Reliability Improvement and Energy Saving At Internet Data Center Microgrids

Abstract

Today’s increasing data traffic, IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, cloud and server hosting services require bigger sized internet data centers (IDCs) day by day. This also increases the electrical power demand on the electrical grid. A Data Center (DC) can act as a microgrid during the peak demand time, long lasting electrical grid outages and regional catastrophic disasters such as hurricanes and blackouts. Sustainable smart power grid encourages the on-site power generation for electricity consumers to use the energy sources more efficiently both electrical and thermal. Data centers require electricity and cooling at the same time which is well-suited for the Combined heat and power (CHP) systems. CHP systems utilize waste heat while producing electrical power. This waste heat can be used in absorption chillers to produce required cooling for the data center. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how CHP systems can offer strong energy efficiency savings in data center microgrids and increase reliability. In this study, reliability and energy saving feasibility of CHP integrated data center microgrid has been investigated. A typical 1 MW electrical power and continuous cooling required DC is used for energy saving calculations. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) CHP calculation tool has been chosen to analyze the CHP electrical, cooling (thermal) generation and cost savings. According to the calculation results, the use of CHP in data center microgrids is shown beneficial for energy efficiency and reliability.