As centralized data storage and processing facility, the data center needs to rely on the uninterrupted operation of servers throughout the year to provide services to Internet users, and needs auxiliary refrigeration equipment such as air conditioning to maintain its reliable operation. As a result, data centers use a lot of power.
So how much power do data centers use? For some time to come, super data centers will continue to be installed, which will bring a large demand for electricity?
The energy use of data centers has always been a concern in the industry.
The power consumption of data center mainly includes IT equipment, refrigeration system, power supply and distribution system, lighting system and other facilities (including security equipment, firefighting, waterproofing, sensors and management system of relevant data center building, etc.).
Among them, IT equipment mainly refers to the equipment responsible for information exchange and storage, such as servers and networks, which is the major part of the total energy consumption of data centers, accounting for about 40% of the total energy consumption.
Since the beginning of this year, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused a sharp increase in demand for online services, online education, online offices and other businesses. As a result, the number of data centers is expected to exceed forecasts and demand for electricity will grow.
In terms of the number, it is estimated that the number of large and above data center racks will reach 4.98 million by the end of 2020, and it is estimated that the number of large and above data center racks will reach 8.02 million by 2025.
From the geographical distribution, Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang and other economically developed regions, large and above the number of data center switchboards accounted for a large number. Due to policy and renewable resource advantages, the number of green data centers in regions such as Inner Mongolia and Guizhou has also increased.
The general idea is to only talk about "total" rather than "marginal" power consumption. The "total" of data center power consumption seems huge, but in fact, from the perspective of "marginal", data center does gradually remove the "energy consumption" label through efforts.
With the rapid growth of the number of data centers, electricity consumption is bound to increase as well, but the two do not necessarily show a direct linear relationship. That said, electricity consumption may struggle to match the data center explosion.
To understand the correlation, start with the concept of PUE, Power Usage Effectiveness, and an internationally accepted measure of datacenter Power use efficiency.
Assuming that servers in different data centers consume the same amount of energy, the lower the PUE value, the lower the energy consumption of the data center in cooling and other auxiliary systems, and the lower the total energy consumption.
At the beginning of 2020, the PUE value of global data centers is decreasing. To be specific, the number of instances of global data center computing increased by 550% in 2018 compared with 2010, while the power consumption of global data center increased by only 6% in the same period. Similar to foreign countries, the energy consumption of domestic data centers also shows a trend of gradual decrease year by year.
Before 2013, the average PUE value of national external service data centers was around 2.5, while by the end of 2019, the average PUE value of national external service data centers was nearly 1.6.
Why does the PUE value decrease? There are two main reasons.
1.The change in scale.
In recent years, the size of data centers has shifted from small to large concentrations. Before 2013, the number of large and above data centers in China was small, but by 2019, the rack size of large and above data centers accounted for about 70%. Such data centers (such as the super data centers mentioned above) are large in size and can be optimized for energy consumption through intensive and effective management.
2.Technological upgrading.
China's data centers mainly optimize energy consumption by simplifying power supply architecture, introducing cooling technology and optimizing energy management. The application of refrigeration technology is the most brilliant among them. In recent years, Ali Cloud has developed several super data centers, which, according to the characteristics of different regions, use submerged-type liquid cooling, river source water cooling or natural air cooling to reduce related energy consumption and PUE value. Among them, the PUE value of data center using submerged liquid cooling technology can reach about 1.07.
Even if the PUE value has been significantly reduced, power consumption will still increase as the data center lands. Therefore, how to further optimize the increased electricity and make the data center greener and more energy efficient through technological level and advanced energy management methods will be a problem that needs to be considered by all parties in the future.
