NEWS | DATA CENTRES Data centre demand surged during lockdown Widespread lockdowns and homeworking have boosted demand for data centres in Europe, according to a report on data centres from JLL. Excool system aims to save water A data centre in the UK of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and London increased 22% in 2020, reaching 201.2MW, according to the report, which expects the same rate of growth this year. JLL said London had a record number of data centre planning applications in 2020 and is forecast to have 133MW of development. The report said that growth was being driven by investment in the expansion of 5G technologies by communications service providers. It added that improving inputs can decide the mode of operation. In all cases, the unit will automatically revert to free-cooling mode if the air temperature is low enough, and maintain supply air temperatures without mechanical or evaporative cooling. When free cooling is not available, a cooling system would, traditionally, either switch to a mechanical DX or chilled watercooling mode, or an adiabatic/evaporative mode (including mechanical DX mode for footprint was playing an increasingly crucial role in development. Rosebery turns to Schneider Electric Electrical engineer Rosebery is to install safety electrical equipment from Schneider Electric at a UK global enterprise data centre. I/O units, 11 current-monitoring units, and 145 point sensors. cause power outages and material damage, The site operates at low voltage, with a total load of 8MVA, two 11kv intake supplies, and 8MVA of standby generation. According to Schneider Electric, the VAMP 321 can send a trip signal to the circuit breaker within one millisecond. If low-cost renewable power generation is available, the unit can be programmed to switch automatically during these periods, to take advantage. As well as external Company claims mode-switching technology saves money and water Data centres can use a lot of water for cooling. Traditional direct and indirect evaporative cooling solutions often operate as soon as the outdoor dew- Data centre cooling company Excool has developed a product that, it claims, saves energy and water for indirect evaporative cooling systems. Depending on the cost and availability of water and energy, a controller automatically switches between a water-saving or energy-saving mode. If water is plentiful, then the system operates in energy-priority mode and consumes water whether it be for direct or indirect evaporative cooling. If the priority is to save water because of high costs, or a lack of water, the unit will operate in water-priority mode. A drop in water pressure caused, for example, by other consumers, such as References: system to water-priority mode. 1 Murrant, D, Water use of the UK thermal electricity , 2017. employ cooling towers or evaporative coolers. When water is cheap and plentiful, this makes sense because of savings in electricity. Reducing water consumption at the data centre will probably shift increased water consumption to the central power generator, as more electrically powered cooling will be required. The average water consumption factor for electricity in the United States is 2 litres/kWh and, according to Murrant,1 the UK use may be higher. 62 April 2021 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE April 21 pp62 Data Centre News.indd 62 26/03/2021 14:45