REcycling of waste HEAT for Energy Reduction for Smart Cities

1. REcycling of waste HEAT for Energy Reduction for Smart Cities REHEATER SC – a collaborative response to the FP7 Smart Cities 2013 Call

2. What is the project? REHEATER SC is a project designed to find out why data centres do not regularly reuse their waste heat. REHEATER SC will establish exactly what heat data centres produce today and the future. REHEATER SC will identify the opportunities and determine what the cost models are. REHEATER SC will present the results to add value to data centre owner/operators and planning authorities.

3. What will do? REHEATER SC will examine the extent and characteristics of data centre heat and its reuse throughout the EU and evaluate the rationale behind the decisions to reuse the “waste” heat, whilst researching the methodologies employed and the opportunities for adoption. It will also establish both the required stakeholder involvement and the cost models employed to deliver the viability required in each case. This includes: • Research of the technology models and potential heat transfer and transmission opportunities to determine realistic potential of reuse of heat created by IT processes. • Evaluation of the locations and environs of data centres throughout the EU and develop a catalogue of technically and financially robust solutions that data centre owners and local authorities can successfully deploy by creating a web enabled reuse of heat modelling application (REHEATER SC). • Construct a real world reuse of heat reference model at a typical urban data centre to provide a validation of the research. • The impact of this research will enhance and enable EU participants engaged in standards development work at both International level where KPI’s such as PUE, WUE and CUE are being developed for resource efficient data centres (JTC1 SC39) and also at home with CENLEC EN50600.

4. AIMS Summarised Overall Objective Desired Impact The overall impact of this project will serve to widen the use of waste heat schemes by providing: 1. A centralised reference resource to assist data centre engineers and planners in determining the technology and feasibility of waste heat re-use schemes 2. The Identification of the value of waste heat re-use in energy terms thus enabling intelligent Smart Grid use. 3. Contribution and research for standards development activities for EN and ISO work groups and also industry led best practice certifications. The project is organised into five main objective segments………

5. Objective 1 Research and establish the thermal and velocity characteristics of forms of data centre waste heat. This will need to be provided for a set of commonly deployed data centres and representative of the majority of data centre designs in different climates. The research will need to take into account the variations in the thermal dynamics exhausted, based on the type of data centre cooling system deployed, its scale, computer room temperature set point and its load e.g. 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% utilisation. This will establish a representative foundation study that will result in an analysis of waste heat thermal characteristics can be applied to the vast majority of data centres needed to establish a waste heat feasibility roadmap application.

6. Objective 2 Research and determine examples of existing heat use and re-use schemes. Capture the types of technology used and identify the success or failure factors. In addition, research both the stakeholders required, the legal frameworks and the financial benefit elements. The summary of this study is to build a exemplar case study catalogue defining all the required ingredients of waste heat re-use schemes and any that can be categorised as proven.

7. Objective 3 From the schemes captured in objective 2, research additional technological solutions that could be deployed or considered. The research will look at technologies under development and in use by other industries, it will also consider ideas that failed previously but could be re-evaluated against different or changed thermal characteristics identified in objective 1. The output will include a recommendation for the setup of various experiments or evaluations that could be considered.

8. Objective 4 Build a real world demonstrator to serve as a reference and validationmodel. This will provide objective output and real-world validation of all the research activities described in objectives 1-3, such as potential difficulties, costs and benefits of re-using the heat generated in a modern, modular, scalable Data Centre. The aim is to build a model at a typical commercial data centre that follows current design practices and methodologies. The demonstrator will be embedded in a typical location and environment common to . Real world costs, legal, financial and stakeholder implications and energy saving results obtained would be open to scrutiny. The data would validate the critical elements of the information delivered by the REHEATER SC web based application.

9. Objective 5 Provide a web based data centre waste heat feasibility modelling application – this will be known as the REHEATER SC application. This application  will advise and guide both existing data centres and the design of new ones, maximising the potential for waste heat reuse. REHEATER SC will take into account the type of data centre exhaust in question, the climatic conditions and the type of facility that can receive the waste heat and identify the required set of stakeholders. The overall objective of the REHEATER SC tool is to construct an informed, tested and practically demonstrable roadmap to provide advice and illustrations for a successful supplier/receiver of data centre waste heat solution. In addition the project will evaluate and align influences that will contribute and enhance EN and ISO standards. 

10. For more info Visit: www.datacentrealliance.org And www.data-central.org Or Email: simoncw@datacentrealliance.org