European datacenters worried they can't get cheap, reliable juice
(2023/04/18)
- Reference: 1681795751
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/04/18/access_to_cheap_reliable_power/
- Source link:
European datacenter operators are finding it harder to secure reliable, cost-effective power, according to a report by British electricity biz Aggreko has asserted.
The vendor conducted a [1]survey [PDF] of 700 datacenter professionals across seven countries and found that a combination of rising energy prices, supply chain shortages, and rising power consumption, threatened operators' ability to keep their facilities online.
Operators in the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Germany reported concerns over their ability to meet the energy demands of their facilities over the next five years. French respondents were, however, more optimistic.
[2]
UK operators were more concerned with energy pricing than access. And with prices [3]hovering around 33.2 pence per kWh in the UK, we can see why. For reference, that's nearly twice the average cost of electricity in the US.
[4]
[5]
"Grid shortcomings are common throughout Europe, and they lack a clear or immediate fix", Guido Neijmeijer, European leader of datacenters at Aggreko, wrote in the report. Neijmeijer advocated more use of batteries and hybrid generation, which he said can, over time, "reduce a facility's dependency on the grid while striking a balance between power, sustainability, and efficiency."
Unsurprisingly, according to the survey, datacenter operators across most of Europe said they were looking into ways to improve the efficiency of their facilities as part of the environmental and social governance strategies.
[6]
The only exceptions, Aggreko noted, were in the Nordic countries, which already enjoy better access to renewable energy. Sweden, for example, gets most of its power from hydro-electricity, nuclear energy, and increasingly from wind, according to the [7]International Energy Agency .
The report also found that Nordic datacenter operators tended to prioritize taking advantage of ambient weather conditions, which allows them to forgo power-hungry cooling equipment in favor of free environmental cooling to further reduce their energy consumption and by extension greenhouse gas emissions.
[8]AWS wants to cook its datacenter chips with vegetable oil
[9]Equinix tests out fuel cells as alternative for datacenter power
[10]Microsoft's Dublin datacenter to help take pressure off Ireland's renewable energy
[11]Swedish datacenter operator wants to go nuclear
Faced with rising energy costs, the survey also showed that several operators — in the UK, Germany, and France in particular — are investigating demand-side response (DSR) schemes.
For those that aren't familiar, DSR incentivizes customers to change their consumption behavior based on signals from the utility. Depending on how it's initiated this can either be an automatic or manual process. For example, during an DSR event, a datacenter might shift a portion of its load to onsite batteries or generators.
And for datacenter operators with sufficiently large power infrastructure, for example, there's also the opportunity to further reduce energy costs by selling power back to the utility.
[12]
As we [13]reported in July, Microsoft is doing just that at a datacenter outside Dublin. Working with UPS vendor Eaton, the cloud giant said it would employ novel techniques to use backup power at its datacenters to help balance out any variability in the region's grid.
"DSR are still relatively unused across Europe, presenting a great opportunity for datacenters to begin integrating equipment that can support this process," Greger Ruud, Aggreko's sector development manager for the Nordic region, wrote in the report.
Another opportunity highlighted in the report is upgrades to newer, more efficient power equipment, UPSes, transformers, and switchgears, which can improve power-use effectiveness (PUE). Aggreko also suggested employing greener backup-power systems, including modular battery systems and stage V bio-diesel generators.
The Register notes that Aggreko specializes in this kind of equipment, so it's unsurprising the company's research found it's a good idea.
With that said, numerous datacenters have announced transitions to more efficient or greener forms of backup power, ranging from hydrogen gas [14]fuel-cells , [15]bio-diesel generators, or even planned [16]small nuclear reactors (SMRs) at one Swedish site. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.aggreko.com/-/media/aggreko/files/pdf/uk-pdfs/aggreko_eu_dc_uptimeontheline_report_april-2023.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support/energy-bills-support-factsheet-8-september-2022
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.iea.org/countries/sweden
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/20/aws_wants_to_cook_its/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/22/equinix_fuel_cell_datacenter/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/microsoft_grid_interactive_ups_dublin/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/bahnhof_smr_datacenter/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/microsoft_grid_interactive_ups_dublin/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/22/equinix_fuel_cell_datacenter/
[15] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2023/03/20/aws_wants_to_cook_its/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/bahnhof_smr_datacenter/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The vendor conducted a [1]survey [PDF] of 700 datacenter professionals across seven countries and found that a combination of rising energy prices, supply chain shortages, and rising power consumption, threatened operators' ability to keep their facilities online.
Operators in the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Germany reported concerns over their ability to meet the energy demands of their facilities over the next five years. French respondents were, however, more optimistic.
[2]
UK operators were more concerned with energy pricing than access. And with prices [3]hovering around 33.2 pence per kWh in the UK, we can see why. For reference, that's nearly twice the average cost of electricity in the US.
[4]
[5]
"Grid shortcomings are common throughout Europe, and they lack a clear or immediate fix", Guido Neijmeijer, European leader of datacenters at Aggreko, wrote in the report. Neijmeijer advocated more use of batteries and hybrid generation, which he said can, over time, "reduce a facility's dependency on the grid while striking a balance between power, sustainability, and efficiency."
Unsurprisingly, according to the survey, datacenter operators across most of Europe said they were looking into ways to improve the efficiency of their facilities as part of the environmental and social governance strategies.
[6]
The only exceptions, Aggreko noted, were in the Nordic countries, which already enjoy better access to renewable energy. Sweden, for example, gets most of its power from hydro-electricity, nuclear energy, and increasingly from wind, according to the [7]International Energy Agency .
The report also found that Nordic datacenter operators tended to prioritize taking advantage of ambient weather conditions, which allows them to forgo power-hungry cooling equipment in favor of free environmental cooling to further reduce their energy consumption and by extension greenhouse gas emissions.
[8]AWS wants to cook its datacenter chips with vegetable oil
[9]Equinix tests out fuel cells as alternative for datacenter power
[10]Microsoft's Dublin datacenter to help take pressure off Ireland's renewable energy
[11]Swedish datacenter operator wants to go nuclear
Faced with rising energy costs, the survey also showed that several operators — in the UK, Germany, and France in particular — are investigating demand-side response (DSR) schemes.
For those that aren't familiar, DSR incentivizes customers to change their consumption behavior based on signals from the utility. Depending on how it's initiated this can either be an automatic or manual process. For example, during an DSR event, a datacenter might shift a portion of its load to onsite batteries or generators.
And for datacenter operators with sufficiently large power infrastructure, for example, there's also the opportunity to further reduce energy costs by selling power back to the utility.
[12]
As we [13]reported in July, Microsoft is doing just that at a datacenter outside Dublin. Working with UPS vendor Eaton, the cloud giant said it would employ novel techniques to use backup power at its datacenters to help balance out any variability in the region's grid.
"DSR are still relatively unused across Europe, presenting a great opportunity for datacenters to begin integrating equipment that can support this process," Greger Ruud, Aggreko's sector development manager for the Nordic region, wrote in the report.
Another opportunity highlighted in the report is upgrades to newer, more efficient power equipment, UPSes, transformers, and switchgears, which can improve power-use effectiveness (PUE). Aggreko also suggested employing greener backup-power systems, including modular battery systems and stage V bio-diesel generators.
The Register notes that Aggreko specializes in this kind of equipment, so it's unsurprising the company's research found it's a good idea.
With that said, numerous datacenters have announced transitions to more efficient or greener forms of backup power, ranging from hydrogen gas [14]fuel-cells , [15]bio-diesel generators, or even planned [16]small nuclear reactors (SMRs) at one Swedish site. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.aggreko.com/-/media/aggreko/files/pdf/uk-pdfs/aggreko_eu_dc_uptimeontheline_report_april-2023.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support/energy-bills-support-factsheet-8-september-2022
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.iea.org/countries/sweden
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/20/aws_wants_to_cook_its/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/22/equinix_fuel_cell_datacenter/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/microsoft_grid_interactive_ups_dublin/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/bahnhof_smr_datacenter/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZD5qQBDPgGhY8uqpv6kpswAAAAs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/microsoft_grid_interactive_ups_dublin/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/22/equinix_fuel_cell_datacenter/
[15] https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2023/03/20/aws_wants_to_cook_its/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/bahnhof_smr_datacenter/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Charlie Clark
Solarthermic adsorbtion is a good way to go for data centres.
devin3782
Why haven't they solar panelled the roof? i mean it wouldn't run the servers but it'd run lighting and cooling systems, trickle charge their battery backup systems. We have so much roof space going unused seems a shame not to utilise it.
Charlie Clark
Most large data centres do: it's been economical to include them in the build for at least a decade.
Standalone vs Integrated
jmch
Too many datacenters are basically plumped in what is basically an industrial estate where they can get cheap floor space and easy access to industrial-scale power. They then spend power (and money) to pump excess heat out into the air, while the houses in nearby villages have to burn gas in their boilers to keep warm!!! (Not only datacenters, by the way, but pretty much any large industrial facility).
Too many of our industries and towns are still built on an antiquated and very inefficient model. Instead of pumping excess industrial heat into homes, which saves both energy and money. We know it can be done because many sites already do it. New builds have to have mandatory standards for efficient energy re-use
Smells like bullshit
Charlie Clark
Grid shortcomings are common throughout Europe…
That is total bollocks, the European grid is significantly more resilient and reliable than the US one. In fact there's something fishy about this whole report: DSR is common in France but almost unheard of in Germany and doesn't make sense for data centres that have fairly constant demand.
There is a lot a progress to be made in thermal management. A lot of energy is required to evacuate energy. There's something wrong here.