Power & Cooling

Colt DCS launches new ESG strategy report

Colt Data Centre Services (DCS) has published its latest Sustainability Highlight report, covering the period of 2022. Launched as Colt DCS’ highlights report, it focuses on the three strategic areas of decarbonising the business, connecting people, and safeguarding the company’s operations. It has achieved a remarkable 52% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and a 28% reduction in Scope 3 emissions, compared to 2019. These significant reductions highlight the extent of the company’s sustainable practices as a data centre provider. Some of the other key highlights from the sustainability report include: A 30% reduction in emissions across all scopes compared to 2019. Achieved a global Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72. Procured 100% renewable energy in all European data centre sites. Colt DCS has been working diligently to achieve its sustainability targets, as a part of its ongoing commitment to minimise environmental impact, promoting social responsibility and driving positive change within the global data centre industry. The report showcases the company's significant achievements in the areas of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for 2022. It highlights its commitment to reaching net zero by 2045. EcoVadis partnership and a top 1% sustainability rating, it continues to set data centre industry standards in its ESG practices. The report was prepared in conjunction with the Colt Group, which comprises Colt Data Centre Services and Colt Technology Services. Decarbonisation has been a primary focus and one of the key pillars in the ESG strategy. Its sustainability targets have been approved by the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi) in alignment with the latest net zero standard. Colt DCS has successfully reduced its carbon footprint by 30% compared to the 2019 baseline, amounting to an estimated 186,487 tonnes of CO2e. This reduction has been aided by the use of 100% renewable energy across its UK and European data centres, all of which are 100% carrier-neutral sites, engaging suppliers more effectively and implementing innovative cooling technologies. Its strategy goes beyond environmental sustainability and includes a strong focus on social engagement. The company recognises the importance stakeholder engagement across its value chain, including customers, suppliers, local communities and employees, with the aim of making a lasting positive impact in the regions it operates in. It encourages employee engagement and has established partnerships with local charities, forming employee led CSR teams to identify fundraising initiatives and volunteering opportunities. Local communities also serve as contributors of its workforce. The company recognises the importance of effective governance in achieving its goals for inclusion. During the pandemic, it introduced designated wellbeing days, prioritising the mental and physical health of its workforce. The effort saw 78% engagement with its ‘People Matter’ survey, with the results highlighting strengths under diversity & inclusion, customer focus, empowerment, sustainable engagement and well-being & stress. It is also striving to create an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought and representative of the communities it operates in. It is also committing to implementing equitable business practices that enhance the employee experience. In addition to prioritising stakeholder engagement, it delivers exceptional client service across its data centre portfolio. In 2022, the company achieved an impressive global Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72 across all customers in Europe and Asia, which is a testament to its goal of becoming the most trusted and customer-centric operator in the industry. Niclas Sanfridsson, CEO at Colt Data Centre Services, says, "We have made impressive strides towards achieving our sustainability goals and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our employees, customers and shareholders for their unwavering support.” Niclas adds, “Colt DCS has demonstrated remarkable dedication in delivering its sustainable hyperscale strategy while upholding its vision of being the most trusted and customer-centric data centre operator.”

Alibaba Cloud analyses carbon footprint for the Olympic Esports Week

Alibaba Cloud has announced that its AI-driven sustainability solution, Energy Expert, has been trialled to measure and analyse carbon emissions from temporary construction built to host the first Olympic Esports Week, generating data-driven insights on the choice of materials and equipment. The tool has been deployed through its partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).The company deployed Energy Expert to measure and analyse the carbon emissions of the event’s temporary construction. A series of metrics including the impact of energy consumption, waste management, signage and decoration were assessed. This software-as-a-service tool was used by the local organising committee to compare the relative impacts of several types of materials and equipment.Energy Expert allows event organisers to identify the sources of the carbon emissions from venue construction and operation, quantify the carbon footprint generated by a venue and visualise a venue’s sustainability performance via an integrated dashboard and online reports.According to the solution, the carbon footprint of temporary construction for the Olympic Esports Week 2023 is estimated at 274 tons CO₂e, after replacing 60% of printed signage with digital alternatives which led to 14 tons CO₂e of CO₂ emission reductions, as well as reusing 50% of carpets after the event that would slash emissions further by 10 tons CO₂e. “We are always looking for ways to reduce our impact on the environment, and we’re pleased to work with Alibaba Cloud to apply cutting-edge technologies to measure carbon emissions so we can continue to make a difference,” says Vincent Pereira, Head of Virtual Sport, IOC Sports Department. “We have been supporting the IOC’s digital transformation of the Olympics since Tokyo 2020, and it has been an honour to be part of this latest, historic milestone for virtual sport. Sustainability is one of the priorities for our sports innovation roadmap. As the sports industry continues to evolve, we’re passionate about providing organisations with timely data, actionable insights and energy-saving recommendations that make positive and tangible impacts,” says Selina Yuan, President of International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. The week marks the collaboration between the IOC and Alibaba on digital transformation and is Alibaba’s first large-scale international project to tackle carbon emissions within the esports industry.The esports industry has a growing environmental impact as the sport becomes more mainstream. Industry analysis estimates that in 2022 a single esports team could create as much as 100 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. Individual consumption is also growing as 40% of the global population now play video games, according to industry analyst firm, DFC Intelligence, meaning that there’s a significant impact to be addressed.

Aruba takes the next step towards data centre energy efficiency

Aruba has announced that it is the first Italian company to have received the declaration of conformity of the Data Centres of the Ponte San Pietro technology campus to the European Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency (CoC), following an audit conducted by a third-party verification body, Bureau Veritas. The CoC for data centre energy efficiency was established by the European Commission in response to increasing energy consumption of data centres with the aim of informing and stimulating data centre operators to reduce this consumption in a cost-effective manner, without hampering the mission critical function of data centres. The focus is on how to improve energy demand within the data centre sector by raising awareness and recommending best practices in terms of energy efficiency. The CoC declaration of verification represents a guarantee of compliance with the best practices of the code, developed by the European Joint Research Centre, and is divided into thematic areas, such as utilisation, management and planning, IT, cooling, power, building and monitoring, with the aim of concretely reducing energy consumption. At the same time, it represents a competitive advantage for all customers, as it ensures compliance with one of the main requirements for data centres in the DNSH principle, the criterion that companies are required to observe in order to be eligible for NRP funding. According to this principle, companies that contribute through their economic activities to the protection of the ecosystem must not cause any significant harm to the environment. In addition, this code of conduct contributes to the compliance with the requirements of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact framework, to which Aruba is a signatory, together with other European providers, with the aim of making data centres climate neutral by 2030.

IMServ to highlight net zero ambitions at the Big Zero Show

IMServ has announced that it will be joining the Big Zero Show 2023, as a partner at UK’s net zero conferences. The theme of this year’s sustainability exhibition is net zero, as the partners will shine a spotlight on the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy, from sustainable innovation to insight from figures across the energy industry. During the sustainability forum, IMServ will present its visualisation tool DataVision, which helps businesses to fulfil their energy efficiency potential by helping them analyse their energy use. Justin Vroone, CCO of IMServ, says, "We are pleased to be a partner at the Big Zero Show. Observing such unity among partners that share our values and vision indicates how crucial it is to reach our net zero ambitions. It is a great opportunity to showcase the potential of data and energy efficiency in our transition to a low-carbon economy."   The conference stage will host multiple tech shows and lectures by industry bodies bringing further vision on the UK’s net zero ambitions and the solutions and technologies to meet this ambition.

The University of York moves data to Sweden to reach net zero

As part of its ambition to reach net zero, the University of York will place much of the university’s advanced calculations at EcoDataCenter in Falun, Sweden. Access to sustainable infrastructure for the most energy-consuming part of IT has been the determining factor. "Given the university’s strong commitment to net zero and the fact that our high-performance computing facility will be used for climate research, we were happy to find a partner with a clear focus on environmental sustainability and the capability and maturity to deliver," says Richard Fuller, Assistant Director at the University of York. The need for more data will increase by 300% over the next few years. AI and Machine Learning are part of the concept of High-Performance Computing and are by far the most energy-consuming data, and will constitute the majority of the data growth. A sustainable digital infrastructure that can handle the growing amount of data is vital for the green transition. When the university began looking at the next iteration of its High-Performance Computing facility, it realised that finding a colocation facility that could fulfil its requirements would be a great challenge. Turning to the Nordic countries, the university identified EcoDataCenter as a facility that meets both its needs and values. By placing the data in EcoDataCenter in Falun, the university is able to reduce carbon emissions from the data by about 98%, compared to handling the same data in the UK. Apart from EcoDataCenter in Sweden, being the place where the University of York is carrying out its calculations, the parties will also jointly work to raise knowledge about increased requirements for sustainability in the area of High-Performance Computing. Lack of knowledge about sustainable solutions, demands for innovation and speed often lead to sustainability being deprioritised. “Sustainable research IT is a key principle of the University of York. In addition to optimising the performance of both hardware and software, we need to look at the environmental impact of our work. We have to ask ourselves how we can contribute to positive change by making our supercomputing part of the ‘Green HPC’ movement,” says Dr Emma Barnes, Head of Research IT at the University of York. Due to the cool climate, the cost of green energy and the availability of labour, Sweden is an attractive country when it comes to data centre establishments. However, EcoDataCenter sees that many companies and organisations are turning to Sweden to learn more about the possibilities of sustainability from a broader perspective than just green energy. "When the University of York visited our facility in Falun to learn more about how we construct data centres and how we view the role of data centres in society and the circular economy, we found a common agenda in accelerating the green transition in digitalisation. The collaboration has already started, and we are seeing even more universities interested in what we can offer," says Dan Andersson, CEO at EcoDataCenter.

Data centre operators must develop decentralised energy to achieve resilience

With grid instability and energy security continuing to prove challenging for industry across Europe, a new report is highlighting solutions for data centre operators to navigate a complex energy market and avoid downtime from grid resilience issues. As rising costs resulting from Europe’s energy crisis begin to settle, the report, titled 'Race to Resilience', indicates that ongoing energy instability means power supply remains a major concern for the European data centre market. According to Aggreko, major questions remain over the future security of data centre operators’ energy supply, with power outages, connection delays and rising fees only serving to compound the issue. Moreover, with multiple European countries set to end their energy relief packages for businesses by the end of 2024, and the EU’s gas price cap agreement also ending in February 2024, concern is being raised that this will add to the severity of this situation. In an effort to address these concerns, Aggreko’s report explores how facilities can meet both short and long-term power demands, highlighting a revised approach to decentralised energy as an effective route to improve security of supply, reduce transmission losses and lower carbon emissions. Chris Rason, Managing Director, Aggreko Energy Services, comments, “Energy-related challenges have been a burgeoning issue for the European data centre market over the past decade. While much has changed in this time, it is clear that this issue will not be decreasing in severity any time soon and a re-evaluation of power procurement methods is necessary to guarantee security of supply for the future. “Aggreko’s 'Race to Resilience' report aims to bridge the gap between today’s challenges of exponential energy demand and supply disruptions, with tomorrow’s objectives of security and sustainability.” The report gives practical examples of decentralised solutions in action, including microgrids, gas-powered generators, combined heat and power, and energy storage. One such example features a data centre with existing on-site generation seeking ‘grid-interactive’ capability. Here, as a core principle of demand-side response (DSR), businesses temporarily lower demand when asked by the distribution network operator, using battery storage, Stage V generation or multi-megawatt gas generation to cover these requests. This approach is particularly useful in strictly regulated areas such as the Republic of Ireland, where operators are subject to ‘flexi-supply’ requirements by EirGrid. To give decision-makers a starting point when identifying such models, the report also highlights a series of calculators developed by Aggreko - these include the Data Centre Power Selector, Hire Vs Buy, Grid Compare, and Greener Upgrades calculators. Chris concludes, “The current state of energy instability, compounded by ailing grid infrastructures and pressure to reduce emissions has placed the European data centre market at a fork in the road. Operators face the choice of persisting with the grid and its limitations, or setting forwards on the path to resilience through alternative methods of power procurement. “However, with upgrades through outright purchases bringing their own challenges, bridging solutions offer a risk-free way to set data centres in the right direction. The solutions put forward in Aggreko’s latest report aim to light the way towards new energy models for the European data centre industry.”

Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has announced key enhancements to its dedicated offering for channel distributors and resellers. According to Omdia, Vertiv is already ranked at first place in the three-phase UPS market globally, capturing 16% of the market. With these enhancements, its highly efficient and market-leading three-phase uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) from 10 to 60kVA, including the Vertiv Liebert ITA2 and its complementary services, are now available in the Vertiv Solution Designer tool and shipping from stock in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). According to Omdia’s UPS Hardware Market Tracker and Analysis 2022, there is an increased demand for three-phase UPS in EMEA from markets outside of cloud, colocation, and telco. These include retail, wholesale, healthcare, manufacturing and other industries. By 2026, the three-phase UPS market in EMEA is expected to grow from $1.66 billion in 2021 to $2.07 billion, a CAGR of 5.84%. “Digitalisation is being leveraged by companies of all sizes and industries, which leads to an increased need for efficient solutions to protect small and medium sites against power outages,” says Karsten Winther, EMEA President at Vertiv. “The strategic addition of three-phase UPS to our IT channel portfolio allows partners to serve a broader market with industry leading solutions, enabling businesses to leverage the latest technologies and accelerate their digital transformation journey.” “As an official Vertiv partner and system integrator for over 30 years, we are seeing more and more opportunities for three-phase UPS systems,” says Ronald Lagerberg, Team Leader Energy Solutions at Endenburg Elektrotechniek. “The extension of Vertiv’s IT channel portfolio expands our options, enabling us to gain substantial logistical, administrative, and financial advantages while enhancing our ability to serve end-users. We look forward to integrating these cutting edge products into our offerings." The Vertiv Liebert ITA2 features a true online double conversion technology, a unity power factor and an extremely compact rack/tower design. Compared to single-phase systems, three-phase UPS allow higher power capacity and up to 99% efficiency in ECO mode. With the offering, expert support on product selection, set-up and performance optimisation throughout three-phase systems’ entire lifecycle is now available also through the channel market. In fact, the three-phase UPS offering is enhanced with customised on-site and contract services specifically designed for the channel, while also leveraging the company’s top tier service network. Having a large portfolio of UPS solutions dedicated to the channel market means that partners have access to a wide range of power protection options, including medium power solutions that allow businesses to expand their digital footprint while still working with their trusted channel partner. Vertiv provides a comprehensive range of specialised services designed to complement channel partners’ business models. The extensive service expertise offers a smooth experience for all parties involved, providing seamless support across their entire service offering, including on-site services, lifecycle services and digital services such as remote diagnostics and incident management. Moreover, partners can leverage Vertiv software solutions to empower asset management capabilities and offer the best experience to their end users. In addition to UPS systems, the company’s broader critical infrastructure portfolio is designed to operate more efficiently, increase capacity and potentially lower TCO while integrating seamlessly with the customer’s existing infrastructure, enabling partners to expand revenue streams and increase margins. With manufacturing facilities across Europe and the world, Vertiv solutions can be made available when and where they are needed. Partners can also access dedicated configuration tools linked with an ecosystem of technical and commercial support teams. Vertiv’s multi-award winning Partner Program features benefits and incentives to equip, develop and reward partner engagement. The addition of the Liebert ITA2 UPS to its IT channel portfolio also enables EMEA resellers in participating countries to earn more points through the Vertiv Incentive Programme (VIP), which allows partners to easily earn rewards without the need for any reporting. Bonus points are uploaded into the Vertiv Partner Portal monthly, and the partner only needs to log in to redeem them.

First data centre in Bahrain to be fully powered by clean energy

Beyon’s Chairman, Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, has announced the completion of Phase 2 of the company’s Solar Park at a ceremony which recently took place in the presence of H.E. s Kamal Bin Ahmed Mohamed, President of Electricity and Water Authority; H.E. Mohamed bin Thamer Al Kaabi, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications; H.E. Yasser bin Ibrahim Humaidan, Minister of Electricity and Water Affairs; H.E. Mrs. Noor Bint Ali Al Khulaif, Minister of Sustainable Development; and Mr Mohamed Almoayyed Director YK Almoayyed & Sons. The event was held at the Royal Golf Club in Riffa, where members of Beyon’s board of directors, executive team and team members involved in the project were present on the occasion. Beyon’s Chairman welcomed the distinguished guests and extended his appreciation for their attendance at the inauguration of Beyon Solar Park. Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Beyon’s efforts towards sustainability and clean energy production continues, and we have made great progress since the launch of the first phase of the Solar Park in November 2021. Today we are glad to announce the completion of the second phase of the project. “We are also very proud of an unprecedented achievement in the telecommunications and technology sector, as Beyon’s Data Centre became the first in Bahrain to rely entirely on clean energy generated from the company’s Solar Park, which is located in the Beyon Data Oasis. “Our journey in the field of environmental sustainability continues in line with our commitment to Bahrain’s vision launched by His Royal Highness Prince, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and announced as part of his address during the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021, held in Glasgow, Scotland, which reiterates the Kingdom’s commitment to achieve zero carbon neutrality by 2060. Thus, we have set clear plans to start implementing the third phase of this project, which will be located in Hamala. Upon completion of this phase, the total clean energy production of Beyon will be approximately 6GWh per year. “On this occasion, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Ministries, concerned authorities and our partners for their invaluable support in helping us implement this project and contributing to its success,” Shaikh Abdulla concluded. Beyon’s Solar Park Phase 1 and 2 will generate 3.6GWh of clean energy leading to a carbon footprint saving of over 2000 tonnes and a cost saving of BD105,000 annually.

i3 Solutions Group secures patents for greater data centre resiliency

i3 Solutions Group has been issued two patents by the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) for its Adaptable Redundant Power (ARP) topology control solution for mission-critical electrical power systems. ARP is a hardware and software control system that overcomes the inflexibility of common data centre electrical designs, solving the service level agreement (SLA) disparity problem whereby power supply chain systems are fixed but IT load demands, and criticality are variable. At the same time, ARP addresses constraints associated with traditional static power topologies which can restrict access to available data centre power, often leaving costly stranded capacity unused and increasing end user costs. This is an acute challenge for the wholesale colocation industry, which does an admirable job securing and deploying grid power capacity, but is often unable to fully or optimally utilise it - causing energy waste and higher costs. Benefits of ARP Ed Ansett, Founder and Chairman of i3 Solutions Group, says, “Every business has low to high levels of application criticality and interdependency. Through developments such as Kubernetes, IT can be orchestrated to reflect this. However, when it comes to electricity, the power chain is fixed, wasteful and difficult to change. ARP is a way to flex the power SLA to match the IT workload SLA without the considerable expense of rewiring the entire topology design.” By enabling power service levels to be aligned with that of the IT load, ARP provides a range of benefits to both data centre operators and their IT customers. ARP enables applications and the hardware they sit on to be provisioned with varying levels of electrical power resilience. Today, it is obvious that not all IT workloads are equal - for example, a dev ops project for a marketing campaign versus live financial transactions workloads in retail or merchant bank, or a network rack compared with a super compute cluster. However, the way power is delivered using a fixed topology does not differentiate in terms of criticality, treating all workload destinations equally. ARP is different because it can automatically provide power resilience across the topology that is dynamically matched to the criticality of the IT load. ARP solves inherent redundant power challenges too Traditionally power chain designs for data centres are based on a chosen level of capacity, resilience and redundancy of N, N+1, N+2 and less commonly 2N, 2N+1 and 2(N+1). But once the topology is decided and deployed it is fixed. It is then expensive, time consuming and extremely difficult to change. ARP addresses this. ARP can also provide Inherent Redundant Power (IRP). Where some electrical designs leave ‘power pockets’ (assigned power that is unused) - IRP accesses previously trapped or stranded power and prevents it going to waste by utilising it to provide additional levels of redundancy. Power-as-a-Service offers from colocation data centres one step closer ARP offers colocation data centres the opportunity to create new business models based on their power infrastructure. One of the advantages, for example, is that ARP enables a staggered approach to infrastructure roll out which responds to end-user load and not design criteria. By treating power as a service right from the construction phase, ARP addresses many flexibility issues which have surfaced for modern data centre operators. While data centres will continue to be designed as physical buildings which are broken down into halls, ARP modules are flexible enough to provide power across multiple halls. ARP therefore enables developers to move away from traditional and capitally intense methods of infrastructure deployment - up-front design, source, pay for and roll-out the full site requirement for genset, switchgear, UPS, PDU and ancillary equipment, and then wait for the demand to arrive.

The new Schneider Electric Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular

Schneider Electric has introduced the Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular. This robust uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is designed to protect critical loads while offering third-party verified Live Swap functionality. Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular is available in 50-250kW capacity with N+1 scalable configuration and supports the EcoStruxure architecture, which offers remote monitoring services. With scalability top of mind, Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular enables you to pay as you grow, allowing you to optimise capital investment. It is a part of Schneider Electric’s Green Premium portfolio, which ensures energy efficiency, durability, recyclability, and transparency to help reduce environmental footprint. In addition, this system features advanced technology such as a high-efficiency design, intelligent battery management, real-time monitoring, and control capabilities, making it one of the most cost-effective and energy-efficient UPS solutions available in the market. “We are excited to introduce Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular to the market,” says Mustafa Demirkol, VP of Offer Management and Marketing for Data Centre Solutions. “This product provides customers with third-party certified Live Swap, modular design, and unwavering reliability in an optimised investment package. Its connectivity provides peace of mind, making it the easy choice for data centres and commercial and industrial applications.” Business continuity made easy Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular enables customers to lower their capital expenditures through an optimised capex model. In addition, scheduled downtime is significantly reduced through self-diagnosing third-party certified Live Swappable power modules and static switch, thereby increasing reliability and availability in a compact footprint. Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular is easy to select, configure, install, and maintain, which makes the deployment process seamless. Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular is part of Schneider Electric’s Easy UPS three-phase product portfolio, which focuses on core features to meet the needs of customers at a value price point. "Our new Easy UPS 3-Phase Modular provides a sustainable, scalable and best-in-class power protection solution for data centres, commercial buildings, process automation and industrial manufacturing environments," says Mark Yeeles, VP, Secure Power Division, UK and Ireland. "By leveraging its Green Premium and circular capabilities, customers can reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability objectives without compromise.”