With rising energy prices and net zero targets facing the higher education sector, a sustainability-focused overhaul of energy-hungry IT operations has never been so important, says Peter Broadbent, director at M&E consultancy CPW
When it comes to data centres, IT departments have historically been resistant to change – placing data capacity, computing power, and reliability above all else. However, with ever-increasing electricity bills and a greater emphasis on sustainability, it is becoming impossible to ignore the high energy usage of our IT operations.
Streamlined and energy-efficient data centre design is crucial in order to successfully pair eco-friendly solutions with real-time savings, ensuring universities meet carbon emissions targets in the push for Net Zero Carbon.
We have been successfully helping our clients with cost and energy savings by switching to liquid cooling methods or utilising renewable energy such as photovoltaics (PV), wind energy, air source and ground source heat pumps.
There are two main types of data centres to consider in higher education facilities. The first is academic, where security and reliability are crucial due to the sensitive data stored. The second is research, which use high performance computing to further industry innovation. In our experience, research data centres are more open to change and implementing different strategies to reduce energy consumption – for example, adopting water cooling technology in place of energy-inefficient traditional fans.
With universities having some of the most ambitious energy targets of any sector, considering new ways to reduce energy consumption is more of a necessity than a luxury.
Last year, we decreased the University of Birmingham’s energy consumption by 45%, saving £500,000 a year in running costs by taking the plunge to implement a liquid cooling system. If hot enough, a liquid cooling system can facilitate underfloor heating for nearby buildings with its’ waste heat – proving that sustainable energy doesn’t need to come with a big price tag. Upon completion, the university benefitted from two new data centres on campus, including one for research purposes and another for corporate data.
At the University of Warwick, we have undertaken various commissions, including complete refurbishments and retrofits to existing buildings, working closely with the university to meet its specifications.
An internal fit out project using an existing empty space within the building provided the opportunity for a unique solution – the installation of an air base system in an academic data centre, which included a high-powered rear door cooling system as part of a hybrid approach. This new, highly efficient data centre has meant that average measured consumption dropped to 30kW, having been closer to 300kW beforehand.
Elsewhere on the university’s campus, we updated the physical sciences’ data centre by installing high-powered computers with 15kW racks, within a conventional machine room. The cooling system is served by a combination of conventional chillers and absorption chillers fed from the district heating network.
The strategy of a university completely dictates the demand for our support, but with an increasing focus on net zero emissions, the need to consider and manage every element of power usage is becoming more important.
By making the switch to more sustainable technology, it is now possible to bring typical power usage effectiveness (PUE) levels, the metric used to determine the energy efficiency of a data centre, down from 2 to just 1.1 – which can save businesses up to 45 per cent on running costs.
Ultimately, data centres are 24/7 facilities and need to function efficiently, safely, and securely. We firmly believe that with increased education, we will see even greater demand for energy conscious retrofit and new build solutions soon.
