Energy Management in Datacenters to Curb GHG Emissions

Data centers and data transmission networks currently account for approximately 1 to 1.5% of global electricity consumption. These facilities are responsible for around 330 megatons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, constituting 0.9% of energy-related emissions or 0.6% of total GHG emissions. This is according to Cluster Automation Leader at Schneider Electric, Dwibin Thomas.

Thomas explains:

Good news

The good news is that according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), emissions from data centers and data transmission have remained relatively stable since 2010, thanks to improvements in energy efficiency and the adoption of renewable energy by ICT companies.

This also underscores the importance of energy management software (EMS) and its role in enhancing the energy efficiency of data centers. EMS fundamentally reduces operational costs, decreases energy consumption, and enhances operational sustainability.

Therefore, this management software enables data centers to operate in a more environmentally friendly and cost-effective manner while ensuring they can readily adapt to fluctuating energy grid demands.

Sustainable interventions and management

One of the main benefits of EMS is its ability to manage and optimise datacentres’ server operations. It does so by:

• Load balancing – the software determines which servers are required at specific times by analysing the workload (of each server) and identifying which ones are underutilised. It then switches off the underutilised servers and switches on the ones that are needed.
• Intelligently determining which servers are needed at specific times by analysing workload and demand patterns.
• Ensuring efficient on and off switching of servers, avoiding unnecessary energy consumption during low-demand periods.
• Dynamically scaling resources as needed.

Another important advantage of EMS is its ability to streamline tariff management. Firstly, it enables data centers to capitalize on cost savings by scheduling energy-intensive tasks during off-peak tariff periods. Secondly, it can deactivate non-critical servers during peak hours and reactivate them when tariff rates decrease.

EMS also oversees data center transformers and heavy loads. Heavy loads, which are crucial equipment requiring significant power, can be optimized through EMS classification and constant monitoring to minimize energy waste.

Significant benefits

Ultimately, EMS offers the following three important benefits to datacentres:

1. Energy optimisation to realise sustainability and cost saving.
2. Transform datacentres in efficient energy hubs, optimising server and component operations.
3. Aligning energy consumption with specific tariffs, like time-of-use rates which significantly reduce operational costs.