Author: Teoh Wooi Keat, Country Manager of Vertiv Malaysia
Amid the climate emergency, organizations have a big role in decelerating the global crisis. While daunting, this may be a lot more achievable than it first seems. In fact, modernization could open avenues to be more sustainable without hampering efficiency and business goals. According to IDC, companies that have gone on the front foot in this regard have pulled ahead of their competitors.
From reduced waste and optimized costs, to better cost-effectiveness and operational efficiencies as well as unlocking new revenue streams; it is becoming evident that climate-conscious digital infrastructure is at the center of better business outcomes.
Vertiv is committed to advancing sustainability of its global operations and providing sustainable solutions to meet the growing demand of the digital world. There energy-efficient technologies assist data centers to optimize their power use and lower operational expenses. From efficient cooling systems to intelligent power distribution units, and advanced monitoring software, all of our solutions aim to improve overall energy efficiency and sustainability.
Sustainability, in fact, holds the potential to optimize how we leverage connectivity and data in our daily lives. The juxtaposition of growing demand for critical digital infrastructure, while simultaneously needing to mitigate environmental impact, is worthy of attention. According to Research and Markets, Asia Pacific’s data center market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12% between this year and 2028, by when it will be worth USD53.58 billion. This emphasizes the need for improved data center efficiency, while also highlighting the importance of reducing emissions to keep costs down.
In fact, the number could be even higher in Malaysia, where the country’s renewable energy export ban is set to be lifted. Thanks to a combination of robust government support and Singapore’s data centre moratorium – which was recently lifted – Malaysia has been able to emerge as a leading data center investment market.
For instance, Arizton notes that Malaysia has a remarkable 113 MW of take-up in 2022, four times greater than the next highest market. Furthermore, AWS announced recently that it will invest US$6 billion in the Malaysian cloud infrastructure market by 2037.
The Balancing Act of Meeting Peak Electricity Loads
While electricity demand fluctuates, several resources and strategies can be leveraged to navigate this.
A common approach is to adjust output to demand. Other options range from long-term electricity contracts to purchasing electricity in the spot energy market and reducing overall consumption. Alternatively, energy consumption can be cut from the demand side through a reduction in load and moving toward lower peak periods.
However, alleviating pressure on energy management and demand management systems, can be unlocked through the peak shifting capabilities of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
This is a valuable feature that allows better management of energy consumption when electricity demand is at its highest. By acting as an interim container for energy during non-peak hours, peak shifting can release that energy during peak hours to lighten the load on power grids and bring balance to supply and demand. As a result of not consuming electricity during peak hours, this also unlocks significant cost savings.
Leveraging AI/ML
At the same time, organisations should look to cut – or eliminate altogether – costly spikes in demand through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
Leveraging AI/ML in tandem with solar energy is one viable way of achieving this. For instance, AI-powered storage can be paired with solar energy to charge batteries when the sun is down and discharge energy when consumption is most needed i.e. at its highest.
This can be a highly effective means of reducing peaks – especially in contrast to methods like diesel generators or manual equipment shutdown. Not only does this not generate noise and pollution, it also does not require personnel to operate and poses no significant impact to business activities. Another bonus is that it goes some way to furthering the feasibility of solar energy to more customers, generating more savings and doing so sustainably.
By allowing energy-intensive industries to utilize proactive solutions that optimize demand management services and cost saving opportunities, data center owners can drive value creation while pursuing ‘green’ growth.
Expanding Capacity, Efficiency and Agility sustainably
Data centers can also be more sustainable through on integrated design and construction processes.
Regardless of whether an existing facility is being expanded or a new one is being built, prefabrication shortens timelines so that goals can be achieved faster. By streamlining processes and roping in specialists to perform them in a controlled environment, prefabrication eliminates the need for tasks like sourcing system components, coordinating delivery, and on-site integration and testing. Time and resources are saved, as a result, with a fully integrated and tested system arriving on site ready to go.
As projects become more complex, the time savings enabled by prefabrication become greater. Through the ability to compress processes under the management of a single partner, faster speed-to-market increases scalability, raising agility and responsiveness to future demand while lowering capital expenditure. Meanwhile, prefabrication cuts emissions well below the current industry average as it is designed with efficiency at the top of mind, enabling the use of newer technologies such as liquid cooling and intelligent power systems to significantly cut power usage.
It is ironic that data centers are key to the insights that drive innovative solutions in the face of climate change, while itself leaving a hefty carbon footprint. Overcoming this paradox lies in design and operational changes that bring down emissions, water consumption and waste. Certainly, this is an immense opportunity to derive real value through improved cost efficiency and drive the world’s collective effort to avert climate disaster.
