Data Centres as Ancillary Service Provider: An Optimisation Approach

By rapid increase in use of the information and communications technologies, data centres
build up with a growing number of servers, storage units, networking equipment,
infrastructure such as backup power units and cooling systems to provide reliable and low
latency of services to customers. These growths, however, cause an increase in the energy
cost of data centre dramatically. Data centre operators are in need of the energy cost
reduction.
In other respects, due to greenhouse gas reduction policies low carbon technologies (i.e.,
photovoltaic systems, wind tribunes and electric vehicles etc.) have been adopted into the
electric energy systems. However, the intermittent and uncertain natures of these technologies
have brought a major change in the landscape of energy management. The electricity energy
sector is trying to keep up with these changes to maintain the integrity, security and quality of
the system with the participation of the electricity customers as ancillary service provider.
However, the customers who are able to change of their demand rapidly are needed.
EU H2020 project "Sustainable energy demand side management for GREEN Data Centers-
GREENDC" aims to turn into an advantage of two sectors’ needs. Data centres with large
amount of energy demand and their infrastructure are the preferred customers for demand side
management. Data centers can make a contribution to the electric energy sector and mitigate
their energy cost as the participant of demand side mangement. In GREENDC project, an
optimisation approach using the characteristic of data center infrastructure as ancillary service
provider is proposed. This approach will be introduced in this presentation.