Pacific Gas and Electric Company Presented to Technologies and Practices for Efficient & Reliable Data Centers Inside the Data Center: Opportunities for Energy Efficiency Mark Bramfitt Sunnyvale, California December 11, 2006
Why Look In The White Room? It s where the energy use is located! 2
Energy Multiplier Effect Saving energy in the data center space can result in equivalent savings at the cooling plant level. Depending on the type of cooling system, a kwh of heat load in the center drives an additional 0.75 to 1.25 kwh of cooling system energy use. 3
Spectrum of Energy Efficiency Measures Computing Equipment Servers Data Storage Power Distribution and Conditioning UPS Direct Current Inside The Room Cooling CRAC s Airflow Management and Control Direct Liquid Cooling Equipment Cabinets 4
Computing Equipment Premium-efficiency equipment Servers Data storage devices Others On-board power supplies 80+ Virtualization/Consolidation Servers Data storage 5
Premium Efficiency Equipment It is very challenging for: Customers to select equipment PG&E to develop incentive program Why? Equipment makers list performance metrics (zero to 60, max speed) but not energy performance (mpg) 6
Who Has Premium Equipment? 7
What To Do? The industry is hashing out standard performance tests and reporting, through SPEC committee. PG&E has, can, and will pay incentives for rip&replace/refresh projects, based on a calculation model. PG&E will look to debut a deemedsavings program in 2007. 8
Computing Equipment Power Supplies PG&E has provided funding for a project to extend the 80+ power supply program into the data center computing equipment market. Program will pay equipment manufacturers directly to specify high performance power supplies in their equipment. 9
Virtualization! Wow! In layman s terms a primarily softwarebased technology that allows for much higher equipment utilization rates, leading to equipment consolidation and even energy management of remaining equipment. 10
Virtualization Typically involves a survey of equipment and utilization rates using a software tool Recommends strategies for migrating platforms/applications/workloads to virtual machines hosted on consolidated computing equipment 11
Virtualization - Incentives Complete an audit of the following: existing equipment prediction of remaining equipment Calculate energy savings based on de-rated nameplate data PG&E provides a calculation spreadsheet for vendors and customers 12
Virtualization Calculator Predicts energy savings from equipment consolidation Can work for servers and/or data storage consolidation Predicts savings from reduced cooling load Predicts impacts to UPS Available from HTEE Team 13
Power Distribution & Conditioning Premium-efficiency UPS Direct current power distribution 14
Premium-Efficiency UPS Consider moving from: Standard-efficiency double-conversion to premium-efficiency or Delta conversion (APC) or Rotary Consider: Systems with modular configuration to match loads Be cognizant of: Loading and efficiency curves 15
Direct Current Distribution Eliminate stages of DC/AC/DC power conversion by delivering direct current from the UPS directly to the racks Demonstrated by LBNL and industry partners Potential savings of 10% to 20% of overall power conversion/delivery losses 16
Cooling Inside the Data Center CRAC s Efficiency, VFD fans Controls End-of-row, integrated Airflow Management and Control Adaptive cooling control Cabinets and directed airflow Retro-commissioning measures Liquid Cooling 17
CRAC s Specify new or replacement CRAC s with SEER ratings higher than equivalent Title 24 standards. Specify new or retrofit existing CRAC s with VSD fans to allow for better airflow management. Some manufacturers promoting CRAC s with closer proximity to racks. 18
Airflow Management Several companies is offering new adaptive airflow control systems. Generally taking temperature readings at the equipment level and applying an algorithm to control CRAC s PG&E/QuEST DCCCP HP s Dynamic Smart Cooling IBM s CoolBlue 19
Airflow Management - Physical Consider a variety of technologies to manage airflow: Ducted cabinets, with or without integral fans and/or cooling coils End-of-row air containment Direct ducting of airstreams 20
Airflow Management - RCx Variety of low- and no-cost measures: Reorienting equipment to hot aisle/ cold aisle configuration Fixing holes in raised floor Under floor cable management Floor grate tile relocation 21
Airflow Management - Incentives Key challenge: Accurately calculate predicted energy savings from any single measure or package of measures Solution: Pre- and post-measurement of direct energy savings The Real Solution: Adaptive airflow control systems to the rescue 22
Technical Support Dependent on your commitment, PG&E can provide technical assistance to evaluate the energy impacts of measures you are considering of implementing. 23
Financial Incentives Key points: You must file an application and get approval before you start your project. Application and supporting calculation needed. Before and after metering is an alternative route. PG&E reserves the right to inspect before and after conditions. New construction 24
Financial Incentives - Limits Generally 8 cents per kwh of annual energy savings for computing equipment savings, up to 14 cents per kwh for cooling system upgrades. Limited to no more than half of project cost. $4MM annual per site (meter) cap! 25
On the Horizon Deemed savings approach for premium efficiency computing equipment, based on industry standards Variety of liquid cooling strategies: cabinet level and component level Thin-client systems for distributed computing Demand response strategies using IT scheduling software Self generation directly feeding DC side of UPS! 26
PG&E Support Technical assistance to scope out energy impacts of projects you are considering Support for completing financial incentive applications How to access? Contact your: PG&E Account Representative PG&E High Tech Energy Efficiency Team 27
Closing PG&E has significantly expanded the scope of product and service offerings for data centers, particularly in the realm of inside-the-data-center energy efficiency measures. On the basis of market interest, we have reserved program funding of ~$25M for 2006-2008 for this segment. 28
Stay Up-To-Date The skeleton of our new website is completed. We re adding content every week. Check out our new website: www.pge.com/hightech 29
Inside the Data Center Have a suggestion or a question? Contact: 30