Dennis P. Symanski

EPRI - Senior Project Manager

SVLG Data Center Efficiency Summit

24OCT2012 – AMD Sunnyvale, CA

Better Cooling With Slower CRAC Fans

2 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thanks To The California Energy Commission!!!

3 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

EPRI & NetApp Data Center Features

EPRI

~12 Years Old

~1300 Sq Ft

~85 kW of IT Equipment

Air-cooled DX CRAC Units

Raised Floor

2 Compressors Per CRAC

2 Independent Refrigeration Circuits

Intertwined Cooling Coils

NetApp

~2 Years Old

~1000Sq Ft

~55 kW of IT Equipment

Water-cooled DX CRAC Units

Slab Floor

2 Compressors Per CRAC

2 Independent Refrigeration Circuits

Independent Cooling Coils

4 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

EPRI Palo Alto Data Center

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NetApp Sunnyvale Data Center

6 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Installation Of Variable Speed Drives At EPRI

VSD

VSD By-Pass

10 HP Fan Motor

EPRI

CRAC B

(We Used The

Existing Fan

Motors Which

Were Not VSD

Rated)

7 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Installation Of Variable Speed Drives At NetApp

VSD

Fan

Motor

(Again, We

Used The

Existing Fan

Motors)

8 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Installation Of Power Metering At EPRI

Breaker Panel Feeding CRACs

(Raw Utility Power)

Breaker Panel Feeding PDUs

(Fed From UPS)

9 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Existing Power Metering At NetApp

Already Part Of The Building Management System

10 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

EPRI Palo Alto Data Center Thermal Map

CRAC A

CRAC B

PDU A

PDU B

11 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Air Curtains At NetApp

Cold Air Vent

Air

Curtains

Cold

Air

Containment

12 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Condensation Was Expected & Planned For

Proper positioning of drip shield Misplaced drip shield

Condensation dripped onto floor & set off moisture sensor alarm

Misplaced drip shield repositioned & problem solved

13 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

IT Load & CRAC Load At Various VSD Speeds

14 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cooling Energy Use Versus Indoor Fan Speed

19

.4%

26

.6%

30

.9%

15 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Fans & Cooling Compressors Energy Savings

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

100% Manual

80% Manual

70% Minimum, Under Vigilent

Control

60% Minimum, Under Vigilent

Control

Tota

l Co

olin

g En

erg

y Sa

vin

gs, %

Total Cooling Energy Savings from Fans and Compressorsas Compared to 100% Fan Speed

Total Compressors Enery Use Reduction, kWh/kWh of the IT Energy Use

Total Fan Enery Use Reduction, kWh/kWh of the IT Energy Use

16 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Unplanned Thermal Research

Planned But “Unannounced” Palo Alto Muni Power Outage – Saturday 14JUL 8:30AM

IT Equip on UPS – CRAC Units Not On UPS & Did Not Restart

Data Center Temp Went From 68ºF To 112ºF In 2 Hours

Some IT Equipment Shut Down – No IT Equipment Failures

17 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Are We Finished With Data Center Energy Efficiency?

Now this is not the end.

It is not even the beginning of the end.

But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

18 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

New York Times & U.S. Congress & WNYC/NPR

23SEP2012 Sunday New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/technology/data-centers-waste-vast-amounts-of-energy-belying-industry-image.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

27SEP2012 U.S. Congress letter to the Dept of Energy & the EPA

http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Chu.Jackson.DataCenterEnergyEfficiency.2012.9.27.pdf

05OCT2012 Live Interview by Leonard Lopate on WNYC/NPR

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2012/oct/05/please-explain-cloud-computing-and-data-barns/

19 © 2012 Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

Together…Shaping the Future of Electricity