GDS: For green and low-carbon, how can high-energy-consuming data centers "slim down"?|Idcnova-Media|the gateway to China data center market

As a solid "base" of the digital economy, the green and low-carbon development of data centers has become an important trend. How to make data centers with strong energy consumption characteristics achieve carbon neutrality has become a common challenge faced by the industry.

Recently, GDS was interviewed by a reporter from People's Daily Online, sharing the company's carbon neutral concept and green and low-carbon actions.

First, GDS shows its Global Operations Command Center located in Waigaoqiao, Pudong district, Shanghai.

Walking into the GDS Global Operations Command Center located in Waigaoqiao, Pudong, it is different from the "Iron Man" in the impression that it is full of technological style and a sense of space, which is quite like a space capsule command center in a sci-fi movie.

The load-bearing column located in the center of the core area is like the "backbone" of the global operation command center. The ceiling is surrounded by a circle of incandescent lights. Under the light circle is a circular command and dispatch platform. Whenever a major event is simulated and drilled, the always bright blue light around the ceiling will instantly turn into a red light, and the commanders will sit around here, linking the whole country to carry out overall coordination through the screen directly opposite

As the "base" of the digital economy, green and low-carbon has become an important trend in the development of data centers. "Green development is already a trend of globalization. As a leading enterprise in the third-party data center industry, GDS should play a leading role in the practice of green development and continuously forge the sustainable development capabilities of enterprises." LIANG Yan (梁艳) said, the co-president of GDS China District.

Hard-core technology to create a green data center with linkage and cooperation

Yang Tao, vice president of GDS Operation Center, introduced that the more than 10 positions around the central command and dispatch platform focus on different management platforms. Experts here will act as the third line of defense to deal with problems and service requests in dozens of centers across the country and around the world in real time. If any problem occurs, different functions and positions will also cooperate with each other according to the actual situation.

"Electricity, heating, cooling, and elimination" are the four core majors of data center operations. Expert seats and a dedicated system for the global operation command center independently developed by GDS are deployed in GOCC:

The electrical expert post monitors the electrical system health of DCUs across the country in real time through the electrical operation system. From the 220KV power supply station to the PDU in the cabinet, they will ensure the uninterrupted operation of the electrical system and to treat "acute diseases";

The HVAC expert post pays more attention to "chronic diseases". Based on the HVAC troubleshooting system, hundreds of HVAC failure scenarios and expert database rules are formed into system rules, which realizes second-level fault location and auxiliary troubleshooting of the system, and will not miss any abnormal status;

The firefighting expert post focuses on the normal operation of each DCU firefighting system. In addition to the traditional firefighting monitoring system, the firefighting operation system can present the key parameters and abnormalities of the whole system in real time;

The weak current expert post is the most important post in the global operation command center, supporting and guarding the "nervous system" of GDS operation, ensuring the accuracy, completeness and cleanliness of all transmitted data, and also ensuring the stability, high-speed and fast connection of various systems. Normally, let the global operations command center as the "nerve center" can fully function.

In addition, a unique environmental risk post has been specially set up for early warning and control of the impact of environmental risks on the operational safety of the data center.

The data center supports powerful computing power, but also bears a large pressure on energy consumption. As a key energy-consuming unit, energy saving and energy efficiency improvement are difficult problems that enterprises must overcome.

"Currently, the PUE (Power Use Efficiency) of the global operation command center has reached 1.22." YANG Tao (杨韬) calculated that under full load, the green data center can save about 10 million kWh of electricity per year.

Energy consumption "slimming", what's the secret?

For example, on the power supply side, change the dual-channel uninterrupted power supply to a single-channel high-voltage DC power supply. "By adjusting the power supply structure, while reducing power consumption loss, it also improves power consumption efficiency." YANG Tao said. In addition, by purchasing and using green power, the data center has achieved a low-carbon transformation. "Currently, the company's use of green electricity in data centers across the country has reached 34%."

YANG Tao said that compared with traditional data centers, green data centers have the characteristics of less resource consumption, high energy utilization, and strong operation and maintenance levels.

GDS could be a microcosm of the green construction of data centers. Thanks to the vigorous development of the digital economy, whether it is the transformation of traditional data centers or the expansion of new data centers, green data centers are rapidly expanding.

In July 2022, Shanghai formulated action plans for the three new tracks of green and low-carbon, metaverse, and smart terminal industries. In terms of green and low-carbon, Shanghai will grasp the development trend of the "six modernizations" of clean energy, low-carbon raw materials, functional materials, high-efficiency processes, terminal electrification, and resource recycling, and implement three major actions including green and low-carbon industry cultivation, featured industrial park upgrades, and industrial ecology improvement. The goal is that by 2025, the industrial scale will exceed 500 billion yuan, focusing on cultivating 10 green and low-carbon leading enterprises, 100 core enterprises and 1000 featured enterprises.

Adapt Measures to Local Conditions and Use Green Energy

GDS adopts green energy according to local conditions. For example, purchase wind power in Zhangbei, purchase hydropower in Shanghai and Chengdu, and participate in new energy transactions in Guangdong, becoming the first batch of companies in the industry to participate in green power transactions in the above regions.

In Shanghai, GDS Shanghai No. 3 Data Center makes full use of the abundant solar energy in East China. On the basis of making full use of the renewable energy in the park, it combines the windowless feature of the building's south-facing facade to create a solar wall. Through the power generation of a layer of solar panels on the outer facade of the wall, the Shanghai No. 3 Data Center increases the use of renewable energy, which can reduce the consumption of traditional thermal power by 90,000 kWh per year, which is equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 63.3 tons.

Except for the above measures for the climate and the future data center development, GDS is

taking multiple measures to promote the realization of the 2030 carbon neutrality goal

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2021-2022 China Data Center Industry Electromechanical Equipment Market Research Report

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