Green Networked Data Centers as Energy Prosumers in Smart City (GEYSER)
The FP7 project GEYSER develops and demonstrates a software framework aimed at improving Data Centers’ (DCs) energy efficiency and reducing their carbon footprint by managing their energy consumption and local energy generation.
The concept
In order to manage effectively the energy demand of DCs, the GEYSER Framework can initiate several flexibility mechanisms, for example load migration to process IT workload at the lowest cost and thus can trigger the DC to provide surplus electricity to the grid. Other example is shifting load associated with cooling purposes to satisfy the DC’s demand at the lowest cost by operating a thermal storage.
The GEYSER “Energy Simulation Prototype”
Prior to the laboratory testing and validation period, the GEYSER project has developed an “Energy Simulation Prototype” (presented in January 2015 in deliverable D6.2) to obtain detailed understanding of the DC energy dynamics and its interaction with the Smart City.
The GEYSER “Energy Simulation Prototype” encompasses different energy consumption components in the DC (IT/non-IT/thermal/electrical), local energy generation (brown/green), Smart City/Grid components (generation/consumption), and DC Control components that enable the deployment of GEYSER Framework’s functionalities and allow the analysis of their effect on the grid. The GEYSER “Energy Simulation Prototype” is compiled based on the guidelines of deliverable D3.1 “Energy consumption/production monitoring subsystem design” of the GEYSER project finalized under the leadership of RWTH Aachen in October 2014.
The real-time execution of the GEYSER “Energy Simulation Prototype” provides the necessary data for Hardware in the Loop (HiL) testing of real DC equipment under the intended simulated conditions. The on-going HiL tests include the assessment of the cooling efficiency of one or more computational racks.
The IT center of RWTH, active in high performance computing, will support the modeling of DC components with its experience in benchmarking of servers to further substantiate the outcomes of the GEYSER “Energy Simulation Prototype”.
Field demonstration
The validation of the GEYSER Framework will take place in several green DCs under real operational conditions. These are: Green Point Saint Martin DC and Terni DC located in Italy, and a DC facility located in the Netherlands territory.
Sponsorship
This project is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 609211.