• Privacy Policy
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Data Centre & Network News
  • Data Centres
  • Networking
  • Infrastructure
  • Data
  • Magazine
  • Media Kit
  • Events
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • Data Centres
  • Networking
  • Infrastructure
  • Data
  • Magazine
  • Media Kit
  • Events
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Data Centre & Network News
No Result
View All Result

Increasing data centre power consumption in an energy crisis

Beatrice by Beatrice
February 24, 2023
in Data Centres
6 0
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Paul Brickman, Commercial Director, for Crestchic Loadbanks, explores the often-overlooked necessity of loadbank testing in securing data centre power in an energy crisis.

Hiked power prices as a result of Russia’s fuel sanctions, and the threat of planned blackouts or power rationing to better manage an unstable grid, are forcing data centres to redistribute investment away from key business functions like training and recruitment, and towards improving energy efficiency and securing power resilience.

The current geopolitical challenges and their far-reaching implications are recognised in the 2023 Uptime Institute report, Five Data Centre Predictions for 2023, in which the authors acknowledge that the Russian fuel sanctions, along with technological challenges ‘will make the planning of data centre development and operations more difficult.’

Powering next-generation data centres

According to the Uptime Institute, IT hardware has been fairly standard in terms of its draw on mainstream server capacity for a few decades now, creating technical stability and relatively constant power and cooling requirement.

This has enabled data centre designers to accommodate several IT refreshes without major upgrades to server technology and the associated hike in power consumption that would come with it. Essentially, offering the latest technologies, without an increase in energy requirement.

This grace period is now over. Power requirements for next-generation IT hardware are far higher, rack power density is increasing, and ‘hotter’ processors are putting pressure on the performance parameters of existing infrastructure.

This rapid rise in IT power density means server power consumption is on a steep climb, creating a need for more power, at a time when the grid is unstable, and energy prices are at their highest in decades.

Extreme-density racks are now commonplace in technical computing too, as well as high-performance analytics and artificial intelligence training. If data centre operators want to successfully penetrate these niche markets, they will need to foot the heightened energy bill and maintain a robust power resilience regime until the situation stabilises.

Data centres take action

The demand for next-generation IT technologies will not slow. As a result, data centres are forging ahead with the essential upgrades required to UPS, batteries, switchgear and generators to accommodate increased power density.

This is a risk. With an unstable grid and planned blackouts still on the agenda for many governments, upgrades will need to be bolstered with a watertight energy resilience plan to protect against power fluctuations and total outages.

The importance of a power resilience strategy in an energy crisis

According to research from the Ponemon Institute, in its third Cost of Data Centre Outages report, the total cost of downtime has continued to rise over the last six years – rising a staggering 38% to $740,357 per incident. That equates to nearly $9,000 per minute – a figure that many data centres will have to swallow if the grid becomes too unstable to sustain their increasing power consumption.

Many data centres will already have a robust generator testing and maintenance regime in place, but the use of loadbanks is often overlooked, especially when budgets are stretched. At a time when power outages are more likely, loadbank testing should play an integral role in a data centre’s energy resilience strategy and it would be prudent to evaluate your strategy in line with the current landscape to ensure it is robust enough. With this in mind, what would be considered best practice for testing a backup power system?

Best practice loadbank testing in times of crisis

Ideally, as a minimum, all generators should be tested annually for real-world emergency conditions by using a resistive-reactive 0.8pf loadbank. Best practice dictates that all gensets (where there are multiple) should be run in a synchronised state, ideally for eight hours but for a minimum of three.

Where a resistive-only loadbank is used, testing should be increased to two to four times per year at three hours per test. In carrying out this testing and maintenance, fuel, exhaust and cooling systems are effectively tested and system issues can be uncovered in a safe, controlled manner without the cost of major failure or unplanned downtime. The alternator is not thoroughly tested though, with a resistive-only test and therefore a resistive-reactive test would always be recommended.

It may be advisable to test more frequently during times of crisis for added peace of mind.

Why is resistive-reactive the best approach?

Capable of testing both resistive and reactive loads, this type of loadbank provides a much clearer picture of how well an entire system will withstand changes in load patterns while experiencing the level of power that would typically be encountered under real operational conditions.

Furthermore, the inductive loads used in resistive/reactive testing will show how a system will cope with a voltage drop in its regulator. This is particularly important in any application which requires generators to be operated in parallel (prevalent in larger business infrastructures such as hyperscale data centres) where a problem with one generator could prevent other system generators from working properly or even failing to operate entirely. This is something which is simply not achievable with resistive-only testing.

Navigating growth when power is scarce

No matter the geopolitical challenges and the effect it is having on power availability, data centres have no choice but to grow.

Demand will not cease, and power-intensive next-generation technologies are unavoidable. Ensuring power resilience via a watertight backup power supply and a robust testing and maintenance regime will enable data centre designers and operators to grow, safe in the knowledge that, should planned blackouts, power rationing or grid fluctuations happen, the power will always remain on.

Tags: Crestchic Loadbanksdata centerData Centreenergyenergy costsenergy crisisfuelhyperscaleinvestmentITpowerreporttechnologyTestingUPS
Share2Tweet2Share

Related Posts

Building the telco edge

Building the telco edge

December 7, 2023
42
atNorth announces heat reuse enabled mega site in Kouvola

atNorth announces heat reuse enabled mega site in Kouvola

December 7, 2023
59
Why STMicroelectronics chose AMD processors to increase its computing capabilities and reduce energy consumption

How STMicroelectronics utilised AMD to increase its chip design speed

December 6, 2023
51
Empowering Africa's digital transition: Airtel Africa launches new data centre business

Airtel Africa accelerates digital transition with new data centre business

December 6, 2023
39
UPS Solutions increase data centre efficiency with ManageEngine

UPS Solutions increase data centre efficiency with ManageEngine

December 6, 2023
143
Host-IT ends year on a fifth data centre opening

Host-IT ends year with a fifth data centre opening

December 5, 2023
51
Next Post
Data centre momentum continues despite increased pressures

Data centre momentum continues despite increased pressures

ThreatQuotient selected by Sysdig to scale cloud threat detection

ThreatQuotient selected by Sysdig to scale cloud threat detection

Building the telco edge
Cooling

Building the telco edge

December 7, 2023
42
atNorth announces heat reuse enabled mega site in Kouvola
Data Centres

atNorth announces heat reuse enabled mega site in Kouvola

December 7, 2023
59

Head office & Accounts:
Suite 14, 6-8 Revenge Road, Lordswood
Kent ME5 8UD
T: +44 (0)1634 673163
F: +44 (0)1634 673173

Cooling

Building the telco edge

December 7, 2023
42
Data Centres

atNorth announces heat reuse enabled mega site in Kouvola

December 7, 2023
59
  • Privacy Policy

© 2023 All Things Media Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Data Centres
  • Networking
  • Infrastructure
  • Data
  • Magazine
  • Media Kit
  • Events
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Contact

© 2023 All Things Media Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.