Carbon-Aware Energy Cost Minimization for Internet Data Centers

Abstract

In Internet data center operations, the operators are faced with high energy cost and carbon emission. Moreover, for socially responsible Internet data center operators, they are expected to minimize energy cost and carbon emission simultaneously. Since smart microgrids have many advantages in supporting the operations of Internet data centers (e.g., low electricity distribution loss, high utilization ratio in renewable energy), we consider the problem of minimizing the long-term weighted summation of energy cost and carbon emission for Internet data center operators in smart microgrids. To achieve the above aim, we propose an efficient operation algorithm considering the uncertainties in renewable generation output, electricity price, workload, and carbon emission rate.