In the year 2015, with the objective to address the challenges of rapid urbanization, the Government of India launched the National Smart Cities mission. The goal – to retrofit 100 cities and make them sustainable by 2023. The mission aims to drive economic growth and improve quality of life through comprehensive work on social, economic, physical, and institutional pillars of the city. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development by creation of replicable models which act as lighthouses to other aspiring cities. An important aspect of smart cities is sustainability. Given the fact that the foundation of most smart cities will be rebuilt and reimagined, it is imperative that the underlying IT and connectivity infrastructure must have an energy-efficient infrastructure.
Data centers are the nerve centers of all digital activities. As every smart city today is dependent on technology to make itself not only efficient and resilient, but also to quickly scale up, the role of a data center in a smart city becomes even more important. If one looks at the scale of growth of data centers, it is clear that the industry is poised for huge growth. Ratings agency ICRA, believes that the Indian data centers industry’s capacity is expected to witness a five-fold increase and is expected to add an overall 3,900-4,100 MW of capacity involving investments of Rs 1.05-1.20 lakh crore in the next five years. Considering the huge demand, almost every global hyperscaler has invested in the Indian market. To expand quickly in the Indian market, these hyperscalers are using the services of colocation service providers.
Data centers – the foundation for every digital activity in a smart city
The success of smart cities will depend in a big way on the quality of its supporting infrastructure. A data center which can lead the way in terms of energy efficiency will help the smart city set standards for every aspect. This has an economic benefit too, as Gartner estimates that approximately 10% of data center OPEX is related to power and increases every year by a significant percentage.
The growth in hyperscale data centers will have a corresponding percolating impact on the energy efficiencies of the smart cities. This is because all the leading hyperscale data center players have taken a series of initiatives to save energy. It is said that Google’s data center today can deliver approximately seven times the computing power from the same electrical power, than what it could do five years back. There are several other ways to save power: Decommission inactive servers, consolidate servers, replace old energy inefficient IT equipment with new energy efficient equipment. It is also equally important to invest in new energy efficient technologies and redesign data centers to manage airflow in a more efficient manner. This is also crucial as approximately 25% of data center power goes into cooling. The good news is that advances in cooling technologies and improvements in saving energy has a big impact. For example, a report by the US based Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory states that improved energy savings is almost canceling out growing capacity. In 2014, data centers in the United States consumed 70 billion kilowatt hours. If energy efficiency levels remained as they were in 2010, the energy consumption by data centers today would be 160 billion kilowatt hours. The surprising reality is that the estimate for 2020 is only 73 billion kilowatt hours. Despite an increase in consumption, if smart cities invest in energy efficient technologies, then the impact can be substantial.
Remote monitoring – the unknown factor for boosting energy efficiency
Besides the above-mentioned parameters, there is one more crucial aspect which has often been overlooked in saving energy for a smart city. Let us explain. The growing number of sensors and systems deployed throughout the smart city mean that city staffers must oversee the installation, maintenance, and operation of more products in more locations. Frequently the city employees rely on manufacturers to provide support. When a city the size of Mumbai or Delhi or Bengaluru implements thousands, or even millions, of sensors, sending a person to troubleshoot every fault becomes both time consuming and cost prohibitive. Having the ability to reset the failing sensor remotely or automatically, device, controlling equipment, or network makes good sense, as it saves both time and money through avoiding the cost of dispatching a person and a vehicle to a remote location to “hit the reset switch.”
Using network-accessible remotely monitored and managed power distribution units (PDUs) can also help in monitoring the temperature and environmental conditions within the cabinet or enclosure housing smart devices. Having infrastructure that is powered by intelligent PDUS also provides a path to reduced energy expenditures by turning off assets that do not need to remain on when they are not in use. For example, city buildings such as libraries, schools, and museums can all be powered down when not in use, saving money and being “greener” for the environment.
With the breadth of sensors (IoT), systems (edge computing), and networks (5G) that go into making the Smart City “smart,” it is imperative that the architects and designers provide for an efficient means of remotely monitoring and resetting the underlying hardware to minimize downtime, avoid costly truck rolls, and ensure the satisfaction of the citizens relying on the use of those systems. Given the fact that data centers are the nerve centers for every digital initiative, every small step taken in saving energy, can have a bigger impact on the energy efficiency of data centers.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sanjay Motwani
Quelle/Source: The Times of India, 05.07.2022
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