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Public Interest Energy Research (PIER)California Institute for Energy & Environment (CIEE)
Bill Tschudi Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
http://hightech.lbl.gov
Data Center Energy Research and Demonstrations
Critical Facilities Roundtable Meeting - March 25, 2005
• Benchmarking and Best Practices identification• Research-directed benchmarking• Self-benchmarking protocol
• Improve uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)
• Develop performance metrics (Computing vs. Watts)
• Improve power supplies in IT equipment
• Adding demonstration projects
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Current LBNL data center related activities
Wide range of efficiencies:For example: data center HVAC
0102030405060708090
100
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Facility Identifier
W/S
q.F
t.
Current Computer Load Projected Computer Load
Average 39.3
Average ~25
HVAC (as a % of total load)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Data Center Identifier
% o
f to
tal l
oad
3
HVAC effectiveness varies
Load intensity is increasing in our supercomputing center
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LBNL NERSC Facility Computer Power Density
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
25-Oct-2002 17-Aug-2004 14-Feb-2005
W/s
f
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Factory Measurements of UPS Efficiency
80%
85%
90%
95%
100%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Percent of Rated Active Power Load
Eff
icie
nc
y
Flywheel UPS
Double Conversion UPS
(tested using resistive loads)
Efficiency ranged from 86% to 97% at peak load, but efficiency under typical operating loads ranges from 81% to 97%
Measured UPS Efficiency
Typical operating range
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Data Centers – UPS measured vs mfg. efficiencyMeasured and Manufacturer-Reported UPS
Efficiency at Nominal Load
89%90%91%92%93%94%95%96%97%98%99%
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UP
S E
ffic
ien
cy
Measured Efficiency
Manufacturer-reported efficiency
• Manufacturer’s reported efficiency in product literature consistently within 1% of measured performance
• Unfortunately, manufacturers often do not report efficiency in typical data center operating range (30% - 50%)
Power Supply Findings:
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Measured Server Power Supply Efficiencies
45%
50%
55%
60%
65%
70%
75%
80%
85%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
% of Nameplate Power Output
% E
ffic
ien
cy
80 Plus
Non-PFC Power Supplies
PFC Power Supplies
Typical operating range
Power Conversion Conclusions:
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There is a wide range of efficiency for both UPS and power supplies and they have lower part load
efficiency (where most operate)
Server power supplies are less efficient than PC’s
Computer manufacturers caution that setting criteria for power supplies may lead to “gaming” of the rest of the power supply chain
Elimination of electric power conversion(s) could be a large impact on energy use
• Heat removal from servers without fans
• DC powering rack of computers• IT/facilities design process for new
supercomputer center–
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Data center demonstration projects
• Start-up company – Nisvara has patented technology using carbon micro fiber to efficiently conduct heat in one direction to a point where it can be transferred to air or liquid.
• Seeking “industry partner(s)” to provide servers and rack systems to modify to
use this technology. Also seeking a demonstration site.
–
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Heat removal without fans demonstration
• Discussions with server manufacturers, processor and other component manufacturers
• www.nisvara.com
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Heat removal without fans …
• Demonstrate energy savings using commercially available DC power at rack level to eliminate or consolidate a power conversion
• Various potential configurations and manufacturers
• Seeking “industry partner(s)” to provide servers to modify to use this technology. Also may involve a demonstration site.
• Potential overlap with heat removal demo–
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DC powering demonstration
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Thank you
Contact me if you would like to participate
510-495-2417