The Utility and Data Center Industry Connection
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THE UTILITY AND DATA Mark Bramfitt, P.E. CENTER INDUSTRY January 28, 2016 CONNECTION WHAT’S THE CONNECTION? The data center and utility industries are increasingly intertwined, with opportunities for mutually beneficial engagement. A review of industry trends will uncover those opportunities. Topics • Key intersections of DC industry and utilities: growth, cost, energy efficiency, carbon • How energy efficiency is behind a key industry trend: the move to managed services or the “cloud” • What it means for utilities and the DC industry, now and in the future 2 UTILITY AND DC/IT DRIVERS Utilities Data Center Industry (T25) – Regulatory Compliance – Low Rates (OpEx) – Risk Management – Capacity – Load Growth – Competitive Rates – Time to Serve – Load Management – CapEx Avoidance – Renewable Resources – Reliability – Energy Efficiency – Carbon Content Services – Smart Grid DATA CENTER/UTILITY CONNECTION: MARKET GROWTH IT and data • DC energy use doubled 2001-06, center energy use growing but only went up 56% in next five rapidly, though years! still modest portion of overall • ~2% of US electric use, but energy use regionally based • Growth rate may be on the rise 4 DATA CENTER/UTILITY CONNECTION: MARKET GROWTH IT and data • Enterprise users still report capacity center energy use growing pressure rapidly, though • Data storage growth is an untold still modest portion of overall story: 50 to 100% annual growth energy use rates • Growth is being absorbed by colo and cloud providers, and ameliorated by improved energy efficiency 5 DATA CENTER/UTILITY CONNECTION: MARKET GROWTH IT and data • At the large end of the market (AAEFGM center energy and E/DR/NTT/V/CL), growth is staggering use growing rapidly, though • Market characterized by 1/99 and 40/60 still modest ratios portion of • Microsoft has ~300,000 servers overall energy use supporting Xbox versus 15,000 a few years ago, and announced a 10x expansion program for their DC fleet • A quarter of network traffic at certain hours is attributable to Netflix • Google building their own comm network 6 DATA CENTER/UTILITY CONNECTION: GROWTH Availability of • “Utility scale” data centers are specified in service capacity the tens of megawatts is now a challenge for • DC campuses are becoming popular data centers of • Data center industry starting to feel utility all stripes capacity constraints 7 DATA CENTER/UTILITY CONNECTION: SITING PAIN POINTS Power price is • Energy rates are crucial for DC paramount; developers, now and in the future carbon content becoming big • Industry seeking sub 4 cents/kWh power, issue and clean too! • Time to serve and tax incentives are crucial to business attraction 8 DATA CENTER/UTILITY CONNECTION: CARBON NGOs have • Concern for carbon is on the DC industry’s successfully radar challenged leading industry • Predominantly a fear of higher rates players, with though for some it is a corporate notable results responsibility issue from some firms • Four majors (AFGE) in the forefront 9 GREENPEACE TARGETS DCS AND UTILITIES 10 NRDC TAKES CARROT APPROACH 11 PRESS ATTENTION TOO 12 AFGE RESPONSE • Apple: Self-generation (PV) • Facebook: Energy efficiency – Open Compute Project • Google: Direct access and wind purchases • Ebay: Efficiency, fuel cells 13 MORE RENEWABLES ARE COMING 14 BUT JUXTAPOSE WITH UTILITY RATES 15 ENERGY EFFICIENCY IS BEHIND THE CLOUD TREND Collocation, • To capture more market share, lower costs managed service, must break down institutional barriers and cloud providers • CapEx for new construction and OpEx compete on price, become a paramount concern and energy is biggest cost. 16 MOVE TO THE “CLOUD” – WHAT’S DRIVING THE TREND Cloud, colo, and • Best in class data centers are now highly managed service optimized for EE providers aim to take on even • Theoretical limits of PUE being reached more of the • No mechanical cooling – only ventilation market, by competing on • Back-up power and conditioning obviated price by fail-over capability 17 LEGACY DC DISADVANTAGES • Capacity constrained – can’t meet growth needs • Reliance on inefficient support systems (cooling, generators) • Heterogeneous IT systems difficult to support • Above all, poor utilization rates of IT assets 18 CLOUD PROVIDER ADVANTAGES • Energy efficiency (2:1) • Low CapEx (2:1) • Scale – homogeneous systems, often procured directly • IT asset utilization (4:1) • Lowest power costs (2 to 4:1) • Ability to manage loads for fail over, balancing, and arbitrage 19 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU? • Managed service providers have an inherent cost advantage over even the best enterprise operations • That gap will widen • Your operation will look untenable as a result • You can compete by undertaking EE upgrades and managing capacity 20 OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND! Cooling Electrical IT Airflow Management UPS and transformer High efficiency measures efficiency equipment Free Cooling – air or water Right sizing/control Power management Environmental High voltage conditions/controls IT equipment Centralized Air Handlers distribution fans Fan Efficiency Use of DC power Virtualization Cooling Plant Optimization Premium efficiency Load Direct Liquid Cooling motors management Storage Staging/redundancy Lighting – efficiency measures Heat recovery and controls Desktop Standby generation measures 21 XCEL ENERGY DATA CENTER REBATES • Study funding – Up to 75% of study cost, not to exceed $25,000 – Can be a facility study, IT study or both – Studies are optional, but need preapproval before beginning • Data Center custom rebates – Up to $400/kW saved; preapproval is required – If your project saves energy, we will try to rebate it – A study is not required to receive project rebates 22 NEW PRESCRIPTIVE DATA CENTER REBATE • EC Motor Plug Fans – $700 per fan for new units equipped with EC motor plug fans – $1,200 per fan for retrofitting existing units equipped with standard motors and forward-curved fans • Available for up-flow or down-flow CRAC or CRAH units – In-row and overhead units may qualify for a custom rebate. 23 FREE DATA CENTER WALKTHROUGH • We’ll come to your site and do a free walkthrough of your data center to identify ways to save energy in your data center • Fill out a form at the booth to sign up or call your Xcel Energy representative 24 VIRTUAL DESKTOP REBATES • Prescriptive rebates for installing virtual desktop infrastructure (Thin Clients & Zero Clients). • Rebate is $60 per thin/zero client installed. 25 POWER MAMAGEMENT REBATES POWER MANAGEMENT REBATES • Prescriptive rebates for activating power management commercial software packages. • Rebate is $5 per PC being managed. 26 Mark Bramfitt [email protected] 415.407.6291 THANK YOU .