GreenBay Digest

The Uptime Institute’s Global Data Center Survey 2022 suggests that over the next five years, data centers should play a role in energy conservation and carbon reduction, rather than being a hindrance to it.

With this in mind, Huawei plans to change the way people used to plan, build and operate data centers during the construction. Huawei’s Dongguan Cloud Data Center T1 project makes noticeable progress in energy conservation and carbon reduction. Put into operation in 2019, the project’s PUE reached 1.28 in 2021.

In Part 1 of this article, we have seen how digital technology enablement contributed to the success of the T1 project. Today, we look at other advanced energy-savings technologies which were employed.

AI-based PUE optimization
The T1 project employs an AI-based iCooling solution to decrease the energy consumption of the cooling system, which typically uses over 30% of a data center’s energy. This solution constantly monitors the energy consumption of all cooling subsystems and delivers the most efficient cooling strategy based on factors like current IT load and outdoor temperature.

Green construction and material recycling
The construction of traditional data centers often results in a high amount of waste and excessive water and power consumption. To address these issues, the T1 project employs a prefabricated modular solution where core components and systems are manufactured and pre-tested in a factory before being delivered and assembled on-site like LEGOs. This approach significantly reduces water usage and construction waste by 80%, reduces carbon emissions by 90%, and recycles up to 85% of materials, promoting eco-friendly construction and maximizing resource recovery.

Efficient and energy-saving devices
As data centers consume a large amount of energy, the use of energy-efficient and energy-saving devices is crucial to reducing energy consumption. The Huawei FusionPower6000 is utilized for power supply and distribution, providing a single source of power for each row, which boosts end-to-end efficiency to 95.5%. The cooling system is equipped with high-performance fans and wet film humidifiers to enhance energy efficiency. Additionally, smart modules are arranged in the equipment room to divide cold and hot aisles, optimizing heat exchange efficiency.

By using energy-saving technology, data centers can reduce their impact on the environment, contribute to a more sustainable future, and demonstrate their commitment to environmental responsibility.

Source: Huawei Digital Power

Huawei’s Dongguan Cloud Data Center T1 project (T1 project for short) is among the two green data centers in China to have been selected as a typical application case of key energy-saving technologies 2021 by the National Energy Conservation Center for the large amounts of energy it has saved during operation. Put into operation in 2019, the project’s PUE reached 1.28 in 2021.

Today, we look at how digital technology enablement contributed to the success of the T1 project.

Due to insufficient simulation of air ducts and airflows at the design phase and backward onsite assembly and construction, traditional data centers have a higher PUE than the designed one. By contrast, the T1 project uses digital design, simulation, and manufacturing, reaching a designed PUE in actual operation.

Next week, we will look at other advanced energy-savings technology which was employed in the T1 project.

Source: Huawei Digital Power

Data centers consume a great deal of energy and resources, and they are one place that many organizations seek to cut back – with the goal of eventually reaching net-zero carbon emissions. Globally, leading data center operators have committed to carbon neutrality and science-based targets for emissions reduction by 2030. The challenge is how to achieve this. Huawei has outlined four core trends for the future direction of data centers.

Solving the challenge of growing demand for data with low-carbon solutions, Huawei’s next-gen simplified, green, intelligent, and secure data center infrastructure solution is only one of the solutions. Reducing carbon emissions is essential for the industry and an area in which innovation focuses on converging software and hardware as well as cross-product-domain collaboration. With so many technical innovations, expertise and best practice at our disposal, the journey to zero-carbon data center is now achievable.

After-sales maintenance helps ensure that a customer gets as much use and value as possible out of their purchase. A great product should be backed up with excellent maintenance support as this provides a positive experience to customers.

The business reasoning behind after-sales support is that it can contribute to brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. An example of a brand which understands this reasoning is Huawei.

Huawei Hi-Care services provide a variety of maintenance services for customers. Huawei Hi-Care provides industry-leading Technical Support Centers (TAC), global service organizations, hourly spare parts supply capabilities, standard Issue to Resolution (ITR) processes, and advanced IT tools to respond to customer service requests in a timely and efficient manner.

Huawei has always been committed to providing customers with more professional and intelligent maintenance services. Huawei Hi-Care services go beyond traditional phone or email support as customers can seek help from multiple channels such as the intelligent Q&A chatbot and the technical support community. In addition, customers can use the intelligent maintenance center ServiceCare to manage inventory and service requests, and quickly obtain product technical information and service reports.

At GreenBay, we believe that an effective maintenance strategy is concerned with maximising equipment uptime and facility performance while balancing the associated resources expended and ultimately the cost. When a brand offers maintenance services (such as Huawei Hi-Care) which can assist in getting sufficient return on your asset investment, it is an indication that your maintenance strategy is on the correct trajectory to be successful and fuss-free.

A data center’s power usage effectiveness or PUE, is seen as a key indicator for evaluating its energy efficiency. The PUE value rises as the data center becomes less efficient. Cooling, a key component of a data center, is one of the main factors which can address the issue of energy efficiency.

Cooling is closely related to equipment heat dissipation, equipment configuration, facility environment, and external climate conditions. After Operations and Management (O&M) reaches a certain maturity level, hardware energy saving or human experience-based simple optimization cannot further reduce power consumption.

Therefore, Huawei has leveraged on machine learning to develop its iCooling intelligent thermal management solution for data centers. The iCooling solution incorporates deep learning to analyse historical data and identify key factors which affect energy consumption and create a PUE prediction. An optimisation algorithm then establishes the ideal parameters which are transmitted to various control systems.

The key technologies used in the iCooling solution include:

• Big data collection
  Given the complexity of data center cooling systems, information about the power supply system, cooling system, and environment parameters must be collected.
• Data governance and feature engineering
  First, a mathematical tool is used to perform data governance on the raw data collected, providing high-quality data for subsequent model training. Second, feature engineering is performed on large amounts of raw data to identify the key parameters that affect PUE.

Creating a PUE model using a neural network:
Neural networks are a set of machine learning algorithms that can simulate the cognitive behavior of interactions between neurons. Deep neural networks can play a role in increasing the cooling efficiency of data centers. The machine learning algorithms of these networks can find the relationships between parameters of different pieces of equipment and systems. A mathematical model or the PUE model of the data center is created based on large amounts of data from sensors.

Inference and decision-making using genetic algorithms:
Based on the input PUE model and the operating data collected in real time, the algorithms find the best policy in four steps: parameter traversal and combination, service rule assurance, calculating the energy consumption of the cooling system, and selecting the optimal policy.

At Huawei’s cloud data center Langfang in China, the deployment of iCooling has resulted in a PUE that is eight percent lower than it previously was, which translates to major savings in annual power costs. At a China Mobile data center in Ningxia, the introduction of iCooling technology has reduced the data center’s total energy consumption by 3.2%, saving more than 400,000 kWh of electricity a year. According to Huawei, as data centre loads increase and AI learning capability improves, six million kWh of electricity will be saved in the data center every year, the equivalent to a reduction of about three million kilogrammes of carbon dioxide emissions.

With extensive experience and technical expertise in global data center construction, Huawei has proven that the power of AI and big data is the key to create greener data centers.

Source: Huawei

Protective relays are decision-making elements in the protection scheme for electrical power systems. They monitor circuit conditions and initiate protective action when an undesired condition is detected.

Protective relaying serves many functions including isolating faulted circuits or equipment from the remainder of the system so the system can continue to function, limiting damage to faulted equipment, minimizing the possibility of fire or damage to adjacent equipment, and minimizing hazards to personnel.

According to Reg. 110(4), ER (Electricity Regulations) 1994; any protective relay and device of an installation will need to be checked, tested and calibrated by a competent person at least once every two years, or at any time as directed by the Energy Commission.

Why is protective relay testing important?
When they are required to operate because of a faulted or undesirable condition, it is imperative that protective relays function correctly. A strong maintenance and test program will keep your protective relays in a high state of readiness ensuring they respond properly to normal and abnormal conditions and help you avoid equipment damage, prolonged downtime and employee injuries.

When protection relay testing is not carried out on a regular basis, the risk of dangerous electrical faults increases, potentially resulting in damage to equipment and harm to personnel.

Types of testing
There are three main types of protective relay testing (apart from testing after a fault occurs):

• Bench testing – This involves investigating the relay on its own and that it matches the design. This prevents more expensive and more time-consuming problems from occurring at later stages in a project.
• Commissioning testing – Once the electrical system has been constructed, commissioning the relay involves making sure the larger system functions as expected. For example, when the protection relay is attached to the switchgear, it should function as expected, react to interlocks and other simulated conditions. After this, the relay’s function will have been demonstrated.
• Maintenance testing – When maintenance testing is carried out, complete design intention is assumed, but relay behaviour must be checked under operation. Apart from relay-specific failures, the relay cannot detect changes in system characteristics, such as downstream network loads being changed over time. Such long-term changes may require the relay to be reprogrammed to ensure expected operation is maintained.

Safety is everything
Electrical safety is not an issue to be taken lightly. According to statistics released by the Fire and Rescue Department, a total of RM3.31 billion worth of properties were destroyed in fire-related incidents in 2018. Of that number, faulty electrical sources were at the very top of the list with over 5,300 cases recorded over the last three years.

This is the reason why at GreenBay, we take a proactive stance when it comes to electrical safety:

• All electrical works are carried out by a team of competent and qualified engineers.
• The electrical works shall be carried out in accordance with rules and safety regulations and best working practices.
• All installation shall be maintained in good working order and safety precautions shall be observed at all times to prevent danger.

For mission critical facilities, such as data centers and hospitals, emergency power generators simply cannot afford to fail. Regularly scheduled maintenance will help to make sure that your generator is ready when it’s called upon. That is why preventative maintenance such as load bank testing is of utmost importance. Load bank testing helps to ensure that your generator will be fully dependable and operational, as well as completely capable of the highest possible load it may be required to handle at any critical point in time.

What is load bank testing?
A generator load bank test involves an examination and assessment of a genset. It verifies that all primary components of the generator set are in proper working condition under loaded conditions.

The test puts a generator under varying load conditions and sees how the machine reacts to the power draw. This is not to be mistaken for the automatic exercising some generators do for a load test. These exercises turn on the device but do not put it under a load. Without testing the generator under load, you will not be able to gauge the health and performance capabilities of the generator.

Why is generator load bank testing important?
When a diesel engine powered genset is not used frequently or only run on light loads, it can be prone to experiencing unburned fuel and soot buildup in the exhaust system. This is called wet-stacking. When wet-stacking occurs, the genset is likely to perform poorly, to endure damage, can become a fire hazard, and can even lead to complete failure.

During a load bank test, the generator is allowed to run at full power and full temperature. This will cause any wet-stacking to burn off. Hence, a load bank test can determine whether the generator will function properly and efficiently on all levels, and eliminates any wet-stacking that may have built up within the generator.

Benefits of load bank testing
There are multiple reasons gensets should undergo a load bank test on an annual basis, including the following:
– Verifies the gensets capabilities opposed to just routinely starting it up
– Problems discovered early can be significantly less expensive and prevents future major issues
– Helps to avoid wet-stacking and cleans out carbon deposits
– Verifies the engine cooling systems will perform while under load
– Provides assurance that the genset should work properly when you need it most

GreenBay’s load bank testing of gensets is a wide-ranging service that monitors every critical component of your generator, including the engine temperature as well as the oil pressure. Throughout the testing process, we oversee the entire unit, ensuring that it runs at normal operating pressures and temperatures once optimal levels are achieved. Our aim is for your standby generator to operate more efficiently, thereby guaranteeing the unit is working exactly as it was designed to do.

During a load bank test, the generator is allowed to run at full power and full temperature. This will cause any wet-stacking to burn off. Hence, a load bank test can determine whether the generator will function properly and efficiently on all levels, and eliminates any wet-stacking that may have built up within the generator.

Data centers as well as other critical infrastructures are changing rapidly. Therefore, it is more important than ever to ensure that each component of the support infrastructure is operating at maximum efficiency and reliability. One of the most important ways to do so is preventive maintenance.

We will look at preventive maintenance of 4 major systems – UPS (uninterruptible power supply), very early warning smoke detection, cooling and precision air conditioning, and clean agent fire suppression.

Remember that it is important that components in the support infrastructure of a critical facility are well-maintained. The systems are only as beneficial to safety as their own safety status. The priority is to work with manufacturer-backed industry experts such as GreenBay, to help you set up and implement a holistic inspection and maintenance strategy for your critical infrastructure.

Our certified technicians are factory-trained with extensive knowledge and hands-on experience on how to maintain these major systems to maximise performance and efficiency.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This cannot be more true for data center maintenance. Effective maintenance strategies help protect your data center from unplanned outages, and reduce repairs and downtime related costs. Shutting down of data center can cost millions of dollars to big facilities.

For the maintenance of your data center to be effective, a comprehensive maintenance strategy must be in place. It includes the following:

Preventive maintenance

One of the best ways to ensure minimal amount of equipment failures and shutdowns is to perform preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance conduct scheduled analyses to catch the defect before occurring. Having a plan in place and executing on it regularly will help avoid unplanned downtime due to battery failure, clogged air filters, and other physical causes which could lead to a crisis in critical infrastructure.
Amongst others, preventive maintenance should include checks on equipment such as switches and routers, circuit breakers, power supplies, cabling, HVAC systems, fire detection, and prevention systems.

Why is preventive maintenance important?

1. Reduces the risk of data center failure
There are high chances that your data center shuts down because of loads of data. That is why maintenance is crucial to avoid interruptions in data storage, access, and retrieval. Shutting down data centers does not only affect the accessibility of data but can also be very costly.

2. Management of operational costs
Preventive maintenance is not only about extending the lifespan of your data center but also managing operating costs. Data centers consume massive energy amounts. One way to lower operational costs is to make sure that your equipment works efficiently by solving or fixing issues in the system.

3. Preventing the risks of downtime
For data centers to keep running through unforeseeable power issues like utility spikes and power outages, most of them depend on the reliability of UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supply systems. Preventive maintenance must be in place to maximize the performance and reliability of the UPS systems by providing systematic detection and correction of failures.

4. Safety of people, equipment and facilties
Safety systems such as VESDA aspirating smoke detection (ASD) which enables early detection and mitigation of potential fire threats, must be regularly maintained for performance and reliability to avoid potential disasters which can cause injury, loss of life and equipment damage.

5. Reducing environmental impact
In the industry of data centers, sustainability must be a priority and should form an integral part of all development strategies moving forward. While the focus remains on green data center strategies, companies can strive to achieve a balance between reduced energy consumption and increased performance by prioritising preventive maintenance.

At GreenBay, we are able to assist you in your preventive maintenance measures. We have the skills and expertise to manage all the equipment that makes your critical infrastructure work. Our training and hands-on experience means that we know what to look out for, and how to handle the physical equipment and the system that runs it, as well as advise and guide you in your maintenance strategy. Get in touch with us today to make your maintenance routine work better for your data center and critical infrastructure.