A series of projects has been implemented by Green Building Design Consultants throughout the UK to save energy in data centres. A total saving of more than £1m in annual running costs – around 10,000 tonnes of CO2 – was achieved for the latest five projects.

A high proportion of the running cost of any data centre is energy usage – to keep file servers operating without overheating. When originally built, many systems were designed to service a theoretical load, with only limited control for cooling – this inevitably results in wasted power consumption.

The main purpose of a data centre is to securely store electronic information. As such, the main focus of the operator will always be on resilience and fail-safe design. As a result, several hundred data centres are currently operating throughout the country with ‘over-engineered’ systems. Green Building Design Consultants are now introducing modern, reliable Energy Management Systems whilst each centre remains operational.

By monitoring energy using throughout the operation, introducing robust and responsive controls, often linked to new, more efficient heat transfer equipment, Green Building Design Consultants have developed an approach which has consistently proved to save around 10% to 20% of energy bills in each data centre. With a payback period of around 3 years, these enhancements represent a sound financial investment which is reliable and robust.

“Before we start on any project we measure energy usage and estimate the potential cost savings. After installing new equipment, we then measure results to ensure that we have met the targets. Variations in outside temperature can make a difference to results but even with these effects, our forecasts have been accurate to within 5 or 10%”, said Peter Betts, Principal Engineer.

With a background in data centre design and management, Peter Betts and his colleagues have now been implementing these energy saving projects for over 2 years for some of the most successful companies in the industry. Projects can be fully managed and implemented the team, or designed in partnership with the client’s preferred contractors.

For more information or to arrange a survey of your data centre, call Peter Betts or Simon Green on 01992 552 111.

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