Data Centre Critical Continuous Power

Requirement

Data centres continue to rank among the largest single consumers of energy. Michael Kalny, Head of Engineering for Metronode’s parent company, Nextgen Group, says that around two per cent of total power produced by Australian power stations goes towards supporting data centres, whilst approximately 50 per cent of all the energy consumed by data centres is to directly power the IT equipment (storage and processing), with the remaining 50 per cent consumed to cool that equipment.

According to Morgan Stanley Research, data centre energy demand is projected to increase from 5% of the national electricity grid’s total consumption in 2024 to 8% by 2030, potentially reaching as high as 15% under certain scenarios. This growth is driven by the expanding need for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, which are expected to rise from 1,050 MW in 2024 to nearly 2,500 MW by 2030, marking an 18% increase.

Cooling alone accounts for nearly 40% of each data centre’s total energy consumption, reflecting the significant energy demands of maintaining optimal operating temperatures for IT equipment.

Solution

“Our new generation data centres are based on a modular build configuration which significantly reduces the build time by more than 60 per cent compared to a traditional, non-modular build. We are now complementing our modular data centre build with a modular supporting power plant based on Caterpillar‘s® Continuous power Module (CPM), which includes a UPS, generator and switchgear within an ISO shipping container for conditioned continuous power.”

“CPM’s fit the bill because they are completely customizable to meet customer and site needs,” says EPSA’s UPS Business Manager, Greg Conrad, who assisted EPSA’s tender application by “adapting our offer to suit Metronode’s site specific conditions and requirements.”

“Retrofitting can be quite expensive and adds weeks to a construction schedule, so with a customised CPM there is a reduction in time of travel, installation costs, and there is also minimal disruption to work due to outages. We also delivered significant cost efficiencies, with lower upfront costs, a lower cost of ownership and a high energy efficiency rating, which was integral to the brief.”

“We use the Cat Flywheel UPS, which has a very high efficiency so our CPM helps contribute to a lower PUE (power usage effectiveness), which is the industry standard metric for measuring total facility energy usage compared to IT equipment energy usage. The UPS is very reliable and doesn’t require much servicing. When it does, Westrac provides a full range of service offerings.”