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Can a data centre achieve Net Zero?

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:

By OnSite Energy Projects

Achieving net zero is a challenge for any business but data centres are amongst the most power hungry users. Globally data centres consume >3% of total power generation (that’s 140% of the entire UK power generation). So can data centres ever attain net zero?

Some data centres simply buy “green tariffs” which in my view is a cheat, and it won’t be acceptable in the long run.  It also misses the real opportunity of embracing the move towards net zero, which is  to reduce operating costs and be green at local level. Achieving net zero lies in a combination of energy efficiency and local zero carbon generation.

Data centres are often measured by their PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) which is Total Facility Power consumption divided by IT Equipment Power.  Typically PUE is in the range 1.5-2.0  depending on location.  The traditional approach in building a data centre is to size the power supply and cooling to the maximum compute capacity, with redundancy.  In practice this means a lot of equipment on standby or in reserve just in case.

We typically see several energy savings options in data centres.  For instance, alternative cooling technologies can be used which save significant energy (up to 90% of cooling load), and are also cheaper than traditional cooling and more scalable to deploy as IT power grows.  Resulting PUE can fall below 1.1.

Reducing consumption also narrows the gap that zero carbon onsite generation then needs to address.  The main factors in specifying generation solutions are usually available space on site, scale of generation needed and access to nearby low carbon or renewable generation.

The benefits such an approach brings are (1) cheaper operating costs;  (2) reduced CO2 emissions; (3) long-term cheaper power than grid, and (4) enhanced resilience. These are all key factors in attracting and retaining tenants.   Adoption of the alternative cooling technologies can even enable more dense rack compute power, so enabling more use of space, higher rents and higher occupancy.

The technology may not be there today to go fully net zero, but I am convinced its coming.  Adopting a strategy towards net zero will be vital for attracting and retaining customers.

Onsite Energy Projects enables the achievement of net zero via our innovative data-led approach and zero capex solution. For more details please contact us at info@on-site.energy or on 0161 444 9989.

http://on-site.energy

Do you have a Net Zero strategy?

 960 640 Guest Post
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The UK has become the first major economy to pass laws requiring all greenhouse gas emissions to be net zero by 2050. The electricity grid is decarbonising (its carbon intensity has dropped by over 50% since 2011 to where it is today – 254 g CO2 per kWh) and is forecast to drop another 50% by 2030. Grid costs are rising to pay for this transition.

A key lies in the word “NET” because whilst some businesses will struggle to reduce carbon, others could actually become POSITIVE – e.g. generating excess renewable power.  New business models and revenue streams could emerge though

So what does this mean for YOUR business ?  How do you develop a net zero strategy ? 

  1. Significant changes will be needed to the way you do business and use energy.  The changes could impact how your employees come to work, how you distribute your products, sell your products, procure your raw materials and use your facilities.  Processes may require to be redesigned and reengineered.  This will mean the ability to embrace change, challenge existing assumptions, innovate and understanding of alternative methods and costs

Businesses should be looking NOW at their own operations and looking for ways to BOTH reduce consumption AND generate their own low carbon power locally in a sustainable way.  Simply buying a green energy tariff is not sufficient. There are many very good long term business benefits by embracing this genuinely, which can become a source of competitive advantage.

For businesses that use a lot of gas, this is going to be particularly challenging. Gas is cheap (5-6 x cheaper than electricity), so changing away from gas will be expensive.

2. Those changes will have financial costs that may not be affordable within conventional capex constraints.  New business models such as energy as a service are increasingly available to help bridge the gap, and enable changes to happen. 

NET ZERO WILL REQUIRE NOTHING SHORT OF AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, with new business models and technology, and all within the next 30 years.  

These are the reasons Onsite Energy Projects exists – we help businesses innovate, reengineer their energy supply chain and implement the full potential of both energy efficiency and on-site generation measures.  We recognised the challenge of capex availability and can provide a no-capex, off-balance sheet, solution to make it all happen.

If you would like to know more email us at info@on-site.energy or call on 0161 444 9989.

Onsite Energy Projects provides energy savings and energy generation solutions to energy intensive businesses, without capex if required. 

Do you have a Net Zero strategy?

 960 640 Guest Post
By:

The UK has become the first major economy to pass laws requiring all greenhouse gas emissions to be net zero by 2050. The electricity grid is decarbonising (its carbon intensity has dropped by over 50% since 2011 to where it is today – 254 g CO2 per kWh) and is forecast to drop another 50% by 2030.  Grid costs are rising to pay for this transition.

A key lies in the word “NET” because whilst some businesses will struggle to reduce carbon, others could actually become POSITIVE – e.g. generating excess renewable power.  New business models and revenue streams could emerge though

So what does this mean for YOUR business ?  How do you develop a net zero strategy ? 

  1. Significant changes will be needed to the way you do business and use energy.  The changes could impact how your employees come to work, how you distribute your products, sell your products, procure your raw materials and use your facilities.  Processes may require to be redesigned and reengineered.  This will mean the ability to embrace change, challenge existing assumptions, innovate and understanding of alternative methods and costs

Businesses should be looking NOW at their own operations and looking for ways to BOTH reduce consumption AND generate their own low carbon power locally in a sustainable way.  Simply buying a green energy tariff is not sufficient. There are many very good long term business benefits by embracing this genuinely, which can become a source of competitive advantage.

For businesses that use a lot of gas, this is going to be particularly challenging. Gas is cheap (5-6 x cheaper than electricity), so changing away from gas will be expensive.

  • 2. Those changes will have financial costs that may not be affordable within conventional capex constraints.  New business models such as energy as a service are increasingly available to help bridge the gap, and enable changes to happen. 

NET ZERO WILL REQUIRE NOTHING SHORT OF AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, with new business models and technology, and all within the next 30 years.  

These are the reasons Onsite Energy Projects exists – we help businesses innovate, reengineer their energy supply chain and implement the full potential of both energy efficiency and on-site generation measures.  We recognised the challenge of capex availability and can provide a no-capex, off-balance sheet, solution to make it all happen.

If you would like to know more email us at info@on-site.energy or call on 0161 444 9989.

Onsite Energy Projects provides energy savings and energy generation solutions to energy intensive businesses, without capex if required. 

Saving money using Artificial Intelligence

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:

By OnSite Energy Projects

We are used to BMS (building management systems) to control buildings, and spreadsheets to analyse data. Both of these require human input (and are prone to human error). So does Artificial Intelligence have any role to play, and could it save money? Firstly, what is AI?

  • “Artificial Intelligence” (“AI”) is software “able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, decision-making, and translation between languages”.
  • “Machine Learning” (“ML”) is the “application of artificial intelligence that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed”

At OEP, we are already using AI / ML in two very real building and energy management applications and seeing £££ financial benefits:

  • Energy Management. We can ingest half-hourly meter data daily, and the software will identify patterns that could indicate a fault or anomaly, so it can be investigated before it becomes a cost. The ML learns from human past action (or inaction) on the issues raised to know if it should raise the issue again in future, or simply log it.

We provide “Energy Management as a Service” for less than £10 per meter per month, which provides over-loaded energy managers with a proactive management tool, particularly across an estate of meters.  An example benefit we picked up within 24 hours, was a (human) BMS programming error that would have cost £60,000 had it gone undetected.

We have plans to extend this to monitoring sub-meter data as well.

  • Automated BMS. AI/ML can also be deployed directly to manage the BMS.  The software “learns” how the building reacts over time to different events and climate conditions (creating a “digital twin”) and can develop its own strategies for how to optimise the building to (1) deliver the climate goals consistently and (2) at least energy cost.   It can even re-commission the building regularly.  Saving are typically 25%-40% of HVAC load – the impact of running the equipment at the right times and loads, and turning off when not needed.

The benefits of using AI is the ability for it to react quickly to changing circumstances. Other applications we are engaged on using AI are compressed air management and refrigeration systems.

If you would like to know more email us at info@on-site.energy or call on 0161 444 9989.

Onsite Energy Projects provides energy savings and energy generation solutions to energy intensive businesses, without capex if required.

ESOS 2 is complete, so what now?

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:

5 December 2019 has gone!  ESOS 2 is complete! ESOS 3 is 4 years away… but customers are asking for sustainability improvements and cost savings, and on top of that, SECR is now with us.

That’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting, and means that qualifying businesses will need to track and report their kWh consumption and carbon emissions (in various groupings) and report them ANNUALLY within their published financial statements. The chances are that if you had to do ESOS you will have to do SECR.   The Government expects more than 11,000 businesses to report compared to only around 3,000 who had to do ESOS.

SECR requires by law, a statement in your company’s published accounts about your energy and carbon consumption. Also relevant performance indicators and a narrative about material actions being taken to reduce energy consumption and emissions.  Note the word “material”. That means they won’t allow changes that impact say less than 2% of your energy spend to be included.

In practice, business performance in respect of emissions and consumption against their competitors is going to be visible for the first time.  In competitive and environmentally sensitive sectors, such as food sector, it means that customers may look at these reports and could prioritise their supply chain based on it, so its going to be important to demonstrate progress and a high performance.  The whole essence of SECR is to use peer pressure to drive action.

So the ESOS 2 report has highlighted a series of measures, but how can you do them when the criteria for payback is only, say 2 years? This is the reason Onsite Energy Projects exists.  We recognised the challenge of capex availability and can provide a no-capex, off-balance sheet solution to implement both energy efficiency and on-site generation measures.

We may also be able to identify additional improvement measures, and deliver them all without any capex. If you would like to know more email us at info@on-site.energy or call on 0161 444 9989.

Onsite Energy Projects provides energy savings and energy generation solutions to energy intensive businesses, without capex if required.

Electricity Savings In Plain Sight

 960 640 Guest Post
By:

Take a look at your electricity bill. What do you see? Many will probably look at the rate and the bottom line £ amount, and often that’s about it before it gets passed for payment.

Energy savings in the past has been associated with re-broking to secure a better rate.  Even then, fewer than 60% of UK businesses use a broker.  Negotiating a better rate is right and proper. But what you or your broker is actually doing is only affecting around 40%-50% of the bill – the wholesale element – and the scope for savings in that is limited.

BUT TAKE A CLOSER LOOK at your bill – particularly the itemised elements – you will find that over 50% of most electricity bills relates to “NON-ENERGY” costs (we regularly see 58%-60%).

“NON-ENERGY” costs are the recharges being made through your bills for Government subsidies for renewables obligations, contracts for difference and feed-in-tariffs, and also grid use of system charges (DNUos, TNUoS etc). These charges are generally shown as a £/kWh, and are set to rise by 30% over the period to 2030, due to known contractual commitments.   So that’s 30% more on 60% of your bill will impact by 2030 – that’s an increase of at least 18%.

What many businesses don’t realise is that if you generate power at your premises, and don’t use the grid, then these “non-energy” costs aren’t payable as they are only charged based on kWh consumed through the grid.

However, taking measures to generate energy on site may face a longer payback than you are willing to invest in.  This is one of the reason Onsite Energy Projects exists, to help businesses implement both energy efficiency and on-site generation measures for these longer payback measures.  We recognised the challenge of capex availability and can provide a no-capex, off-balance sheet solution

If you would like to know more email us at info@on-site.energy or call on 0161 444 9989.

Onsite Energy Projects provides energy savings and energy generation solutions to energy intensive businesses, without capex if required.

RENEWABLE HEAT ENERGY: Incentive Scheme Set to End

 960 640 Guest Post
By:

If you use hot or warm water (or cooling) within your operations, and are interested in reducing your carbon footprint or in using renewable energy, you need to have until 31 March 2021 to benefit from the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) subsidies.   

This subsidy provides a “per kWh” financial contribution for installed qualifying technologies, which helps to reduce the payback time.  The subsidy is paid for 20 years and increases annually in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). The technologies that can qualify include solar thermal,  heat pumps (ground, air and water source), biomass boilers, deep geothermal and biogas combustion.

We can offer a CAPEX-FREE SOLAR THERMAL, using a leading British solar thermal technology, for less than the cost per kWh you are paying presently for gas or electricity.  The heat supplied is metered and installation is simple.   An installation of 150 kW (which is around 450m2) would produce around 190-200,000 kWh of heat annually in UK – at 45oC-60oC – the equivalent of over 100,000 showers.   

This is ideal for swimming pools, hotels, sport facilities, healthcare facilities and companies with a year round demand for hot water (for instance food manufacturing)

We can also help specify and install qualifying heat pumps. 

If you would like to know more, pls email us at info@on-site.energy or call on 0161 444 9989.

Onsite Energy Projects provides energy savings and energy generation solutions to energy intensive businesses, without capex if required.