Green Data Centres Leads to Operational Savings

Green Data Centres Leads to Operational Savings

Abstract

CII has developed 20 different rating systems for Green Buildings and Green Infrastructure, one to suit each type of application, namely, residential, commercial, institutional, industrial buildings, townships, SEZ’s  and cities.  In the recent years, IT/ ITES (information technology enabled services) buildings and IT infrastructure have witnessed tremendous growth as well as expansion. This transformation is mainly due to modernization & digitization, which have changed our lifestyle through a quantum jump in speed and ease of communication, resulting into betterment of our life-style. Most of our day-to-day activities, businesses and services, are being accomplished in very small, densely-packed, sealed buildings, with high energy consumption. These spaces are termed as Data Centre (DC); these have become a necessity and have sprung up all over the country.

Data Centres (DCs) consume significant energy in the processes such as networking, computation and storage. These DCs are invariably operated 24 x 365, with uninterrupted power supply (UPS) to ensure high reliability and availability. This particular sector has faced serious challenges in terms of sources of reliable power supply for charging of UPS batteries.  Hence, energy efficiency in DC facilities has assumed great urgency, leading to the development of IGBC green rating system specific to DC’s.

IGBC Green Data Centre rating system was released during Green Building Congress (GBC) 2016 at Mumbai.  It is a first of its-kind standard for DCs.  It primarily addresses energy efficiency in DC’s, while introducing many other green concepts for a better tomorrow. Green DC rating system offers several tangible and intangible benefits, including reduction in PUE (power usages effectiveness) by 20-25%, water conservation by up to 30%, enhanced IEQ and wellbeing of staff operating and managing the DC.

1.      Introduction

Data Centres have assumed tremendous importance in the last decade as India continues to become more and more digital. DC contributes significantly to several National benefits including the ways businesses are done, reduction in fossil fuel use by reducing travel for trade & domestic transactions,  saving of man-days of involved in day-to-day activities, IT enabled services, speed of communication, employment generation and many more. IT infrastructure and Data Centres are vital in fulfilment of the country’s vision of progressing to ‘Digital India’.

Data Centre is defined as ‘a room or building, or portions thereof, including computer rooms being served by the data centre systems, serving a total ITE (information technology equipment) load greater than 10 kW and 20 watts/sq.ft (215 Watts/m2) of conditioned floor area [ASHRAE 90.4-2016]. DCs are categorized into two types, namely Internet Data Centre (IDC) and Enterprise Data Centre (EDC). IDCs, also referred as co-location & managed Data Centres, are built and operated by service providers. IDCs are also built and maintained by enterprises whose business model is based on internet commerce. Enterprise Data Centres (EDCs) support many different functions that enable various business models [CII report 2010]. EDCs are evolving partly as a result of new trends in application environment, such as the n-tier, web services, and grid computing, to cater to the criticality of the data stored in DCs. Fig. 1 shows typical layout of a Data Centre project.

                                             Fig. 1. Typical layout of a Data Centre project

Considering the growth expected in DC industry, interest is growing rapidly to reduce the energy consumption and make DCs more energy efficient. The operation and maintenance of DCs is critical; therefore, “Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)” has formulated operating standards to address the requirements of Data Centre Infrastructure. Extensive study was carried out by CII in 2012 to collate energy consumption behaviour of DC facilities. PUE is the globally used and accepted measure for energy efficiency in DCs.  CII study found that PUE varied between 1.4 to 3.0 [CII report 2010]. Joint project of CII-LBNL has also published a policy framework to improve energy efficiency in the DC sector [CII-LBNL 2015].

The reports published by CII and others seem to have given weightage only to energy conservation.  Other green parameters. such as IEQ (indoor environmental quality), water conservation, building material and resources utilization, and features of project site and planning, have not been addressed in these reports.  Since IGBC has been involved in developing tools to facilitate stakeholders in adopting green building practices in India, an initiative was taken to develop IGBC Green Data Centres Rating System. The Green DC rating system is intended to enable construction and operation of DCs, with enhanced resource efficiency, thereby leading to National benefits. Fig. 2 exhibits typical power distribution for a DC facility.

Fig. 2. Typical Data Centre power consumption architecture

2.      Present Scenario and future expansion.

IGBC has recently compiled extensive web-based information for DC projects all over India.  Our findings are that there are more than 200 well established large capacity data centres currently operational in India. However, many more large capacity data centres would soon be added to support the initiative of Digital India.  Currently, the larger number of mega data centre projects are located in Maharasthra , primarily in Mumbai and Pune; next in line are the mega data centres in Karnataka and Tamilnadu.  Region-wise future requirement of mega data centres would be as per location of Corporate Headquarters, largest in the Northern part of the country, followed by Western part of India, as shown in Fig 3b.

            Fig. 3. Distribution of current Mega Data Centres               Fig 3b Region wise Future                                                                                                                             needs of Data Centres as per Corporate Headquarters location.

3.      Classification of Data Centres

In DC, maximum energy is consumed by IT equipment for networking, processing, computation and storage. Cooling is essential to remove the heat generated to sustain the required process. Since IT equipment runs 24 x 365 and continuously, HVAC system also consumes significant energy in DC.  There are several technologies and advancement in the products & systems, which have provided ample opportunities for energy conservation in DC sector. These broadly comprise of the use of efficient IT equipment, highly efficient HVAC system, virtualization, continuous monitoring of Rack Cooling Index (RCI), continuous performance monitoring, blanking, cold-hot aisle containment rather than mixing of hot & cold air, optimum loading and operation using advanced operation technologies, and other green measures. Based on floor area, no. of  IT  racks, no. of servers and design IT load, DCs can be classified into various categories as presented in Table 1. Fig. 4 exhibits the hot & cold aisle containment in a typical data centre project.

 Table 1. Classification of Data Centres Based on the Maximum IT Load

(Source: CII-BEE report 2010)

	Small	Medium	Large	X Large
Site description	Mixed use building	Mixed use building	Mixed use or dedicated building	Mixed use or dedicated building
Average Size (Sq.ft)	125 - 1000	100 - 5000	500 – 25000	> 25000
Equivalent (Sqm)	12 – 93	94 – 464	465– 2230	> 2230
Average number of IT racks	5 – 40	41 – 200	201 – 800	> 800
Typical number of Servers	30 – 250	251 - 1300	1301 – 4000	> 4000
Design IT load (kW)	20 - 160	161 - 800	801 - 2500	> 2500

                             Fig. 4. Hot and Cold aisle containment in Data Centre project

 4.      Methodology of Rating Development

Spearheading the green building movement in the country, IGBC, with the support of various data centre stakeholders, has developed “IGBC Green Data Centre Rating” system, to enable data centre proponents to adopt more and more energy efficient measures, and various other green strategies towards a sustainable future. The rating system was launched during IGBC’s flagship event ‘Green Building Congress 2016’ at Mumbai on 8 Oct, 2016. Fig. 5 shows the launch of green data centre rating system. Table 2 highlights the nomenclature used in DC projects.

Fig. 5. Launch of IGBC Green Data Centre Rating System at

 Green Building Congress 2016, Mumbai

Table 2 Nomenclature used in Data Centres

Term	Definition
DC	Data Centre: A room or building, or portions thereof, including computer rooms being served by the Data Centre systems, serving a total ITE (Information Technology Equipment) load greater than 10 kW and 20 watts/sf (215 Watts/m2) of conditioned floor area (ASHRAE 90.4-2016)
PUE	Power Usages Effectiveness (PUE): is the key indicator in measuring energy efficiency of DC project ·         Total facility energy measured at source / Total IT energy measured at PDU. Lower the PUE, better the energy efficiency and lower the operation cost. ·         Recommended PUE value for New DC <1.5
PDU	·         Power Distribution Unit
RCI	Rack Cooling Index (RCI) is a measure of how well the system cools the equipment within the manufacturers’ specifications ·         RCIhi={1 - [{Σ(Tx − Tmax-rec)}/{(Tmax-all – Tmax-rec) n}] }100 %, for Tx>Tmax-rec ·         Tx Mean temperature at intake x (°F) ·         n Total number of intakes ·         Tmax-rec Maximum recommended temperature as per technology supplier (°F) ·         Tmax-all Max allowable temperature as per technology supplier in (°F) ·         RCIlo={1 – [{ Σ(Tmin-rec – Tx)} /{(Tmin-rec – Tmin-all) n }]}100 %, for Tx <Tmin-rec ·         Tmin-rec Min recommended temperature as per technology supplier (°F) ·         Tmin-all Min allowable temperature as per technology supplier (°F)
RTI	Return Temperature Index (RTI) is a measure of the energy performance of the air-management system
ITE	Information Technology Equipment (ITE) comprising computers, data storage, servers and network or communication equipment
ITE Enclosure	·         A rack, cabinet, or chassis that is designed to mount ITE
UPS	·         Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)
CRAC	·         Computer room air conditioning (CRAC)
UFAD	·         Under Floor Air Distribution system

IGBC Green DC rating system addresses energy efficiency, operation and maintenance, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), water conservation, building material and resources and Site Planning.

5.      Discussion – Key Benefits of Green Data Centre Rating System

IGBC Green Data Centre Rating System is designed for both New and Existing Data Centres. The project team can evaluate applicability of credit points while meeting mandatory requirements to achieve the desired certification level.  Project can apply for IGBC Green Data Centre Rating System certification, if the project can meet all mandatory requirements and achieve the minimum required points.

Many new green building materials, equipment and technologies are being introduced in the market. With continuous up-gradation and introduction of new green technologies and products, it is important that the rating programme also keeps pace with the subsequent standards and technologies.

Therefore, the rating programme will undergo periodic revisions to incorporate the latest advancement and changes. It is important to note that project teams, applying for IGBC Green Data Centre Rating System, should register their projects with the latest version of the rating system. During the course of implementation, projects shall have the option to transit to the later version of the rating system, if it is announced midstream of the project completion.

5.1.   Unique Aspects of Rating System

·      Emphasis on DC equipment, rather than the building elements

·      Addresses both the IT areas and the non-technical spaces

·      Encourages management information systems, energy management and monitoring

·      Addresses air quality in IT and non-IT spaces

·      O&M guidelines enhance reliability and availability

·      Site visits before award of rating

5.2.   Tangible and intangible benefits of Green Data Centre rating system

·      Tangible benefits

Ø  20-25% reduction in PUE

Ø  25-30% reduction in water consumption, if water cooled chillers are used for project

·      Intangible benefits

Ø  Enhanced Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)

Ø  Improved waste management practices including e-waste and other hazardous & non-hazardous waste

Ø  Health & well-being of staff

5.3.   Key National benefits of Green Data Centre rating system

·      Introduction of green principles for the sector

·      Reduced power demand for DC

·      Enhanced renewable energy penetration

·      Diversion of water saved to other potable usages

·      Responsible handling and disposal of waste

References

1.       BSR/ASHRAE Standard 90.4P, Energy Standard for Data Centres. ASHRAE, 1791 Tullie Circle, NE, Atlanta. 2016

2.       CII-BEE. Energy Efficiency Guidelines & Best Practices in Indian Data Centres. Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, Government of India. 2010.

3.       CII. Energy Efficiency in Indian Data Centres – Present Trends & Future Opportunities. December 2012

4.       CII-LBNL. Accelerating Energy Efficiency in Indian Data Centres: Final Report for Phase I Activities. December 2015.