The transition to clean data centre power requires flexible control

To meet sustainability targets, you will need to replace fossil power with clean alternatives while ensuring uninterrupted uptime, and you will most probably need to make the transition gradually. This requires flexible power control solutions that can be scaled, redesigned, and upgraded as needed.

As Editor Phil Alsop remarked in the most recent edition of Datacentre Solutions, you may soon be required to make some fairly major changes to improve the sustainability of your data centre. Making the transition to low or no-emission power sources is an efficient way of reducing your site’s carbon emissions and making your operations more sustainable. The big question, of course, is how you go about it.

Making onsite generation more sustainable

If your data centre is running on grid power, selecting a power company capable of supplying renewable power is a good place to start, but you also need to make your onsite power plant more sustainable to achieve clean backup power – and even more so if you rely on onsite power for regular operation.

There are many clean alternatives to the diesel generator, including PV panels and fuel cells, and battery energy storage systems let you store and reuse clean energy (in addition to providing instant backup power). However, the need for uninterrupted uptime, and in most cases financial constraints, force you to make the transition one step at a time. Even if you could replace your entire power system overnight, it would not be desirable: Technical upgrades cannot be allowed to jeopardise reliable operation.

Evolution, one step at a time

So, how can you make the gradual transition to sustainable power? One crucial decision is to select a power control architecture that gives you the flexibility to scale, redesign, and upgrade your plant – and the connectivity and compatibility to ensure full control and redundancy along the way.

This applies whether you are refurbishing an existing data centre or building a new one. Power control devices are not created equal, and you should consider the following when selecting a control solution to support your transition to clean data centre power:

• Compatibility: As your journey towards renewables is probably going to be a stepwise affair, your control devices should be capable of controlling all the power sources you could conceivably need (including PV and battery inverters), and of supporting upcoming power technologies. Crucially, they should be compatible with one another, giving you a power control solution that stays integrated even as it evolves over time.
  
  
• Flexibility: Your requirements will likely change over the course of your journey towards sustainable data centre power, and your power control devices should be easy to reconfigure accordingly. You may opt for devices that can be reconfigured to handle any power source, from gensets to fuel cells, or you may select devices that handle one source extremely well and are compatible with any other devices you add to your power management system. You need the ability to change and expand your plant layout as needed, and your devices need to support this.
  
  
• Redundancy: Your customers won’t care that your power is sustainable if that means their servers are not available. Your control devices should make up a control solution with no weak links in the control chain. Go for an interconnected, intelligent power management system where another controller assumes control if the current master suddenly fails, instead of trusting one centralised controller to keep everything running – and taking the entire control system with it if it fails.
  
  
• Configurability: While you can program a PLC for anything, it is a time-consuming undertaking. Particularly when you need a flexible solution that supports your transition, you should select control devices with built-in, purpose-designed logic that you can quickly configure and reconfigure for your application. By doing so, you save time and reduce the risk of performance issues.
  
  
• Support: With renewables on the rise, and new power sources emerging regularly, the power business is in transition. Some of these changes will deeply affect the data centre industry and open up new possibilities in sustainable power and efficient and reliable control. You should work with a power control partner with the experience and know-how to support your sustainable power journey and augment your strategy with ideas, suggestions, and solutions that harness the latest developments in the power control business. Ideally, that partner should also be able to work with any and all design houses, integrators, and OEMs to make the process easier for you as an owner-operator, and to ensure you get the exact solution you require. Not sure which power source to use, how to design everything, or how to proceed with your sustainability transition? Work with a partner who can help you.

How and when you decide to improve the sustainability of your data centre is up to you. Your strategy in this regard will depend on many factors, for example where you are located, and what your customers and society expect from you. But your power setup is an obvious place to start, and a flexible power control architecture from a reliable partner will take you a long way on your journey – at your own pace and in your own way.