Industrial Automation Magazine India

The IEA estimates that data centres use 1 percent of all global electricity

Published on : Wednesday 24-08-2022

Amitansu Satpathy, Managing Director, Best Power Equipments (BPE). 

The Data Center industry is booming in India as it is globally. What is the current scenario, and the prospects for data centres in India?
Reports by the ICRA suggest that India's data centre industry is poised to grow 5x and will add an overall 3,900-4,100 MW of capacity. Tech giants such as Amazon Web, Google, Microsoft, etc., are the primary drivers of this growth. The influx of new players in the market who are outsourcing their storage needs to DCs continue to play a vital role in India's DC industry's multi-fold growth.
 
Concerns over the environment are pushing the data centre industry towards sustainable practices. How is this going to impact the roll out of future data centres?
The International Energy Agency estimates that data centres use 1percent of all global electricity; however, traditional data centres globally have decreased their energy demand, from around 97.6 terawatt-hours to some 50 terawatt-hours. Investments in sustainable computer processing hardware, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and cooling systems have witnessed a considerable spike over the past couple of years. DC industry players are actively implementing high-efficiency power and cooling infrastructure, modular UPSs are more than 96percent efficient and save more energy.
 
One recent research finding has highlighted the gap between awareness and implementation when it comes to sustainability. How can the industry address this, especially from the perspective of the investments?

The gap between the awareness and implementation regarding data centre industry's energy usage sustainability can be bridged by the incorporation of the below-enlisted remedies and practices:
 
1. Consolidate Servers: Turn off dead servers and optimise your existing ones.
 
2. Upgrade Servers: Move to energy-efficient servers.
 
3. Change to High-Efficiency Power: This removes inefficiencies with multiple AC/DC conversions.
 
4. Monitor Power Use: Continuously check the servers for optimal efficiencies. This allows a data centre to only use the amount of power needed and do away with obsolete servers.
 
5. Implement Natural Cooling: Create effective cooling methods to use outside air. This reduces energy costs by 40 per cent.
 
What are the attributes of an ideal UPS system for data centres given the critical nature of operations?
1. Parallel operations support:
This allows for longer runtime and provides more reliability. If multiple UPS systems can be configured in parallel, it's called an N+1 architecture, where N devices supply the required load, and one means there is one independent backup should a component of that system fail.
 
2. Battery performance & longevity: The battery is the heart of a UPS. It impacts the UPS performance and needs to be continuously monitored. So choosing a UPS packed
 with excellent battery and battery management technology can solve many problems. 
 
3. Lower PUE (power usage effectiveness) and high power efficiency: 
Concerns over the sustainability of data centres have been around for a while, and the industry has been moving toward adopting leaner infrastructure. Companies should choose a UPS that meets all their needs yet offers the best possible efficiency.
 
4. Select UPS systems those are scalable as the business grows:
Choose a UPS which can scale power and runtime as demand grows or as higher levels of availability are required. UPS with modular architecture has advantages in this regard. It can help you save money by updating your data centre.
 
As an accomplished solutions provider, what does BPE bring to the data centres table to address the challenges in anticipation of growing regulatory and performance pressure?
With operations spanning over two decades; Best Power Equipments (BPE) stands as a power manufacturing brand that provides end-to-end solutions for critical applications. Research & Development of our products is the strategy to tackle the challenges. We are trying to maintain seamless operations by making more reliable, efficient products to fulfil the market demands. Additionally, we’re trying to provide cost-effective solutions via our assembly and operations. Energy Storage Solutions are created where power can be stored on a large scale in MW.