My Ton – Ecos Consulting Brian Fortenbery – EPRI Solutions Bill Tschudi – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Presentation Transcript

DC Power for Data Centers – demonstration summary

My Ton – Ecos Consulting

Brian Fortenbery – EPRI Solutions

Bill Tschudi – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Sponsored by:

California Energy Commission (CEC)─Public Interest Energy Research (PIER),

California Institute for Energy Efficiency (CIEE).

Overview – Phase 1

Rationale for the study

Background on power

conversions and their

efficiencies

Demonstration objectives

Industry partners

Configurations

Results

Thomas Edison:

“My personal desire would be to prohibit entirely the use of alternating currents. They are as unnecessary as they are dangerous. I can therefore see no justification for the introduction of a system which has no element of permanency and every element of danger to life and property.”

California Energy Commission

Public Interest Energy Research

High-tech Buildings Project Objectives

Research, develop, and demonstrate, innovative energy efficient technologies
10-year initiative focusing on high-tech industries – e.g. data centers
Help move the market to more efficient technologies
Research and demonstration projects include technology transfer

Why look at Data Centers?

Data center power use nationally is large and growing.
Two prior studies estimated data center energy use:
2004 EPRI/Ecos estimated 14.8 TWh
2000 Arthur D. Little estimated 10.1 TWh
0ne terawatthour = 1,000,000,000 kilowatthours or
one million megawatthours
Saving a fraction of this energy is substantial

Loads

Power delivery

Cooling

Cumulative Power

Representative Data Center Power Use

~50% Power Efficiency

6

Source: Intel Corp.

Power to meet a 100 W Computing Load

Load 100W

Total 275W

VR 20W

PSU 50W

Server fans 15W

UPS +PDU 20W

Room cooling system 70W

source: Intel Corporation

Source: Intel Corp.

7

DC Demonstration – Timeline

Stakeholders first met – Fall 2005
Kick-off meeting – April 2006
Equipment assembly – May 2006
Initial “Team Open House” June 7, 2006
Public Open House events: June 21,

July 12, 26; Aug 9, 16

End date – August 16, 2006

Industry Partners Made it Happen

Alindeska Electrical Contractors
APC
Baldwin Technologies
Cisco Systems
Cupertino Electric
Dranetz-BMI
Emerson Network Power
Industrial Network Manufacturing (IEM)

Equipment and Services Contributors:

Intel
Nextek Power Systems
Pentadyne
Rosendin Electric
SatCon Power Systems
Square D/Schneider Electric
Sun Microsystems
UNIVERSAL Electric Corp.

Other Partners Collaborated

380voltsdc.com
CCG Facility Integration
Cingular Wireless
Dupont Fabros
EDG2, Inc.
EYP Mission Critical
Gannett
Hewlett Packard

Stakeholders:

Morrison Hershfield Corporation
NTT Facilities
RTKL
SBC Global
TDI Power
Verizon Wireless

Data Center Power Use

Data center power use nationally is large and growing.
Two studies estimated data center energy use:
2004 EPRI/Ecos estimated 14.8 TWh
2000 Arthur D. Little estimated 10.1 TWh
0ne terawatthour = 1,000,000,000 kilowatthours or
one million megawatthours
Saving a fraction of this energy is substantial

This demonstration focused on reducing power delivery and conversion losses observed in our prior work:

Power Supplies in IT equipment

Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)

UPS and Power Supply efficiency

We observed a wide range of performance from the worst to the best
Our original goal was to move the market to the higher performing systems
Incentive programs, labeling, education programs were all options – and still are

Data Center Power Delivery System

DC/DC

78 - 85%

UPS

88 - 92%

Power Dist

98 - 99%

Power Supply

68 - 72%

The heat generated from the losses at each step of power conversion requires additional cooling power

HVAC: Power for cooling can equal or exceed the direct losses

The questions we were addressing:

Could some of the conversion steps be eliminated to improve efficiency? Could a demonstration be devised to measure actual savings?

DC Demonstration - Objectives

The demonstration’s original objectives were to show a rack level solution:

DC powered server equipment exists in the same form factor or can readily be built from existing components
DC powered server equipment can provide the same level of functionality and computing performance when compared to similarly configured and operating AC server equipment
Efficiency gains from the elimination of multiple conversion steps can be measured by comparing traditional AC delivery to a DC system
DC system reliability could be as good or better than AC system reliability

The project team soon defined additional objectives:

Demonstration of 380 V. DC distribution at the facility level compared to conventional AC systems
Demonstration of other DC solutions (48 volt systems)
Evaluation of safety considerations
Demonstrate ability to connect alternative energy solutions (PV, fuel cells, etc.)

What the demonstration included

Side-by-side comparison of traditional AC system with new DC system

Facility level distribution
Rack level distribution

Power measurements at conversion points
Servers modified to accept 380 V. DC
Artificial loads to more fully simulate data center

Additional items included

Racks distributing 48 volts to illustrate that other DC solutions are available, however no energy monitoring was provided for this configuration
DC lighting was included!

Typical AC Distribution Today

Facility-Level DC Distribution

380V.DC

Rack-Level DC Distribution

Demonstration Layout

Details

Safety was reviewed by a committee of the partners. No significant issues were identified. Only concern was whether fault currents would be large enough to trip protective devices. Final report will address safety and applicable codes and standards
All distribution equipment is UL rated for DC applications

No standard connector has been agreed upon for the server DC connection
With widespread adoption, reliability should be improved – fewer potential points of failure. Eliminating heat sources should help.

Measured Results

Facility level overall efficiency improvement:

10 to 20%

Smaller rack level overall efficiency improvement but other benefits include:

Thermal benefits
Smaller power supply in server
Transition strategy for existing centers

AC system loss compared to DC

9% measured improvement

2-5% measured improvement

Implications could be even better for a typical data center

Redundant UPS and server power supplies operate at reduced efficiency
Cooling loads would be reduced.
Both UPS systems used in the AC base case were “best in class” sytems and performed better than benchmarked systems – efficiency gains compared to typical systems could be higher.
Further optimization of conversion devices/voltages is possible