely Sometimes 18% Often 12% Always 6%

PG&E Study asked IT Vendor:

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When Do Closets Need to Have

Dedicated Cooling?

• 1.5 kW IT load limit

at 77 degrees

• Technically, based on

# servers includes:

– Most server closets

– Some server rooms

• CBSA: 35 of 85 server

closets had no

dedicated cooling

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Airflow Management/Cooling Savings are

Very Limited in Server Closets

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Growing Interest in EDCs

• EPA: Updating utility guidance to include EDCs

• NEEA, PG&E, & SVP: C

onducting charrettes with EDC managers/IT vendors

• NRDC: Issued papers on topic

• NWPCC: Analyzing CBSA data

• PG&E: Surveyed EDC managers

• NYSERDA: Examining entire DC market including EDCs

• _{MN: Requested EDC pilot}

• VERGE and ACEEE Conferences

Red denotes Cadmus projects

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How Can This Group be Reached?

• PG&E:

– EDC Managers: 1 survey completed per 50 calls

– IT Vendor: 1 survey completed per 5 calls

– 45% of EDC Managers use an IT vendor

• Another survey found IT Vendor twice as likely to

know about utility data center efforts

• Link program to IT Vendors that heavily influence

EDC decision making (similar to HVAC programs)

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If HVAC Opportunity is Limited, Look to IT

• Pursue prescriptive incentives (custom too costly):

–

ENERGY STAR qualified servers, data storage, and

networking based on efficiency metrics

–

Server virtualization

–

Migration to colocation and cloud services (chiller-less

cooling)

• Explore per-unit incentives: midstream for IT

Vendors or upstream for IT equipment makers

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Incentives Can Help Increase EE in EDCs

Top 5 EE Barriers in EDCs

Ranking According to SDC Managers: According to IT Vendors:

1 Resource constraints Resource constraints

2 EE not priority Focus on upfront costs

3 Focus on upfront costs Lack of understanding of in-house IT manager

4 Lack of understanding of in-house IT manager

Risk averse

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Server Savings

• EPA study at MSFT DC metered HP ProLiant servers – G6 (ES) – G5 (non-ES) • Determined over 50% savings very low loads (where most servers operate)

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Server Virtualization of EDCs

• 2012 NRDC study:

37% (n=30)

• 2014 CBSA study:

35% (n=86)

• EDCs ripe for server

virtualization

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ENERGY STAR Is Gathering SERT Data

For Servers

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ENERGY STAR Requires Data Storage

Performance Info

• Three types of information collected:

–

Transaction (I/O per second per watt)

• Banking – Large number of random I/O operations

–

Streaming (MiB per second per watt)

• Netflix – Streaming large continuous chunks of data

–

Capacity (GB raw capacity per watt)

• Not accessed frequently but prepared to go

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IT Vendor Perspective on EDC

Migration

• Eventually, will head to a co-location facility or

the cloud

• Held back mostly by security and bandwidth

• Most indicated that EDCs would migrate to a

colocation facility before moving to the cloud

-PGE Study

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ComEd Closet to Colocation Program

• 5 cents/KWh

incentive

• EDC with 5kW total

load that saves 10%

from colocation

migration……

pockets $200

incentive

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EPA EDC Case Study – Preliminary Info

• Small municipal server room

• Funding for new HVAC system

• Two rack server room

• 4 kW IT load

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Panel Metering

• Metered total

load and AC load

at panel

– Watt nodes – Data logger

• Also metered

temperature and

humidity

11/10/2014 20

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Odd Findings

• 3.5 ton spot

cooler oversized

for 4 kW IT load

• Mysterious

increase in use

of AC and temp

changes with no

change in IT

load

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Culprit

• During the summer, the

manager was leaving the

door open to cool

adjoining offices on hot

days

• The 3.5 ton spot cooler

was going full blast all day

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Looking to be Efficient

• Consolidating another server room into this

• Getting rid of spot cooler

• Currently examining small cooling unit made by

Daiken with air side economizer

–

Needs to be on outer wall

–

$18K to install

–

Extra $4K for economizer

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Single Enthalpy Control

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Economizer Operation Parameters

ES1 80 60 28 80% ES2 75 57 26 74% ES3 70 54 24 68% ES4 65 51 22 61% ES5 60 48 20 54% % Time On DB Temp Temp Dewpoint Enthalpy Unit

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Summary of EDC Program

• Develop prescriptive rebates for IT measures (to ease administrative burden)

– IT equipment

– Colocation/cloud migration

• Leverage IT Vendors’ relationships and market influence (similar to HVAC programs’ use of contractors)

• Explore upstream incentives to manufacturers

• Use classic HVAC measures for larger EDCs

– Possibly smaller, free cooling units

– Variable speed drives to accommodate shrinking IT loads

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Contact Info

Robert Huang

[email protected]

Office: 617-673-7117

Allison Bard

[email protected]

Office: 617-673-7264

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