dc.description.abstract |
There has been exponential growth of ICT industry such as artificial intelligence (AI),
social media (Netflix, Tiktok) and cloud computing which requires enormous amount
of data storage, power consumption and cooling. This has become the challenge for
the data centers industry which offers this storage, cooling, and power demand for this
expanding industry. Moreover, data centers are currently facing a significant energy
efficiency problem, which is contributing to an increase in power consumption that
directly affects the operation cost. This study sought to optimize energy efficiency and
integration of renewable energy for Data centers in Kenya. The methodology involved
site survey (with the aim of taking measurement of power usage effectiveness (PUE)
parameters for analysis and optimization), numerical simulation using CFD software
for thermal environmental optimization and HOMER software for cost benefit analysis
of power sources. The findings showed that data center three PUE was improved by
37% when centralized chiller system was used in place of direct expansion units.
Similarly, the PUE values for the other two data centers were improved by an average
of 28% when modular power conditioning units (UPS equipment) was used in place of
fixed frame. Additionally, the selected data center for analysis of integration of
renewable energy as alternative source of energy realized a saving of up to
Ksh.31,000,000.00 annually with a payback period of 5 years. On thermal
environmental analysis using CFD software, tile opening ration of 10% and 70% tile
opening ration was analyzed. An optimized design was achieved using 10% tile
opening ration which increased the airflow of the cold air. Energy performance in air
management system was also analyzed using return temperature index (RTI) index.
The RTI for DC1and DC2 was 71.48% and 94.79% respectively, implying the cold air
was by-passed without first being properly directed into IT equipment, resulting in
wasted energy while that for DC3 was 114.86% implying that air was recirculated,
resulting to hot air from the IT equipment mixing with the cold air from the air
conditioning equipment. It is recommended that metering and monitoring systems be
established for all energy-consuming devices to provide environmental data and data
related to energy efficiency, including end-user power breakdown by the various load
components, power chain, and infrastructure power usage to enable real time
monitoring of PUE parameters to identify gaps for energy efficiency improvements.
Data center operator should also consider integrating their power sources with
renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic system to reduce their operation
cost and increase their PUE value, hence the efficiency of the data center. |
en_US |