Mission Critical Power August 2019 by The Energyst

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ISSUE 23: August 2019

How Tottenham Hotspur is saving energy, as well as goals, at its new state-ofthe art stadium

A survey reveals that outages are common and costly, spanning multiple data centres

Should Ireland’s data centres move from a ‘renewables first’ ambition to ‘renewables only’?

Work safer on medium voltage systems See page 14

IN THIS ISSUE

Great save

Tackling outages

Tottenham Hotspur FC is saving energy, as well as goals, at its new state-of-the art stadium at White Hart Lane

The Uptime Institute’s 2019 survey shows that outages are common. So what are data centre operators getting wrong?

12 Blackout fears What would happen if the whole of the UK was plunged into darkness by a nationwide electricity blackout?

30 Energy risk With increasing volatility in the energy markets during the past year, data centre operators need to consider more than just price

Battery storage

missioncriticalpower.uk

ISSUE 23: August 2019

How Tottenham Hotspur is saving energy, as well as goals, at its new state-ofthe art stadium

A survey reveals that outages are common and costly, spanning multiple data centres

Should Ireland’s data centres move from a ‘renewables first’ ambition to ‘renewables only’?

Going green Should data centre operators adopt a renewables only strategy ?

The falling cost of Li-ion is enabling data centre operators to review electrical distribution topology and generate income

Work safer on medium voltage systems See page 14

14 Front Cover Megger’s PD Scan

Comment

Decentralised Energy

Modular Solutions

News

Edge Data Centres

Thermal Optimisation

Energy Procurement

Products

Enclosures

Q&A

Asset Management Software 8 Data Centre Trends

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August 2019 MCP

Work s

COMMENT

Turning up the heat... As I write this, temperatures are rising in data centres around the UK, testing the resilience of the IT infrastructure to its limits. In London, ambient temperatures hit 89°F today, and temperatures are expected to soar to 101°F. We know that global temperatures are rising and, in the years to come, we can expect further heatwaves of this magnitude.

sector and many data centre operators do not have an accurate picture of their facility’s thermal status.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10°F over the next century. Despite this trend, the latest Uptime Institute survey finds that climate change is not causing the data centre industry a great deal of concern. Half of operators said they were not currently preparing for climate change, with more than half of that cohort stating that their existing plans are sufficient (30% of total respondents).

Operators of data centres and technical spaces are failing to get the basics right, but there is also a need to educate on best practice when selecting cooling approaches. According to Stulz UK’s Phil McEneaney, about half of businesses currently install comfort cooling instead of the correct precision cooling in technical environments. Unlike comfort air conditioning units, precision units feature strictly controlled and accurate dehumidification, as too much humidity can lead to condensation and corrosion, while too little can cause static charges, data loss and damage to hardware.

So, is this confidence justified? Industry experts report that, all too often, thermal optimisation is found to be inadequate, during site audits. Indeed, previous research by EkkoSense, which analysed some 128 UK data centre halls and more than 16,500 IT equipment racks, revealed that eight out of 10 UK data centres do not comply with ASHRAE thermal guidelines. The same survey found that 66% of installed cooling equipment is not actually delivering any active cooling benefits. There is a lack of knowledge in the

Editor Louise Frampton louise@energystmedia.com t: 020 34092043 m: 07824317819 Managing Editor Tim McManan-Smith tim@energystmedia.com Design and production Paul Lindsell paul@energystmedia.com m: 07790 434813

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Sales director Steve Swaine steve@energystmedia.com t: 020 3714 4451 m: 07818 574300

“With 29% of outages due to thermal issues, data centres need to improve their thermal strategy,” comments Vertiv’s Simon Brady. He reports that, when carrying out surveys, thermal issues were identified in virtually every case and found to be the number one issue.

“This is a common mistake,” McEneaney comments. “There is a need for education on the importance of precision cooling in delivering resilient IT operations. We are frequently called in to replace inappropriate units installed in technical spaces,” he continues. As a nation, we love to talk about the weather, but what we also need to talk about is cooling and efficiency. Greater priority needs to be made to monitoring and optimisation of temperatures in technical spaces, from IT applications at the edge, to large-scale data centres. Louise Frampton, editor

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No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Mission Critical Power is a controlled circulation magazine available to selected professionals interested in energy, who fall within the publishers terms of control. For those outside of these terms, annual subscriptions is £60 including postage in the UK. For all subscriptions outside the UK the annual subscription is £120 including postage.

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NEWS & COMMENT

Changing outlook for demand-side response debated by top experts The government says it will consider multi-year agreements for demand-side response (DSR) in the Capacity Market – if there is evidence to support they are required. The Department For Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (Beis) is mulling a number of Capacity Market changes as part of its five-year review, many relating to DSR. The Capacity Market is currently suspended pending the outcome of an investigation by the European Commission. It was halted after the European Court of Justice ruled that the Commission had failed to effectively scrutinise the Capacity Market’s compatibility with state aid rules. The ruling came about after Tempus Energy launched legal action in 2015. CEO Sara Bell claimed the market was anticompetitive because DSR could only bid for one-year Capacity Market agreements whereas new build generation could bid for 15-year agreements. Bell argued that the Commission did not conduct a proper investigation into state aid

Balancing act: the government intends to review potential issues related to DSR

compatibility – which the ECJ upheld, ruling in Tempus’ favour. The government believes the Capacity Market will be reinstated without requiring major changes later this year, but said it intends to review potential issues related to DSR. These include contract lengths, de-rating factors, delivery assurance and the 2MW minimum threshold, which may be brought down to 1MW. Ultimately, flexibility will be key in a power system dominated by renewables and

this has profound implications for businesses. MCP sister title The Energyst’s fifth annual DSR Event provides key insight into the changing outlook for flexibility – and the morning conference is free for end users. Taking place on 11 September, London, delegates will hear from National Grid about changes to its flexibility services, along with expert insight from energy suppliers, aggregators and consultants on the evolution of flexible power. Representatives from the

Environment Agency and Beis will respectively outline the impact of the Medium Combustion Plant Directive on back-up generation from a DSR perspective and incoming changes to the Capacity Market. Cornwall insight will outline how changes to network charging regimes will impact business energy bills and strategies. Distribution Network Operator UK Power Networks will outline how businesses with flexible load, generation or battery storage can get paid to help it manage network constraints. Elexon will provide a succinct introduction to Terre – the pan-European balancing market set to open in 2020. Industrial and commercial end users that provide DSR will detail their experiences – positive and negative. All delegates will receive a free copy of The Energyst’s 2019 DSR report, providing a snapshot of the market today – and where it is headed tomorrow. To secure your place and see the full agenda, visit dsrevent.uk

UK launch for ABB’s power consulting service Operators of power grids, industrial sites and traction power systems need to develop investment and operational strategies that will yield long-term efficiency, availability and flexibility of power transmission and distribution assets. To accomplish this, third party experts are often called in to provide independent advice and support – with these consultants and advisors often suggesting alternative approaches to integrating new and innovative technologies. As the UK is one of the most advanced markets in terms of the adoption of digital technology as well as innovation, ABB Power Grids chose it as the place to launch its consulting platform. This offering MCP August 2019

includes techno-economic feasibility studies, market forecasts, system engineering and optimisation, and life-cycle asset management via a single customer portal. “An important aspect of ABB’s advisory services is that they are performance-based and offered on a brand/technology-agnostic basis. This provides the project owner with the confidence that the advice is not tied to a proprietary product or service and that they can, ultimately, purchase technology, equipment or system solutions from any vendor,” said ABB’s Krish Chettur. “ABB’s new approach to consulting is helping to provide support in a fast-changing market. The company has always worked with utilities to help them prioritise and optimise

their investments or forecast their supply-demand dynamics. However, the energy transition is leading to greater adoption of microgrids, renewable energy and the electrification of transport,” he continued. In view of this, ABB now considers new factors such as market aggregators, microgrid operators and energy storage operators. It can also support renewable energy operators; for example by providing technical and commercial review of tender submissions for transmission and distribution projects. In addition, once a new asset is in place, ABB can provide asset management lifecycle support to optimise performance. missioncriticalpower.uk

Upskilling data technicians of the future Mercury has announced plans to put 50 trainee data technicians through the Certified Network Cable Installer (CNCI) technical education programme in the next three years as part of its trainee schedule and an industry initiative to encourage more people to consider a career in the network infrastructure industry. Mercury delivers

construction solutions across a range of key sectors including data centres, healthcare, life sciences and technology, fire protection, building services and technical support services. The company employs almost 2,000 people across Ireland, the UK and Europe. The trainee data technicians at Mercury will undergo a three-year training

programme equivalent to an apprenticeship whereby they will learn the principal roles and responsibilities of a data technician. Trainees will receive off-the-job technical training at a number of educational providers including RWL Advanced Solutions in Dublin, where the CNCI programme will be delivered by one of CNet Training’s industry leading expert instructors.

Keppel to tap demand for edge facilities with Etix investment Keppel Data Centres has invested approximately ¤14m (£12.5m) in Etix, securing a minority stake in the Luxembourg colocation business. Etix leverages prefabricated data centre modules for quick data centre deployment and has built up a network of edge and high-performance computing data centres across Europe, Africa, Latin America and southeast Asia. To date, the company has deployed more than 50MW of colocation capacity through 12

data centres, and has a strong development pipeline for expansion. Etix also has a unit that carries out research and development for the Etix group of companies. It has an innovative portfolio that includes patented solutions to help partners and customers optimise energy efficiency, security and IT workloads in their data centres. Keppel Data Centres’ investment in Etix comes at a time when the importance of

edge data centres is coming to the fore. Through the deployment of smaller and decentralised servers away from the network source, enterprises are increasingly looking to bring data processing closer to where the data is actually consumed, driven by latency, data security, and data sovereignty considerations. Gartner predicts that by 2022, 50% of all data would be processed in an edge environment, up from 10% in 2017.

Gen set installation protects power supplies for North Tees hospital Mission critical power specialist DTGen has completed a generator installation at the new £14m energy centre at the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton-on-Tees. DTGen supplied two FG Wilson 2,500kVA standby rated sets for continuous parallel operation, complete with a front-end control suite for multiple mains parallel operation. The system is designed on an N+1 basis with both sets initially connecting to load and missioncriticalpower.uk

then shedding back to a duty set. The sets are designed with a 65dba plant room installation, with both sets running, as well as daily service tanks and fuel transfer to comply with HTM (health technical memoranda). In addition to the equipment supplied by DTGen, the new energy centre, which sits within the busy existing hospital estate, will house a new primary intake substation, combined heat and power system, PV system, boiler plant, oil fuel storage and

distribution, water storage and associated mechanical and electrical infrastructure. All of this is controlled for load shed via the DTG control suite. Jon Crank, pre-contract manager in NG Bailey’s Engineering division, said: “The completion of the infrastructure upgrade will be a fundamental milestone in the regeneration of the University Hospital of North Tees site. The new energy centre will be more reliable, more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly.”

News in brief Rackspace achieves OCP-Ready status The Open Compute Project has announced that the Rackspace LON5, a stateof-the-art data centre facility located in Crawley, West Sussex, has achieved OCP-Ready status. The 12,000 sq m, 50,000 server facility was designed using OCP standards to optimise energy conservation and scalability. LON5 features an outstanding Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15, compared with the average data centre rating of 1.7, has a design BREEAM assessment certification of ‘Excellent’ and uses indirect outside air cooling technology, making it one of the UK’s greenest data centres. LON5 is Rackspace’s 10th data centre facility and offers 3MW of colocation availability. Equinix partners with GIC on joint venture Equinix has signed a $1bn (£800m) joint venture with GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, to develop and operate xScale data centres in Europe. The initial facilities will serve the core workload deployment needs of a targeted group of hyperscale companies, including the world’s largest cloud service providers. Digital Realty plans new Paris data centre Digital Realty has announced it has closed on the acquisition of a 3.5-acre land parcel, located in Ferriers-enBrie, east of Paris, where it will build a new 12MW data centre. Digital Realty chief executive officer William Stein, commented: “Given local supply constraints and rapidly growing enterprise colocation and hyperscale customer demand, Paris is an attractive connectivity hub poised for significant growth.”

August 2019 MCP

ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Spurred on to achieve high resilience

Tottenham Hotspur FC is saving energy, as well as goals, at its new state-of-the art stadium at White Hart Lane, using the latest technology. The use of connected analytics is also preventing the risk of catastrophic outages, which have stopped play at other major sporting venues, around the world. Louise Frampton reports

or fans of Tottenham Hotspur, ‘football came home’ to a new £850m stadium at White Hart Lane on 3 April this year. Capable of seating more than 62,000 fans, the state-of-the art stadium kicked-off a new era with a victory against Crystal Palace. Capable of hosting both Premier League football and American football matches, this impressive sporting facility boasts some stand-out features – including a glass walkway, where visitors can experience a ‘Sky Walk’ 40 ft above the pitch, reach out to touch the cockerel above the stand, and test their nerve by abseiling from the stadium roof. The stadium also features the world’s first retractable, dividing pitch, rolling out

MCP August 2019

the natural grass to reveal an artificial surface below; and, for thirsty fans, there is also a queue-busting 65m bar (the longest in Europe) spanning the entire length of the goal line, served by the stadium’s own microbrewery. Every last detail has been designed to enhance the fans’ experience, making Tottenham Hotspur a ‘destination’ far beyond the typical sporting venue. Behind the scenes, White Hart Lane is also one of the most technologically advanced stadiums in the world – from the IT infrastructure enhancing the fans’ interactive experience, during major sporting and live-music events, through to the sophisticated monitoring systems supporting intelligent management of power

infrastructure and lighting. Any outage during a game would have serious ramifications for safety, as well as impacting the reputation and finances of the club. In the US, a power outage lasting 35 minutes interrupted the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, which was traced back to a “relay’s trip setting”. At the time, the outage prompted considerable anxiety over whether the incident would impact the city’s ability to attract ‘big-ticket’ games in the future. To avoid the risk of highprofile incidents such as these, technically advanced electrical infrastructure has been installed at the heart of the new stadium’s design – supported by Tottenham Hotspur’s energy management

partner, Schneider Electric. The electrical infrastructure installed at the site has been optimised to deliver the twin goals of resilience and energy efficiency. Four major substations from Schneider Electric bring power into the stadium and provide a high level of resilience in the event of any problems with the UK power networks. In addition, the stadium’s power is backed-up by two standby generators, while various uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems have been installed throughout the stadium. There are two main IT data rooms located within the stadium and each room has UPS support consisting of three 300Kva Galaxy 7000 UPS missioncriticalpower.uk

9 modules in parallel to provide a 600Kva N+1 configuration. Serving the emergency control, command centre and ticket office, there are a further six 20/30Kva Galaxy 5500 UPS systems, and for the turnstiles, there are seven 6/8Kva SRT 1Ph UPS systems. As part of the control automation package for the pitch systems, there are also about 20-40 2-3Kva smart UPS backing up the processors. Schneider has also supplied switchgear and protection for the stadium – including 55 subdistribution boards and 680 distribution boards. “The reason for this large volume of panels is not simply for electrical safety, but to break down the measurement and control of the automation of every part of the stadium. This is to help the club optimise energy efficiency,” says David Hall, vice-president, Power Systems, for Schneider Electric UK&I. The company also provided boiler plant and chiller systems, as well as 319 lighting control panels. For the pitch, 2,300 lights were provided to enable » Back of the net: Technically advanced electrical infrastructure lies at the heart of the new stadium’s design

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68% of businesses are wasting energy

Schneider Electric UK has launched its ‘Rethink Energy’ initiative, a programme aimed at changing business, consumer and government attitudes to energy waste and helping to combat climate change. A Schneider Electric-commissioned study of 2,000 UK adults and more than 600 UK businesses revealed that 68% of business leaders reported their organisations wasted energy, particularly in the form of inefficient building and office space. Fewer than half (43%) of company chiefs also shared their organisation had not implemented any measures aimed at tackling these inefficiencies in 2018. To launch its Rethink Energy initiative, Schneider Electric held a panel debate at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, one of the world’s most energy efficient stadiums. Schneider Electric is THFC’s official energy management partner. During the debate, Mike Hughes, zone president, Schneider Electric UK & Ireland, commented: “We need to bring energy front of mind. The market needs to take an activist approach to advocate for and instil efficiency and build an investment mindset if we are to achieve the 2050 net zero goal.” He added that “as energy waste becomes more visible, businesses will increasingly be held accountable”. Ben Golding, director, Energy Efficiency and Local, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, added: “We’ve always needed to get to net zero. The question has always been when, not if.” To encourage people to change their behaviour, David Joffe, team leader at the UK Committee on Climate Change, highlighted the need to: 1) give people enough information to make decisions; 2) make it a desirable (almost competitive) thing to do; and 3) enable people to take action. “Much of the problem with energy efficiency is measurement, you need to know how the measures you have put in place are performing,” he commented. Despite the findings, James Diggle, head of energy and climate change, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said that there is “a huge appetite for change from businesses, not just driven by reputation, but also by future business stability”.

August 2019 MCP

ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Fever pitch: White Hart Lane has its own data centre supported by Schneider’s advanced BMS and connected analytics

the grass to grow while it is retracted under the stadium. As one of the most technologically advanced stadiums in the world, it also has its own data centre. Schneider Electric’s CRAC units and monitoring systems help optimise the temperature of the servers, to ensure reliable IT operations. All of these systems (along with a wide range of connected equipment from third-party suppliers) are supported by Schneider’s advanced BMS and connected analytics. This

is attributed to buildings, compared with 58% for industry, for example. The unrealised potential in terms of energy efficiency is estimated to be around 82%. With the UK government committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, unlocking energy savings for large buildings such as Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium, will have an important part to play. Visibility is key, according to Marc Garner, vice-president, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric UK&I.

software facilitates a predictive approach to maintenance for electrical infrastructure and potential problems can be quickly identified and addressed. For example, harmonic noise, created by devices such as computers and LEDs, can interfere with electrical equipment or cause protected devices to trip – even when they are not overloaded. Data collected via meters and analysed by the EcoStruxure software can help identify areas where there is a need to install harmonic filters. Power factor

All of the assets are connected on to the network, so the estates team at Tottenham can understand exactly where there are inefficiencies, how they can optimise usage, increase productivity and extend the life cycle of their assets includes a range of intelligent software platforms, which include: • EcoStruxure Asset Advisor • EcoStruxure Building Advisor • EcoStruxure Building Operation • EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert • EcoStruxure Power SCADA Operation According to figures cited by Schneider Electric, 66% of UK energy consumption MCP August 2019

“EcoStruxure provides a converged network that allows you to get control of data and make informed decisions around energy efficient actions,” he explains. “All of the assets are connected on to the network, so the estates team at Tottenham can understand exactly where there are inefficiencies, how they can optimise usage, increase productivity and extend the life cycle of their assets.” In addition to energy management, EcoStruxure

also needs to be kept within certain tolerances, to avoid penalties, as well as to protect the back-up generators, and the connected analysis software is key to managing this. Real-time fault reporting for lighting is also enabled. Connectivity via DALI (digital addressable lighting interface) enables the software to locate individual lamp failures to ensure efficient replacement, while the stadium’s lighting can be efficiently controlled

according to the outside ambient lighting levels. Ultimately, EcoStruxure allows the evaluation of live data from critical connected assets to identify potential threats. This enables the stadium to anticipate and address any issues before they become critical incidents – mitigating safety risks, avoiding unplanned downtime, avoiding operational losses and eliminating expensive maintenance interventions. In fact, Schneider Electric’s technology facilitates a staggering 5,000 data point checks every five minutes at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium – equating to 60,000 checks per hour. The infrastructure is constantly monitored from Schneider Electric’s field services bureau, which is operational 24/7 and this is backed up by a product expert on site, who is responsible for personally monitoring the stadium’s power infrastructure. During special events, this is further reinforced with extra personnel from Schneider, to ensure reliable uptime. With a combination of N+N redundancy, high levels of support, and realtime analytics, Tottenham Hotspur fans can now expect uninterrupted enjoyment of the game – unless, of course, Arsenal score. l missioncriticalpower.uk

STANDBY POWER

Are we prepared for a blackout? A new report asks: what would happen if the whole of the UK was plunged into darkness by a nationwide electricity blackout?

new report explores the likelihood of a nationwide electricity grid failure in the UK. In June, this year, a massive power failure across virtually all of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay left nearly 50 million people without electricity. The Blackout Report, an investigation by Riello UPS, reveals that official government risk assessments state there is a 1-in-200 chance of the UK power grid experiencing a similar complete shutdown in the next five years. The report explores the most likely causes of such an

incident, from the increased threat of extreme weather including flooding or gales knocking out the network infrastructure, to terrorism, industrial accidents, and geomagnetic space weather storms that play havoc with satellite systems. The risk of the UK experiencing a complete For example, grid blackout in the next five years the Committee on Climate Change predicts the number of faults on the electricity transmission and distribution network caused by lightning alone could rise by 36% by the

1-in-200

State-sponsored hackers are said to have already infiltrated the UK grid on 8 June, 2017 – the day of the General Election – while there are growing fears of an escalating ‘Cyber Cold War’ where countries insert high-grade malware inside energy networks MCP August 2019

2080s (Committee on Climate Change, 2017). The Blackout Report also considers whether the shift towards ‘smart’ energy grids is heightening our vulnerability to cyber-attacks. In 2015, Russian hackers shut down 30 substations in Ukraine, leaving 250,000 people without electricity. In fact, state-sponsored hackers are said to have already infiltrated the UK grid on 8 June, 2017 – the day of the General Election – while there are growing fears of an escalating ‘Cyber Cold War’ where countries including the US insert high-grade malware inside energy networks that could be used to turn off entire electricity supplies at a moment’s notice. The report comments that the UK’s power supply has been concentrated in a relatively small number of missioncriticalpower.uk

13 large-scale power plants. These old-style power stations have strong physical security, use strict industry protocols and do not tend to be connected to many outside networks, making them difficult for even experienced hackers to compromise. This means that most attempts to penetrate the grid’s defences are likely to take place further down the supply chain – the various generation, transmission and distribution systems where defences might be easier to breach. The report states: “Our ongoing shift towards renewables-led, decentralised smart grids, combined with an increasingly internet-driven way of life, unquestionably offers potential hackers more opportunities to try and expose any vulnerabilities.” Despite the highlighted risks, the report points out that only about half of UK organisations (54%) are confident that they have an up-to-date business continuity plan that they can fall back on if the worst was to happen. The Blackout Report goes on to examine the process for rebooting the electricity network if a complete system failure ever occurs. Known as a ‘Black Start’, worst-case contingency planning is that it could take up to seven days for power to be fully restored. Such an incident is likely to be accompanied by rota disconnections, which basically ration power by cutting off electricity for blocks of three hours at a time. This was last seen on a widescale basis in the UK back in the 1970s, notably during the infamous ‘ThreeDay Week’. The report also investigates the catastrophic consequences of a world without power: mobile phone coverage lost within a couple of hours; transport systems grinding to a halt; hospitals and care homes overwhelmed as electrical devices stop working; and businesses crippled as electronic payment systems go offline. It highlights the missioncriticalpower.uk

We’ve never been as reliant on the internet and interconnectivity, but without the electricity to power this digital world, our whole way of life falls apart at the seams Leo Craig, Riello UPS

well-known MI5 mantra that the UK is only ever “four meals away from anarchy” and predicts law and order would quickly break down as panic spreads. Riello UPS general manager Leo Craig comments: “We’ve never been as reliant on the internet and interconnectivity, but without the electricity to power this digital world, our whole way of life falls apart at the seams. “Many will look at the recent blackout across South America and think ‘that could never happen here’. It’s not necessarily complacency, more perhaps the belief that our infrastructure is more robust and that we’ve committed enough resource towards planning for the worst. “The Blackout Report investigates whether these assumptions are true. By thinking the unthinkable, it also poses some critical questions for the government, the power industry and wider society, such as whether we’re truly prepared for the ever-changing threats to our electricity supply.” l Download the Blackout Report at theblackoutreport.co.uk

Risk of cyber attacks on power networks Cyber attacks on London electricity networks are likely to disrupt more than 1.5 million people and could cost £111m daily, even for a relatively small attack

ritical national infrastructure such as smart electricity networks are susceptible to malicious cyber attacks that could cause substantial power outages and cascading failure affecting multiple business, health and education organisations as well domestic supply, says Dr Edward Oughton from the UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (University of Oxford and the Centre for Risk Studies at the Cambridge Judge Business School). He warns that such attacks are likely to become more and more prevalent. A Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community report, published earlier this year, noted that “China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea increasingly use cyber operations to threaten both minds and machines in an expanding number of ways to steal information, to influence citizens, or disrupt critical infrastructure”. The report, Cyber-Physical Attacks on Electricity Distribution Infrastructure Networks, published in the Risk Analysis journal, outlines conservative scenarios ranging from £20m for a foursubstation electricity event to £111.4m for a 14-substation electricity event.

Until Oughton and fellow researchers carried out this study, little was known about the effects and costs of cyberphysical attacks on electricity networks. Such networks are proving to be a point of failure which many people previously thought impermeable. “The research will be of interest to governments, private infrastructure operators, commercial consumers of infrastructure services and other stakeholders who want to understand systemic risks from cyber-physical attacks on critical national infrastructure,” comments Professor Daniel Ralph of the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies. The paper uses the UK as a case study and identifies the direct impact on household and business consumers of power; the indirect impact of a cyberphysical attack to infrastructure beyond electricity; and provides a greater understanding of systemic risk arising from cyber and smart energy systems. The research demonstrates that these types of attacks on electricity distribution substations could lead to further indirect infrastructure cascading failure across telecoms, fresh water supply, waste water and even railways. l To view the paper, visit: https:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ full/10.1111/risa.13291

Attacks on electricity distribution substations could lead to further indirect infrastructure cascading failure August 2019 MCP

Sponsored cover story

Work safer on medium voltage systems When you work on medium voltage switchgear, your first and overriding priority will always be to maximise safety. But what can you do to protect yourself against hidden hazards that are not readily apparent? Damon Mount of Megger looks into this issue and offers some useful suggestions

f you are professionally involved with MV switchgear, you will know that there are many ways in which it can fail. You will also know that the most common is insulation breakdown, and that the results can be catastrophic. Even a modest fault in an MV installation releases enough energy to wreck equipment and, if the circumstances are truly unfortunate, to kill. Which means that, when you are working with, or even near, MV equipment you want to be as sure as you possibly can be that such a fault is not likely to occur. Unfortunately, equipment that is about to fail rarely gives you an advance warning. Or does it? In fact, insulation breakdowns are very often preceded

by partial discharge (PD) events. If you can detect and monitor these events, you will, therefore, have a strong indication of equipment and cables that may soon fail. You can then investigate further and, if necessary, take the equipment out of service before a really serious problem develops. At the very least, you will know that it is a good idea to keep your distance from the suspect equipment if you want to stay safe. That is reason enough for owners and operators of MV systems to insist that PD checks are ALWAYS carried out on their equipment before any work takes place on or near it. And it is in response to these requirements that Megger, together with its recently acquired partner,

Power Diagnostix of Aachen, Germany, has developed some of the most innovative and effective partial discharge detection and monitoring technologies. But which is the right technology to choose for these surveys? Equipment to detect PD is nothing new, but for the most part, it has been designed not only to detect PD but also to investigate and characterise it. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excellent in its place, but the consequence of all this functionality is that the equipment requires skill to operate and to correctly interpret the results. Also, if you invest in this equipment, it will undoubtedly serve you well in demanding applications, but if you only intend to use it for MV switchgear surveys, you

will probably be paying for features you will never use. What you really need is a compact instrument – ideally handheld – that is very easy to use and that provides clear, unambiguous go/ no-go results. You will need an instrument that works in a live environment, so that you do not need to take equipment out of service to carry out your surveys. n’t h e e nee sophisticated functionality – you can always bring in other equipment when you want to investigate potential problems more fully – but you will need versatility, so that you can deploy the widest possible range of PD detection techniques. A PD detector can offer the versatility you need by employing multiple sensors – both internal and external s let’s ta e a l at s e of the possibilities. You will find an internal acoustic sensor – essentially a microphone that listens for the characteristic noise produced by partial discharges – is a good choice for PD testing on air-insulated MV switchgear and equipment that is in direct line of sight. If you need more flexibility in where you can place the sensor, you can achieve this by using an external acoustic sensor that connects to the detector via a cable. For fully enclosed switchgear, you will want a contact probe that is sensitive to vibrations produced by partial discharge, while for switchgear where the components are not visually accessible – mostly vacuum and GIS equipment – an internal TEV (transient earth voltage) sensor will pick up RF radiation from the PD ia the s itch ea ’s etallic enclosure. An external TEV sensor performs a similar

function but will also help you to localise the PD source. If you have a PD detector that allows you to connect an HFCT (high-frequency current transformer) sensor, this will usefully extend its functionality to include simple on-line PD surveying of MV cables. Finally, a parabolic acoustic sensor will let you carry out outdoor surveys to detect, for example, corona and surface discharge in terminations, CTs, PTs and isolators. et’s e e e n that i ’ e in t e tinel carrying out quick pre-work safety surveys, your PD detector must be fast and easy to use, so what should you need to do to configure it appropriately for the type of sensor in use? The answer is nothing! The detector should automatically set itself up for

the type of internal sensor you select, or for the type of external sensor you plug in. This not only saves you time and trouble, but also makes it near impossible for you to make mistakes that might produce misleading results. And what about those results? You may have heard – or even know from your own experience – that PD results can sometimes require skill and experience to interpret. But n’t nee that le el detail for a safety survey. So how about an instrument that i es ith t a ic li ht’ es lts een all is OK, amber for caution – consider investigating further, and red for danger – further investigation definitely needed. Of course, as you gain experience, you may well want to be able to alter the thresholds for amber and red indications to suit your own specific requirements, and you will almost definitely want a little more detail in the results so you can record and trend them. A phase-pattern PD display option will also be useful, as it provides a very useful way to distinguish between true partial discharge effects and random noise. Hopefully by now you are convinced of the benefits of routinely carrying out PD surveys on MV equipment, especially before you start work on nea it an s ’ll e interested to know that a PD survey instrument that meets all the e i e ents e’ e discussed has recently been introduced to the market. This is the new PD Scan from Megger. In fact, this innovative device does rather more. It includes, for example, a camera that allows photographs to be easily attached to test reports, and which can also be

used to read QR codes to identify equipment and documentation. It has a humidity and temperature sensor so that you can easily add these key parameters t ata an the e’s provision for you to download your results easily into a PC and quickly generate comprehensive reports. For all of its versatility and functionality, this instrument is as simple to use as a smartphone. It has just three buttons and a large colour touchscreen that is intuitive in use and shows only those options you need to deal with the current operation, rather than forcing you to l h th h a at’s nest complicated menus. Every one of us in the electrical sector is constantly aware of the need for safe working, which is why many safety precautions are a e ’ int tines locking out circuits under test, for example, and grounding e i ent that’s ein worked on. Now the easyto-use equipment discussed in this article provides us with the opportunity to adopt an the sa et tine that of carrying out PD surveys before working on MV equipment. The process is fast, easy and non-disruptive; the results can save not just money but lives. www.megger.com

DATA CENTRE TRENDS

Warning call on high level of outages The Uptime Institute’s 2019 survey shows that outages are common and increasingly span multiple data centres. So what are data centre operators getting wrong? MCP August 2019

ccording to the ninth Uptime Institute survey, outages continue to cause significant problems for operators. Just over a third (34%) of all respondents to the 2019 survey had an outage or severe IT service degradation in the past year, while half (50%) had an outage or severe IT service degradation in the past three years. So, what exactly is the cause of these outages, how serious are they, and how can data centre operators avoid unnecessary risks in the future?

According to the survey of 1,600 data centre professionals, power loss was the single biggest cause of outages – accounting for one-third of incidents. Networking issues were close behind, at 31%. Sixty per cent of respondents said their data centre’s outage could have been prevented with better management/processes or configuration. Uptime Institute’s CTO, Chris Brown, pointed out in a recent webinar that “as a sector, we are not making strides”. He believes missioncriticalpower.uk

50%

of data centre operators surveyed said they have experienced an outage in the past three years

$1m+ The cost of an outage to organisations for 1-in-10 incidents

disruption to service, financial losses and even risk of danger to life. Andy Lawrence, executive director of research at Uptime Institute, commented that one in 10 of the outages cost the organisation more than $1 million, while six outages reported by survey respondents cost more than $40 million. “This highlights the need to stay ever vigilant and to identify what is causing these outages and prevent them happening in the future,” said Brown, pointing out that vigilance is good for an organisation’s business reputation, as well as the bottom line. The Uptime Institute’s recent analysis of the data reveals some key trends in terms of outage severity (publicly reported outages 2018-19). In 2018, most publicly reported outages fell in the low to middle end of the scale. However, looking back over the past three years, the proportion of Level 5 outages (severe, business-critical outages) is falling, while the number of less-serious recorded outages grew. Uptime Institute has two explanations for this: • The reporting of outages, in social media and then picked up by mainstream media, is increasing as more people

On-premises data centre power failures were the main causes of outages (33%), while power failures in colocation provider data centres accounted for 9%. Enterprises failing to implement the basics The findings of the survey come as no surprise to Nick Ewing, managing director of EfficiencyIT. The company provides specialised critical infrastructure consultancy and, as part of this work, often performs audits for military installations, networking organisations and many large household brands. Ewing reveals he has found many instances where organisations are putting their operations at risk, through poor understanding of the basic pillars of resiliency and a lack of visibility into their data centre infrastructure. Speaking to Mission Critical Power, he observed that: “Every data centre is dependent on three things; resiliency, redundancy, reliability. Yet, all too often, we see facilities that are woefully inadequate. We find UPSs in appalling conditions – often they are installed and simply forgotten about. “Having a data centre without a UPS is like having a car without

enclosure and therefore risks becoming clogged with dust. We ensure our customers understand the importance of their power system and are properly advised from the word go.” A lack of monitoring of critical infrastructure in distributed edge computing sites is a particular problem, according to Ewing. He has found that in many instances, UPSs are not connected to a network or monitoring platform, and organisations have zero visibility of the condition of their power assets. This means they are unable to be proactive or detect problems with the UPS until it is too late. “In one instance, we found a UPS plugged into a standard extension lead, the type found in a hardware store, and simply connected into the wall. They didn’t have a functioning UPS and they had no idea, which further highlights the need for use of software to monitor this critical environment,” said Ewing. “Many customers believe they have to be on site at all times in order to check the status of their equipment, but through developments in cloud-based software, such as Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT, the customer can monitor their

Having a data centre without a UPS is like having a car without an air bag – it is an absolute necessity, yet many facilities that we encounter do not have the requisite level of resilience to protect their operations – Nick Ewing, Efficiency IT that data centre operators need to learn from these outages but also cast a critical eye over their facilities, to identify potential areas that could cause problems. “We need to be proactive in addressing these issues and avoid complacency, or these numbers will start to rise,” he warned. One in five of the outages were rated ‘serious or severe’ – or category 5, according to the Uptime Institute’s recently launched rating system. This meant that the organisations experienced significant missioncriticalpower.uk

are affected (due to higher adoption of public cloud, SaaS, and managed hosted services) and it is easier to spread the news, even about smaller outages • IT-based outages, which are now more common than full data centre outages, are more likely to be partial and, while certainly disruptive, can often have a lower impact than a complete data centre outage, which may affect all applications and create cascading effects

an air bag – it is an absolute necessity, yet many facilities that we encounter do not have the requisite level of resilience to protect their operations. There’s a disconnect in terms of the level of service that companies will provide to their customers, but to think it is ok to install a UPS and just leave it couldn’t be further from the truth. “The battery, for example, may not be stored in the right conditions or properly maintained, the UPS may not be not housed in an appropriate

critical infrastructure from anywhere via a smart-device app. What’s more, AI and machine learning functions within the platform allow the user to detect problems well in advance, which provide a much greater level of resilience. “We consider UPS failure as one of the biggest issues, causing downtime and business interruption, and this is easily solved by adding the device to the network or adding some basic alarming technology into the UPS. Businesses often fail to » August 2019 MCP

DATA CENTRE TRENDS

get the basics right.” Other issues frequently found during audits include server rooms without cooling and a lack of environmental monitoring. Ewing added that security must also be made a priority: “If the IT infrastructure is in a remote part of the building, vibration sensors or door alarms can be installed – these are low cost, simple measures. Within the room, you also need to consider the security of the racks. “To have no air-conditioning and no visibility of the environmental parameters is a serious risk. Often, there are very simple fixes to these issues. It doesn’t have to cost thousands of pounds – basic visibility costs very little. Having all aspects of your data centre monitored is purely common sense and should be a foundational component of your IT toolkit.” Getting the most from the data centre’s UPS Ciaran Forde, segment manager, Data Centres & ICT at Eaton, believes the data centre’s uninterruptible power supply is the key to unlocking resilience as well as reducing energy costs. “UPS technology is the traditional data centre guardian of power, in terms of provision, protection and quality. It is the UPS that filters out harmful power fluctuations, voltage spikes as well as guaranteeing backup power to seamlessly allow for the switch to auxiliary power. It is also one of the more critical elements in the energy efficiency of a data centre. But intriguingly it can even do more,” he comments. “Technological advances today enable renewable energy adoption and data centre energy management to go hand in hand. An ‘energy aware’ UPS can not only meet all the challenging operational needs of the data

60%

of data centre operators said their outage was avoidable

31%

The percentage of outages attributed to network problems centre, it can also participate in stabilising the national power grid. It can do this through the provision of a dynamic firm frequency response service back into the grid (FFR). This helps grid operators keep the essential grid frequency between strict regulatory and operational boundaries. Not only does this avoid wide-scale power outages, it also allows the grid operator to utilise higher levels of the more variable green, renewable energy sources onto the network. So instead of consuming high carbon energy, data centres can help ‘green the grid’.” The human factor Patrick Donovan, senior research analyst at Schneider Electric’s Data Centre Science Centre, comments that the cause of an outage or degradation in IT service can be attributed to one of any number of things. “These may include network issues (eg network congestion), power outages, cyber-attacks, hardware failures, poorly designed electrical resiliency, poor IT/facility operations management, badly executed change management procedures, and more.

“Since our society, economy, indeed, our very well being has become so intertwined and dependent on IT service availability, interruptions can be extremely costly or, in some cases, even ruinous to those providing the service, and the impacts on the customers business can be severe,” he continues. Donovan outlines a strategic approach that will help providers of IT services prevent such issues: “Firstly you must determine what availability risks exist by assessing your data centre across four domains: 1. IT applications/network, 2. ITE and infrastructure hardware, 3. software management tools, and 4. operations and maintenance programmes,” advises Donovan. “Secondly, once all the risks have been identified and ranked across all four domains, you need to determine what options exist to eliminate or minimise the risks; and, thirdly, you need to prioritise your actions based on cost, feasibility, and risk to service availability.” He believes that many service interruptions are preventable and are usually

Recent well-publicised failures have been in the IT stack rather than the building infrastructure and result from lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the true capabilities for resilience and redundancy on the IT side – Mark Acton, Future-tech MCP August 2019

attributed to human error. “While it might’ve been a failed piece of hardware that directly led to a service outage or a fire that caused power to shut off to the building, you can usually blame humans for either allowing/enabling these things to happen, or for not limiting their impact once they do,” says Donovan. Therefore, he advises enterprises to focus on improving the operations and maintenance of the data centre by: 1. Ensuring operations teams are well trained and drilled on all emergency and critical scenarios 2. Defining and communicating standard operating procedures (SOPs), emergency operating procedures (EOPs) and change management processes 3. Providing regular servicing and maintenance of all critical infrastructure components (UPSs, generators, cooling units, etc), while checking that spare parts are available 4. Monitoring critical systems via the latest cloud-based software management tools and checking that any legacy versions you are running are up-to-date The IT stack: a lack of knowledge? While intelligent monitoring technologies and increased visibility of assets can go some way towards mitigating risk of outages, there is also a need missioncriticalpower.uk

19 While it might’ve been a failed piece of hardware that directly led to a service outage or a fire that caused power to shut off to the building, you can usually blame humans for either allowing or enabling these things to happen, or for not limiting their impact once they do Patrick Donovan, Schneider Electric to focus on IT infrastructure. According to Mark Acton, critical support director, Futuretech (previously head of data centre technical consulting for CBRE), this needs to be made a priority. “When it comes to data centre outages the focus seems to remain very much on the supporting power infrastructure when in reality many failures are due to the IT deployment and infrastructure,” he comments. “Recent well-publicised failures have been in the IT stack rather than the building infrastructure and result from lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the true capabilities for resilience and redundancy on the IT side. In a well run data centre, the standby generators and emergency response systems are routinely tested on genuine building load. How often, if ever, are the claimed redundancy/failover capabilities on the IT side actually tested in anger? “In my experience not often enough, if ever, and many of the claims made by IT staff in this area are just not accurate. Ultimately, I don’t think CIOs are challenging their IT staff sufficiently hard and are far too prepared to take statements about redundancy, resilience and failover capabilities, in the IT stack, at face value.” IT issues are certainly reflected in the results of this year’s survey. Although power issues remain the most common problem, networking issues are close behind, at 31%. “As the industry is maturing and growing out of the need for a single data centre and moving to hybrid resiliency – where missioncriticalpower.uk

loads are spread across multiple data centres, or multiple data centres and the cloud, the network is becoming critical,” says Uptime Institute’s Chris Brown. He points out that the survey findings are “a warning call” to ensure the networks are “solid” and that the hardware is “redundant and fault tolerant”. The survey also revealed that 19% of outages affected multiple services and sites, and this figure is expected to grow. Data centre operators are struggling to manage an increasingly complex IT landscape. “Most organisations have hybrid infrastructure, with a computing platform that spans multiple cloud, co-location and enterprise environments. This in turn, increases application and data access complexity,” says Uptime Institue’s Andy Lawrence. “It’s an approach that has the potential to be very liberating – it offers greater agility and when deployed effectively, increasing resiliency. But it also carries a higher risk of business services performance issues due to highly leveraged network and orchestration requirements. “In a hybrid infrastructure, any of these failures can cause service degradation or complete service outages depending on how the hybrid architecture is designed. The survey reveals that the transition to these more diversified, dynamic architectures raises many issues around resiliency and business service delivery and that we need more management oversight, transparency and accountability at the business level.” l

Visibility concerns hinder public cloud adoption Uptime Institute conducts its comprehensive global survey on an annual basis and includes IT managers, owners and operators of data centres. The survey was conducted between March and April 2019 and includes responses from nearly 1,100 end users in more than 50 countries. According to the survey, there is still a strong dependence on the privately owned or operated enterprise data centre, which currently accounts for more than half of all IT workloads. “Rumours of the death of the corporate data centre have been greatly exaggerated,” said Uptime Institute executive director of research Andy Lawrence, speaking during a recent webinar. He pointed out that 58% of IT workloads are still run in enterprise data centres. A further 8% is managed in micro data centres and 10% in server rooms – in fact, four out of five workloads have not yet been handed over to a third-party organisation. The survey shows that capacity demand in the enterprise space is still growing, along with cloud and colocation data centre buildouts. IT workloads are being spread across a range of platforms, with a third predicted to be contracted to external suppliers (such as cloud and SaaS providers) by 2021. Public cloud operators are the most committed users of distributed resiliency and availability zones that promise to achieve high levels of performance and availability. Despite this, almost three-quarters of respondents indicated that they are not placing their core mission-critical applications into a public cloud for a variety of reasons. Even when IT managers do opt to place their applications in a public cloud, the respondents expressed concerns over “inadequate visibility”, particularly around resiliency issues. Lawrence highlighted that 22% said they would move to public clouds if there was a higher visibility into the operational resiliency of the service. Other key findings included: • Improvements in data centre facility energy efficiency have flattened out and even deteriorated slightly in the past two years. The average PUE for 2019 is 1.67. • Kilowatt (kW) rack density is rising, following a long period of flat or minor increases, causing many to rethink cooling strategies. Uptime Intelligence regards this as a medium to long-term trend. • Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will not reduce data centre staffing requirements in the next five years, according to the majority of respondents. After that, however, most think automation will reduce staff requirements. • Awareness and adoption of both the Open Compute Project (OCP) and Open19 as lower-cost architectures for racks and power distribution is still low, years after their introduction, as is evaluation and deployment. Among data centre staff, senior IT management are the most likely to be aware of these initiatives. • Nearly half of the data centres represented in the survey now have some lithium-ion batteries in use or contracted to be installed. • 61% of respondents said they had difficulty retaining or recruiting staff — up from 55% a year earlier. August 2019 MCP

VIEWPOINT

Behind the statistics... Ian Bitterlin gives his personal views on the findings of the Uptime Institute‘s annual annual Data Centre Survey – from the ‘flattening out’ of PUE and continued outages, to skills shortages and the difficult task of attracting technicians into the data centre sector

he Uptime Institute has just published its ninth annual Data Centre Survey. The full report is available to members only (uptimeinstitute.com/ ui-network) but the summary of findings makes for an interesting read and has a lot of detail worthy of further discussion. I will comment on the points raised on PUE, cabinet density, staff shortage and diversity, climate change and, of course, reported ‘downtime’. The respondents reported that their PUE, in which improvement peaked five to six years ago, has ‘flattened out or deteriorated slightly’ in the past two years, to 1.67. I am tempted to say, ‘so what?’ Contrast that with the circa 300, mainly collocation, facilities in the EU Code of Conduct Participants scheme, which still average around 1.7-1.8. PUE is no measure of data centre effectiveness and only describes the overhead for cooling and power provision etc, not to forget that it is climate and load related and cannot be used to compare data centres. However, from the Uptime survey, most of the data centres reporting were enterprise and collocation, 47% were <1MW and there were no ‘search’ or social-media facilities – so 1.67 is neither surprising nor informative. But I think that an opportunity was lost in the survey to ask so many IT professionals what their ICT utilisation was. MCP August 2019

If you have an idea of the utilisation (which some insider commentators have said is <10% in enterprise facilities) and the degree of virtualisation running, then PUE has more meaning – ie a PUE of 1.3 in an idling facility is just a total waste of energy whereas 1.7 feeding a 60% utilised ICT load would be a record-breaker. The survey could also have asked what percentage of power capacity was being used – another key driver for PUE if the design has not allowed for partial load – but this would probably have reported an average load of less than 60%. I would not have been surprised at 40% from this pool of respondents. On the subject of cabinet density, it is a pity that the summary report does not give the average kW, but it is very interesting to note that it has only just, after several year’s stagnation, started to rise. We, as an industry, but mainly fuelled by OEMs who want to sell high-density cooling solutions, have been predicting high cabinet loads for nigh on 20 years – and they have not yet transpired. Yes, you can find 20kW in a cabinet but that is both exceptional and very rarely the average in a facility. I still see plenty of 2.5kW cabinets in retailcolocation and enterprise, a good average of 5-6kW in wholesale-colocation and highdensity online shopping and cloud applications filling rooms with 7-8kW cabinets.

PUE has ‘flattened out or deteriorated slightly’ in the past two years, to 1.67. I am tempted to say, ‘so what?’ Even the big search and social media behemoths are running in the 12-13kW range. Since the Uptime survey did not cover the ‘big boys’, I would not be surprised to see it report 5kW as an average. The ICT hardware is improving in compute/Watt faster than Moore’s Law would have ever predicted (and has been for some time) so any organisation that has an increasing ICT load but refreshes its ICT hardware on

a 30-36 month cycle will see their cabinet load stall. If their business is not based on HD or UHD video, as most of the Uptime respondents appear to be, many operators’ data centre load will have been falling 5-10% year-on-year for the past three years if their refresh rate is frequent enough. Skills shortage Wherever you go in the world, notably apart from China, there appears to be a shortage of skilled trades, technicians, technician-engineers and engineers. This is, in my experience, is not limited to the data centre industry but reflects the fact that many of the younger generation do not see engineering in its many forms, other than where you get greasy. From my experience, the greatest shortages are in data centre operations rather than in design and construction. missioncriticalpower.uk

The greatest skills shortages are in data centre operations

21 higher. As most generators average load is less than 40%, the maximum allowable air temperature will be off the scale, and the same applies to chillers and heat rejection etc. The only threat foreseeable could be potable water shortages during prolonged heatwaves for those (few) facilities using adiabatic or evaporative cooling systems.

That said, I think that data centre operations include some very unattractive working conditions for a technician if you are comparing them with many other jobs. The hours can be anti-social as our facilities are 24/7 and shifts are the norm. The workplace is devoid of daylight and you get to meet very few ‘new’ people – in fact the operation teams are relatively small and getting along with colleagues is in a rarified atmosphere. Then, for me, the killer – you are not allowed to touch anything for weeks on end and when you are allowed, and you make a mistake, it has huge consequences and you leave, either jumping ship or being pushed. The work is not creative and for long periods is unfulfilling – interspersed by infrequent short intense periods of stressful activity. Pay is not hugely attractive compared with a missioncriticalpower.uk

CAD technician working nine to five in a modern light and airy city-centre office with lots of personal interactions. Let’s teach in primary and secondary school the value of engineering and get more people into proper vocational training – then the market will sort itself out. We need less graduates and more technicians. The other option is to automate the facility and do not employ so many, if anyone – a topic which is also mentioned in the report. The only downside is that the automation software is written by people, so it has faults in it. Climate change is a big question but easily answered by

the typical and traditional data centre, and it is not surprising to read that the respondents were less than worried about the impact over the next fiveplus years. The whole design intent is one of survivability against 100-year events of temperature, humidity, water level etc. If we overlay the pandemic of partial load against the equipment specifications, then the respondents are 100% right – no threat from climate change in the foreseeable future. For example, a standard genset is capable of continuous operation at 100% load at 35°C and there is a standard derating for every degree

Downtime Last, but certainly not least, the matter of downtime: 34% of all facilities had an outage (or severe IT degradation) in the past year, with 33% being attributable to internal power interruptions and 31% to networking. Some 10% of all respondents reported that their ‘last’ outage cost more than $1m, although 60% said that better management/processes could have prevented their last outage. I think this proves that more money should be spent on training and processes. But we have a long way to go with the M&E services. It was another Uptime survey that gave us the ‘70% of all data centres are from human error’ that so many people cite and believe to be true. Assuming that for one moment it is true, then we can say that all the redundancy and resilience that we put into the data centre infrastructure is woefully inadequate. Only 70% human error? It should be 98-99% like the nuclear power or aviation industries. Our data centre systems, both ICT and M&E, should be automatic, resilient and self-healing to the point where on the rare occasion there is an outage it is nearly always ‘human error’. Ultimately, my point is that having 30% of outage down to the facility is a failure of design. l

Let’s teach in primary and secondary school the value of engineering and get more people into proper vocational training – then the market will sort itself out. We need less graduates and more technicians August 2019 MCP

DECENTRALISED ENERGY A new report finds that energy security and rising costs are impacting competitiveness for UK industry, so how could decentralised energy be made more accessible?

Bridging the energy gap: industry leaders reveal concerns

ndustry barriers to decentralised energy strategies must be addressed, amid rising costs and fears over energy security, concludes a new report by Aggreko. Bridging the Energy Gap highlights the findings of a survey of 200 key energy decision makers from industry and shows that energy security remains a major or significant concern for most respondents (82%). Reducing energy consumption is also viewed as a medium or high priority for the vast majority (94%). Knowledge gap Despite energy prices continuing to rise, knowledge over what interim and affordable energy solutions are currently available is still required. Some 55% of respondents said energy prices are impacting their competitiveness, while 26% of companies surveyed said energy costs constitute 10-20% of their operating costs. Despite these high costs, 38% had an investment for new equipment to reduce energy consumption turned down in the past five years due to capex restrictions. Aggreko’s report points out that many energy users across industry are now finding MCP August 2019

themselves caught between a desire to reduce their costs and environmental impact, while also navigating the technical and financial issues these solutions must solve. The report also looks at attitudes to short-term lowering of electricity demand in return for lower tariffs, or demand-side response. The survey found that 57% of respondents are accessing lower electricity tariffs in return for a short-term lowering of demand. Nevertheless, this still leaves 40% who have no such system in place. So, what exactly are the barriers to adoption to demand-side response? DSR concerns More than two-thirds responded that their main concerns related to the impact that demand-side response would have on their business operations. This concern is particularly acute in the manufacturing sector, with more than two-thirds (68%) citing production concerns as a key barrier. A further 22% said they lacked the technical resources to implement a DSR solution, with only 9% highlighting that they found it too difficult to understand the potential costs and benefits. The panel were also asked for their views on generating

82%

of survey respondents said security remains a major or significant concern

38%

had an investment for new equipment to reduce energy consumption turned down due to capex restrictions in the past five years

40%

have no system in place for accessing lower electricity tariffs in return for a shortterm lowering of demand

their own energy. The responses suggested that many remain reluctant to actively consider alternative methods of generating electricity, with 43% reporting that they had not considered their own electricity generation. The survey further examined the reasons why decentralised energy technologies have not been adopted and found that prohibitively high investment costs was the most commonly cited reason (49%). The panel of industry leaders overwhelmingly identified solar (56%) as the technology with the greatest potential, with gas generation (18%) trailing behind – along with CHP (14%). The report highlights that by hiring solutions instead of purchasing them, companies could enjoy the benefits of decentralised energy without being bound by capex restrictions. It also suggests that hiring can help energy users avoid the long payback periods which may otherwise deter them from implementing new, energy-efficiency technology and decentralised energy solutions. With this in mind, the report proposes viewing hire as a means to bridging the gap between current overreliance on the national grid and a future where the majority of electricity is generated on site. By doing so, companies can more easily access innovative, secure and environmentally friendly technologies that could offer immediate savings. “The statistics from this report show that UK industry requires some education in how it can benefit from secure, cost-effective and efficient decentralised energy solutions,” says Chris Rason, Aggreko managing director, Northern Europe. “We hope our findings show how there is an opportunity for more companies to implement a decentralised energy option and using hiring as a bridging gap solution does not require a significant capital outlay.” l Download the report, at: aggreko.com/energygap missioncriticalpower.uk

EDGE DATA CENTRES

Resilience at the edge Clive Partridge, Rittal’s technical manager for IT Infrastructure, discusses the increasing demand for edge data centre solutions and looks at some of the key considerations around resilience and security

he volumes of data that now need to be processed are soaring as a consequence of digital transformation, so companies need a quick and easy solution for establishing new data centres directly, where that data is generated. Modular edge data centres offer the ideal solution here. The example of retail shows how the point of sale can be optimised using data-assisted processes and why this calls for decentralised IT resources. Edge data centres are decentralised IT systems that deliver computing power directly to the location where the data is generated. They are situated in the immediate vicinity of the data sources – which helps ensure exceptionally fast initial data processing – and are also linked to cloud data centres for downstream processing. Software applications in connected data centres ultimately use this up-toMCP August 2019

the-minute data to perform analyses that require high levels of computing power. Additional computing power enables companies to evaluate data relating to customer behaviour and enterprise resource planning more quickly and precisely. For example, a retailer can compare the sales in its nationwide branches using surveys from social media platforms in order to identify new trends. Alternatively, on entering a shop, customers – provided they have consented – can be identified via their smartphone and greeted with offers that are tailored specifically to them. This, too, requires an IT system that responds in real time and can access large volumes of data. In general terms, edge data centres help companies to evaluate all customer data and as a result optimise sales. They intelligently network branches that are spread out

geographically with regional warehouses and a central data centre, so as to optimise product availability at the point of sale. Retailers can harness networked edge computing to increase the availability of products, optimise logistics and use customer preferences to regularly improve product displays at the point of sale, for example. The continuous and rapid availability of data gathered via edge computing makes it possible to manage customer behaviour more effectively. If necessary, this can be done as often as every day, based on up-to-date data. Retailers can also use the additional computing power and real-time stock tracking to optimise their supply chain management. In this case, longterm analysis helps identify patterns in sales and provides plenty of notice regarding when specific products may be affected by bottlenecks.

Without predictive analysis of this kind, there is the risk of losing customers, who switch to the competition because they can’t get what they want. To track goods and customers, retailers are installing networked sensors or using cameras to analyse patterns of movement. This is creating an Internet of Things that utilises a large number of sensors and data sources to generate a continuous data stream. Retail chains use sensors, for example, to identify the positions on the shelf where each product sells best. This also involves developing the missioncriticalpower.uk

25 Left: The Rittal Edge Data Centre comprises two Rittal TS IT racks, plus modules tailored to the specific application for climate control, power distribution, UPS, fire suppression, monitoring and secure access Below: Smart applications and edge scenarios require short latency times, which makes the Höchst cloud park an excellent data centre location for companies in the Frankfurt region. IT resources can be created quickly and securely here with turnkey IT containers from Rittal

to the required performance level using preconfigured, standardised modules. Climate control and power supply modules, stable IT racks and robust security components are already aligned with each other – this is particularly important for sites that do not have a specific security concept at building level – ie access controls or airlocks, for example. If factors such as dust, humidity or dirt also pose problems at the site – because industrial production is carried out there, for instance – then the IT racks should have a high protection category, such as IP 55. Edge systems come in a wide range of output classes depending on the requirements and area of application. Edge gateway systems, for example, consolidate data directly on site and then initiate its transfer to downstream cloud data centres. However, initial evaluations can also be carried out close to the data source. For instance, smaller systems for retail can perform tasks such as the initial aggregation of sensor data in a department store, supermarket

and fire-resistant covering is the answer. The solution is then installed in the immediate vicinity of the location where the data is generated, either inside or outside buildings. With appropriate cooling technology, it will support an output of up to 35kW per IT rack. Thanks to their steel walls, IT containers are both stable and secure. Their excellent mobility also makes them highly flexible and means powerful data centres can be installed anywhere on company grounds or inside warehouses. If edge systems are being used to boost onsite computing power, the first step is to specify the associated business objectives. Technical and IT experts use this information to define the necessary software applications and it’s then possible to determine the configuration of an edge data centre based on this list of requirements. A number of criteria need to be taken into account during this process, for example, edge systems must be quick and easy to use in order to meet technical requirements promptly.

important to use a monitoring system that covers enclosure/ rack doors as well as side panels; electronic door locks have the added benefit of making it easier to ascertain which staff had access to the IT and when. During remote maintenance or emergencies, it may be necessary to completely power down the system, which means having to interrupt the power supply. Switchable PDUs (power distribution units) are required for this purpose. Edge data centres can be installed in a room-in-room environment for the toughest security demands and a security room of this kind offers maximum protection in the event of fires or highly contaminated surroundings. Outdoors, it should also be ensured that the protection category supports reliable IT operation across a wide range of temperatures, for example from -20°C to +45°C. Suppliers such as Rittal have developed a modular concept for these varying requirements and companies can use a modular system to create the ideal solution for their needs.

The continuous and rapid availability of data gathered via edge computing makes it possible to manage customer behaviour more effectively. If necessary, this can be done as often as every day based on up-to-date data supply chain to the extent that a shop reorders new products in an automated process. In the future, a growing number of companies will be using edge data centres to expand the requisite IT infrastructure at the point of sale. According to market analysts from IDC, edge IT systems could be processing and analysing 40% of data from the Internet of Things throughout industry by 2019. What types of edge data centres are available? An edge data centre is designed so that companies can adapt it missioncriticalpower.uk

or shopping centre, while powerful edge data centres can also be utilised that significantly increase the computing power at the relevant location. The latter may be necessary if retailers want to offer their customers elaborate product presentations based on virtual and augmented reality. The technology used in these edge designs can vary greatly – from a basic service rack to a specially secured IT rack with an additional protective cover. If more power is required, a highperformance edge data centre based on a modular data centre container with weather-resistant

The ideal scenario is for the manufacturer to supply a turnkey, ready-assembled system, complete with cooling technology, for plug-and-play connection to the power supply and network technology. Edge system operation should also be automated and largely maintenance-free to minimise running costs. This requires comprehensive monitoring that covers the power supply, cooling, fire detection and extinguishing. The necessary protection category is determined by factors such as location and how fail-safe the system needs to be. It is also

Rittal adopts a holistic approach when seeking a solution, working with partners such as ABB, HPE, IBM and the German cloud provider iNNOVO so that customers get all the services they need from a single source. The resulting pre-defined, standardised all-in-one edge system can be augmented with active IT components and ‘as-a-service’ options in a turnkey solution. The retail sector is therefore able to use continuously updated data to optimise the customer journey, and as a result secure customer loyalty on a long-term basis. l August 2019 MCP

ENERGY PROCUREMENT

Risk and resilience in a carbon conscious era When energy costs represent a significant overhead, it is vital that businesses continue to challenge their procurement strategy, says Ørsted’s Ashley Phillips. He looks at how mission critical sites can improve sustainability and reduce risk

t is no longer commercially sensible or environmentally responsible to put sustainability strategies on the back burner. The UK’s recent commitment to 2050 netzero targets mean that carbon reduction and sustainability have been pushed to the top of the agenda for our nation’s businesses. For data centres in particular, the sustainability challenge is amplified. The evolution in our energy infrastructure has taken place alongside a rapid expansion in our digital infrastructure. As our population and our industries rely more heavily on smart technology and big data, so the energy requirements of handling and storing all that data increases. By 2020, global data centre energy use is predicted to reach about 5% of all consumption, and this will increase to more than 10% by 2050. While there is, quite rightly, a focus on improving a data centre’s power usage efficiency (PUE) as a key environmental metric, choosing energy from renewable sources is a simple way of further bolstering MCP August 2019

green credentials. Making sustainable choices is so much more than just ‘doing the right thing’ in 2019 – commercial benefits reach far beyond the bottom line. With this in mind, it is easy to see why risk, resilience and renewables are fast becoming the essential three Rs of energy procurement. Importance of net zero Building the environmental case for renewable energy is

global emissions must reach net zero around 2050. This is the reason the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) advised UK government to legislate for net zero. Businesses with high energy demand and energy-critical processes will be among those who are most affected by the resulting new legislation aimed at carbon savings. They will also be among those with the greatest role to play in our transition to a better energy

transition to a sustainable energy infrastructure which is also affordable and reliable. Businesses that choose this path also stand to differentiate from their competitors. Energy efficiency measures continue to play an important role in carbon reduction, as do more flexible approaches to energy procurement. Suppliers are working hard to provide compelling options for businesses prioritising sustainability. For Ørsted

Making sustainable choices is so much more than just ‘doing the right thing’ in 2019 – commercial benefits reach far beyond the bottom line obvious: the energy choices made by our largest energy consumers have a direct impact on the environment. Even at 2ºC, temperature rises could trigger events such as the thawing of permafrost that releases methane gas, contraction of the snow cover that reflects heat from the sun and reduction of the sea’s ability to absorb carbon. To keep the warming around 1.5ºC,

future. Businesses that use large amounts of energy have an opportunity ahead as our energy infrastructure continues to evolve. They can help shape our energy sector by rethinking their own procurement strategy and actively sourcing energy from 100% renewable sources. By committing to low carbon, they will help ensure that our nation achieves a successful

customers, 100% renewable electricity and greener gas options are available alongside a range of smart flexibility solutions and access to an expert trading desk to help businesses build customised risk management strategies based on their business needs, risk tolerance and internal policies. However, for those ready to take the next step and secure missioncriticalpower.uk

27 longer-term renewable supply that also helps them avoid marketplace risk, it may be time to think about more innovative options. This is where corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) come in. CPPA demand can support the build out of further renewable energy capacity on the grid. Businesses that choose a CPPA also benefit from long term, stable energy costs and reduced exposure to marketplace risk. Under a CPPA, a business will receive electricity from a specified renewable energy asset for the longer-term, such as a specific wind farm. The arrangement can support investment for the project and a fixed energy price for the business throughout the contracted period. Businesses should expect to see increased numbers of CPPAs coming to the market in the years ahead. RE100 is a global initiative whereby businesses commit to sourcing 100% of their

electricity from renewable sources by a specific date. The list of businesses committed to the initiative is broad, and the 188 members are seen as pioneers. CPPAs are a procurement method already popular with RE100 members, some of whom aggregate demand, so that their choices have green impact in specific regions or encourage investment in specific technologies. For example, in 2018 four RE100 members – AkzoNobel, Google, Philips and DSM – joined forces to combine their demand and signed joint power purchase agreements to procure renewable electricity through the Dutch Wind Consortium in the Netherlands. Data centre giant Iron Mountain is another RE100 member with its sights set on powering all operations with renewable energy. The company has pledged to follow a rigorous standard for

green power purchasing with ambitious milestones on the way to a complete transition by 2050. Iron Mountain has already utilised PPAs as part of its strategic approach to renewables purchasing and last year signed an agreement to source 145MW of new wind power from a project in Kansas. The Climate Group uses Iron Giant as a shining example of how renewables are a ‘winwin for both business and the climate’, highlighting how the PPA not only helps the business decarbonise its own operations but also supports local economic growth and brings more renewable power onto the Kansas grid. It is an example which could (and should) be replicated here in the UK. Challenging your energy procurement strategy Mission critical sites are often forced to have backup generation onsite to manage downtime risks, but finding

environmentally friendly options can be a real challenge. This puts greater emphasis on decarbonising core energy supply – and in the current climate, market forces make this increasingly possible. When energy costs represent a significant overhead, it is vital that businesses continue to challenge their procurement strategy, ensuring they are taking advantage of the expertise of trading specialists, as well as remaining up-to-date with the options available to them in a quickly evolving market. Creating a risk management strategy that is attuned to your business’ appetite for price risk – as well as any potential for a changing demand profile – remains crucial if you are to effectively balance budgets with security. But options like CPPAs are changing the market and it is vital that large consumers consider the long-term benefits of price security as part of their overall procurement plan. l

ENCLOSURES

Protecting mission critical infrastructure Andy Bird, from GTT Wireless, reveals the role ruggedised enclosures play in outdoor wireless projects, and the key capabilities needed to achieve full protection of missioncritical hardware in challenging conditions

he benefits of smart infrastructure are huge. By 2025, cities that deploy smart mobility applications have the potential to cut commuting times by 15 to 20% on average, according to McKinsey research. Yet without high network availability and reliability, these benefits are unattainable. This applies to every network component – even the enclosures which house key IoT hardware. From smart parking and traffic management in today’s increasingly digitised cities to agricultural irrigation in the driest climates, there can be no doubt that smart infrastructure is improving quality of life, citizen safety and protecting the environment. Outdoor Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-tomachine (M2M) applications are

quickly developing in scale and complexity, and now play a vital role in enabling mission critical operations and safeguarding against disruption. Whatever the weather These outdoor wireless deployments now operate in a huge variety of situations from agriculture and mining to utilities, transportation and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and as such require seriously ruggedised enclosures to guarantee high levels of availability and reliability. Any downtime has the potential to significantly disrupt or halt operations that rely on consistent connectivity. Components are increasingly pushed out into remote locations to ensure connectivity across large areas, and this has

imposed high standards on the quality of electronics protection – making robust hardware a top priority for any IoT deployment. As the market matures, and IoT and M2M innovation continues to broaden the applications of emerging technology, deployments now require a carrier-grade, all-inone enclosure solution rather than a stock plastic box. In addition, this enclosure must be able to incorporate power and data interfaces, antennae and robust mounting – suitable for applications ranging from smart parking to industrial IoT sensing. Demand for resilience EN 60950-22 and IP67rated enclosure solutions are strongly recommended for challenging outdoor

deployments to minimise risk to hardware and ensure not just resistance, but resilience in demanding environments. Qualifying enclosures must be fully waterproof, capable of resisting salt spray and submersion in water. We know there is now a pressing need for

29 fully customisable enclosure solutions with enhanced durability, as companies look to house sensitive electrical components away from the climate-controlled conditions of data centres and offices. Recently, the GTT Wireless team has received a large volume of enquiries to fill a

GTT Wireless enclosures can resist temperatures ranging from -40°C to +120°C

capability gap for ruggedised enclosures, due to the lack of products that combine customisation with compliant protection against hostile environments. One size does not fit all To ensure a suitable fit for electronics and avoid an unnecessarily large final product, ruggedised enclosures need to be available in multiple sizes. But customisation does not just equate to offering a selection of enclosure dimensions. The equipment you are housing has often involved years of development time and expensive components. Traditional prototype development requires a significant investment of time and money into sourcing and testing integration of multiple components and interfaces from various suppliers. This process is further complicated by the threat of discontinued items, inconsistent quality or the need to re-engineer off-the-shelf components. GTT Wireless has developed a dedicated enclosure design tool to enable end-to-end

Enclosures that are EN 60950-22 approved and IP67 rated represent the benchmark for deployment in harsh environments planning and creation of bespoke enclosures, cutting the prototype development phase from months to days. By allowing designers to select from a wide variety of available components and test compatibility before moving to the prototype ordering stage, these pitfalls can be avoided. Providing a visual representation of the final product helps demonstrate the composition and layout of proven interoperable components, eliminating the threat of re-engineering and redesign. Building enclosures to last To ensure longevity, businesses should select a highly customisable, carrier-grade

enclosure designed to resist the most challenging conditions in remote locations. Enclosures that are EN 60950-22 approved and IP67 rated represent the benchmark for deployment in harsh environments – having been proven to successfully endure extreme temperatures and weather conditions such as condensation, humidity and wind. The mSmart-Box, for example, can resist temperatures ranging from -40 °C to +120 °C. GTT Wireless has also incorporated Gore vents into the enclosure design to avoid threats such as dust, pressure changes and structural failure, as well as ensure pressure equalisation and resist any internal condensation that may pose a threat to electronics housed inside. There is no doubt that outdoor applications of IoT and M2M technology will continue to rapidly expand into critical roles spanning industries such as utilities, transport and security. With so many individual threats posed to sensitive PCBs, selecting a comprehensive and resilient enclosure has moved from being a luxury to a necessity – delivering peace of mind that mission critical operations are not threatened by disruption from environmental factors. l

ENERGY PROCUREMENT

Managing energy risk strategies With increasing volatility in the energy markets during the past year, data centre operators need to consider more than just price, warns Noveus Energyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bobby Collinson. Critical facilities need to adopt a clearly defined and dynamic risk strategy. So what are some of the key considerations?

uring the past 12-18 months the volatility in the energy markets has increased considerably and is set to continue. This, coupled with the continual increases and changes to the value and the structure of non-energy charges, means that data centre developers and operators need to consider more than just the price when negotiating an energy contract. In our experience of managing energy for some of the largest data centres, operators and developers, the following are some of the most important considerations when sourcing an energy deal from a supplier: Fixed or flexible contract The first decision faced by many is whether to opt for a fixed or flexible price contract. There is no right answer to this question, but with increased volatility and the uncertain nature of load growth in data centres the flexible contract MCP August 2019

approach mitigates risk of buying at the wrong time and offers the greatest flexibility of increasing load without penalties. The decision on which type of contract to opt for is material in ensuring the optimum energy price is obtained. When to buy In commodity markets, the general rule of the price being cheaper the closer to delivery does not always hold true for gas and electricity. Having analysed the markets over the past 20 years, there is no real trend or time of the year that is better than any other. With that in mind, if you have chosen to buy through a flexible contract the following three disciplines are essential in optimising a risk management strategy: The strategy should be dictated through a combination of budget considerations, market conditions, risk appetite and future tenant requirements

and ideally explored and set through a workshop with key stakeholders. Understanding what is most important to you as a business when evaluating a flexible contract is key as only three elements of the contract can be evaluated quantitatively. The remainder of the terms are qualitative and will be bespoke to what is most important to the datacentre. A scoring matrix can help to analyse these elements. Forecast load projections as accurately as possible for flexible contracts. Inclusion of a volume reforecasting mechanism in the supply agreement is critical as it will help with managing consumption changes during the lifetime of the contract. When actively managed, volume reforecasting will allow upward adjustments to the contracted consumption when tenant load increases while equally providing flexibility when usage is likely to out turn below expectations.

Operate dynamically If adopting a flexible contract approach, it is essential that any strategy is dynamic and changes with market conditions rather than being fixed at the outset and remaining in place for the duration of the contract â&#x20AC;&#x201C; markets change and so should the strategy. Strategies will perform differently in rising, falling or stable market conditions so consideration should be given to the prevailing and expected market environment when selecting the strategy to be employed. Regular strategy reviews are a must in order to assess prevailing market trends, to review the performance and continued appropriateness of the current strategy and to decide on potential strategy adjustments. Supplementary ad-hoc strategy discussions in the event of sudden market price spikes or other exceptional circumstances will missioncriticalpower.uk

31 also be useful to determine an appropriate response. Running a shadow strategy When approaching risk management dynamically, it can be a good idea to keep a close eye on how an alternative purchasing strategy is performing. Having permanent visibility of how â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Plan Bâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is shaping up can help inform the case for a potential strategy switch should it be deemed appropriate at any time. There are, of course, other important considerations outside of strategy deployment which if managed correctly will encourage supplier participation and present additional options that may appeal to tenants: Credit While credit is not directly part of the risk management strategy it can be a major problem for early stage data centres and will often dictate how data centres can buy energy. Credit, as with price, can be negotiated

It is essential that any strategy is dynamic and changes with market conditions rather than being fixed at the outset and remaining in place for the duration of the contract â&#x20AC;&#x201C; markets change and so should the strategy altogether. It is essential to produce a coherent story around tenants, data centre growth, procurement strategy, debt and financing and to engage with suppliers openly and early in the process. Non-energy charges Non-energy charges now make up more than 50% of the energy bill and are still treated as though they are nonnegotiable and not part of the risk management strategy. This is nonsense and they should be. It is true that if your contract starts on 1 April and is for 12 months duration the scope to negotiate these charges through a full tender is limited, as most charges are published. However, 75% of the

market negotiates contracts in October and each supplier forecasts these charges and take different views on them for 12/24/36 month durations. This presents an opportunity to negotiate and fix some or all of these charges regardless of whether opting for a fixed or flexible contract. This should be treated as an active part of the risk management strategy in the same way as commodity price. Renewable Energy Most data centres are keen to buy green/renewable energy. In most cases there should be little or no price premium associated with green energy as suppliers utilise their existing renewables contracts. Some suppliers are

also able to provide energy from specific natural generation sources, further enhancing the credentials of their offering and creating additional opportunities for sustainability reporting. In addition, it is worthwhile speaking to specialist suppliers in the renewable space where some energy exposure can be hedged directly with producers or through a private wire directly to a renewables provider if there is one nearby. A clearly defined and dynamic energy risk management strategy enables mission critical sites to deal with the uncertainties of the energy market price fluctuations with greater confidence and foresight. l

BATTERY STORAGE

Battery technology offers new opportunities for data centres A new white paper says that the falling cost of lithium-ion batteries is enabling data centre operators to review their electrical distribution topology and potentially generate additional income from their battery investment

he European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) has announced the publication of a new white paper, entitled Battery Opportunities for Data Centres. Authored on behalf of the EUDCA Technical Committee by Gareth Williams, director at Arup, the white paper discusses the impact of lithiumion batteries on the data centre space. While uninterruptible power supply (UPS) vendors and customers have traditionally specified lead acid (VRLA) batteries in power backup solutions, recent reductions in the capital costs of Li-ion solutions have made them competitive with the older technology, offering a payback period of less than five years when the operational cost savings are considered. The author says that within the US market, the capital cost differential has reduced even further, with some UPS vendors now able to offer their larger clients Li-ion battery solutions for the same price as VRLAbased solutions.

From reduced footprint to increased environmental range and lifecycle, Li-ion presents a number of advantages to the data centre designer such as increasing autonomy, load or white space; providing alternatives for the battery location and environment; or allowing the batteries to be considered for a range of functions that would not previously have been considered acceptable with VRLA type batteries (see box). The author points out that sizing of UPS and battery systems needs to be carefully considered for these applications to ensure the site maintains sufficient battery capacity to achieve their Service Level Agreement (SLA) commitments. However, these operating modes could generate an additional income stream or operational savings. In a recent trial of UPS for demand-side response applications, Basefarm’s data centre in Norway achieved the fastest response time of all operators following a power

station failure event. Offering this type of service to the grid is expected to achieve an annual income of ¤50-100k/ annum per MW of capacity that the operator is willing to make available for demand-side response. Alternative electrical distribution topologies Making use of the reduced footprint associated with Li-ion to install increased capacity allows the operator to move the batteries further upstream and protect even more of the site. The wider acceptable environmental range means the batteries could be relocated into the data hall and installed at PDU, row or even individual rack level. Locating the batteries this much closer to the IT load creates a range of further opportunities Software defined power Rack level battery capacity enabled by Li-ion technology is also an enabler for software defined power. Example uses include allowing power to

Potential for Li-ion? Among the opportunities highlighted in the white paper include: • The potential to increase the capacity of the battery system to store energy generated from renewables for use during periods when the renewable source is not available – eg photovoltaics, wind turbines, tidal lagoons, etc • Peak Lopping functionality – energy is stored when cheaper or loads are lower for use during peak periods to reduce the peak demand from the supply grid • Demand-side response – a proportion of the site load can be taken off the local distribution grid and supported with battery power • Frequency response – this includes being able to absorb excess power from the grid to assist in stabilising the network

MCP August 2019

be diverted or reserved to meet the demands of specific applications, racks or rows; power allocation based upon priority level of the application during failure scenarios; and deploying multiple SLAs within the same data hall. In summary, Williams states that Li-ion batteries make it possible for today’s data centre operators to develop a range of alternative distribution topologies, increase available white space, reduce or eliminate the need for dedicated cooling for batteries. The smaller footprint and increased cyclelife options provide the potential to generate additional income through the provision of grid support services and relocating batteries downstream creates alternative opportunities for data hall level distribution. Finite resource? Responding to the report, Leo Craig, general manager of Riello UPS, welcomes the findings but cautions that Li-ion is a finite resource. He comments: “The benefits compared with traditional leadacid are now well-established [ie more compact footprint, faster charging times, longer missioncriticalpower.uk

lifecycles]. But we’d be the first to admit there’s still plenty of work to do before data centre operators fully understand and embrace the possibilities. In such a naturally risk-averse industry, new technologies will inevitably be treated with suspicion, so the more positive examples and advocates there are, the better. “Hopefully, we aren’t far away from the evidence becoming so overwhelming that we reach the all-important tipping point where deploying UPS systems using Li-ion isn’t viewed as either an unusual or unnecessarily risky choice.” Craig adds that one concept that could have a significant impact on data centre energy storage is the potential second life of batteries from electric cars: “Currently, it’s far cheaper to mine new lithium than it is to recycle. Electric car batteries typically last for around 10 years before they lose enough performance to require replacing, but they can still collect and discharge electricity for several more years. “Rather than simply sending these batteries to the scrapheap, doesn’t it make sense to repurpose them to missioncriticalpower.uk

store electricity generated from domestic renewable energy installations and commercial applications too? “Not only is the cost of repurposing a fraction of the investment required for a new battery. But with electric cars set to become the norm, rather than the exception, in the coming years, it offers a practical solution to the issue of what to do with the millions of lithiumion batteries that will eventually

sustainable way to keep up with increasing demand is to think outside the box about ways we can both reuse and recycle.” Application is key When it comes to choosing battery technology, the best solution is application dependent, according to Stuart Cockburn, sales manager for Centiel UK. “There will still undoubtedly be a place for VRLA batteries for many years to come but

comms room. Li-ion batteries typically require less than half the physical space of the equivalent lead acid blocks and are less than 25% of the weight so could be more suited to installations where space saving is important or any installation in the upper floors of office buildings. Interestingly, the adoption of Li-ion within UPS systems, so far, has been greater in developing countries in Africa and the Middle East, where the main power grid is less reliable than in the UK and frequent power problems are more commonplace. “In these instances, the UPS and battery systems are required to be cycled several times per day. This greater take-up is primarily due to the higher cycling life of Li-ion: typically, 2,500 power-up and down cycles compared with around 300 for VRLA technology.” Discussing the financial implications of Li-ion adoption, Cockburn comments: “Although Li-ion is currently more expensive to purchase initially than VRLA batteries, most clients are looking for a 10 minute run time. However, consider this: your generator will start in 30 seconds so why do you need a 10 minute run time? VRLA batteries charge slowly so a 10 minute run time is usually necessary. “However, with Li-ion,

Hopefully, we aren’t far away from the evidence becoming so overwhelming that we reach the all-important tipping point where deploying UPS systems using Li-ion isn’t viewed as either an unusual or unnecessarily risky choice need to be reused or recycled.” Several major car manufacturers already reuse EV batteries in large-scale storage projects. At the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, for example, second-hand battery packs save power produced by thousands of solar panels installed on the football stadium’s roof. Craig concludes: “We should never forget that lithium is a finite resource and the only

Li-ion can offer some useful advantages over VRLA batteries in certain situations,” Cockburn explains. “Li-ion batteries are happy running at a temperature of high 20/low 30 degrees centigrade, which makes them useful for applications such as hot works plant rooms like in medical facilities or hospitals for example which are generally kept at a higher temperature than a traditional air-cooled

because the charge goes back into the battery very quickly, just a five minute run time is sufficient. By halving the autonomy time, the number of batteries required is halved and therefore the cost of purchase is also halved. Further space is saved in the comms room too,” Cockburn concludes. l To obtain a copy of Battery Opportunities for Data Centres, email: alex.rabbetts@eudca.org August 2019 MCP

MODULAR SOLUTIONS

Vertiv’s Viktor Petik provides an insight into the growing market for pre-fabricated modular data centres and claims that deployments will reshape data centre economics

roducts that just make better sense from almost every conceivable angle are prevented from reaching their full potential – primarily because people prefer to stick with what they know. A good example in the data centre industry is prefabricated modular (PFM) data centres. PFM involves assembling units or modules of data centre infrastructure in factories and then shipping them to the site. It is no more complex (in fact it is often simpler) than the data centre builds we are used to – but it does require a different mindset. Fortunately mindsets are starting to shift. PFM technology is gaining trust and traction. Multi-MW sites are beginning to emerge — from companies including EdgeConneX to T-Systems — using PFM building-blocks to speed construction and

drive efficiencies. But PFM technology is still not as widely understood and adopted as it should be, even though it is broadly acknowledged as being a more cost and time-efficient way to deploy new data centre capacity. Edge to drive growth This underlying inertia towards ‘old world’ models means PFM data centres still occupy a relatively small proportion of the overall data centre market – but that share is set to increase. According to industry analyst 451 Research, the market for PFM data centres is set to expand at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.4% through 2021 when it will have reached $4.4bn (£3.5bn). “PFM methodology is becoming the preferred way to expand and build

It has distinct advantages in terms of quality control, installation speed and build consistency MCP August 2019

Edge to drive growth in modular builds

new data centre capacity, turnkey or critical subsystems. Underpinned by industrial processes, it has distinct advantages in terms of quality control, installation speed and build consistency,” says Daniel Bizo, principal analyst at 451 Research The tech sector is also not alone in seeing the potential of PFM facilities. Other industries such as pharmaceuticals, in addition to oil and gas, have invested in PFM buildings to house complex machinery within strict timelines and often in difficult locations like remote oil fields or offshore platforms. Now, with evolving requirements for data processing capabilities across sectors and geographies, the PFM data centre is more relevant than ever. For example, growth in edge computing is likely to play an increasing role in the future PFM demand. Edge PFM deployments could range from a 5MW facility in a city to a single, hardenedrack next to a 5G mast on a building rooftop.

The benefits of PFM So if there is so much potential inherent within PFM, why are more organisations not using the approach? Often, the benefits of PFM facilities have been overlooked due to misconceptions around the technology. However, the PFM approach is well suited to the rapid scaling, capital-constrained nature of todays’ tech landscape. PFM data centres can be implemented and scaled at speed, making them a good fit for future edge demands driven by IoT for example. Their capability extends far beyond that of simple containers. They are far more than the first wave of PFM products offered by Sun Microsystems and others, which were based around ISO containers. Current designs of PFM facilities encompass all kinds of data infrastructure, from rows, to rooms to full facilities and power and thermal infrastructure. For example, specialist PFM missioncriticalpower.uk

35 units can be deployed to add additional power (UPS) or cooling capacity to an existing site that may have sufficient whitespace but is restrained from a thermal perspective. This ‘plug and play’ approach offers flexible implementation, but also enables data centres to push closer to businesses and consumers in previously inaccessible locations. Fast deployment and lower TCO An interesting aspect of the rapid growth that is predicted in PFM deployments will be the way they can reshape data centre economics. PFM data centres are not just flexible in their design but also as a financial option. One of the main benefits of them is that these data centres can be assembled off site to enable faster deployment at a lower TCO. This means data centre professionals do not need to consider the additional costs that are often associated

14+%

The predicted CAGR for the modular data centre market over a five-year period to 2021 with faster delivery. In fact, the economics of PFM are so attractive that these data centres can change the cost-benefit analysis regarding the augmentation of an existing facility when compared with a new build. This possibility is so profound that PFM data centres could enable an organisation to migrate a data centre to a more desirable location at about the same cost as expanding and updating an existing one. Ultimately, this gives far more control over how businesses align their data centre estate to their commercial need. Likewise PFM solutions can readily meet the security

needs of today’s data centre. Their portable nature has at times led to the misconception that they are not as secure as traditional designs, partly due to the fact that container-like designs and micro-data centres can be transported on the back of a truck. Yet this is far from the case. The sorts of physical security requirements for a conventional build are just as likely to be in place in a PFM facility. In addition, it can be argued that PFM facilities are less prone to failures due to the crucial testing and commissioning undertaken in factory conditions. These conditions help shorten the deployment time frame and improve the predictability of both schedule and cost performance. Furthermore, the risk of maintenance problems is smaller than other approaches as components are preintegrated. This reduces the chance of components not being installed

properly. Furthermore, the main resiliency certification organisation for the data centre industry, Uptime Institute, has developed its Tier-Ready programme to streamline the certification of facilities built in part, or in total, using PFM components. It is clear that PFM data centres are yet to receive the full recognition they deserve – largely due to misconceptions and inertia rather than any tangible issues with the technology. These are not solutions designed to an old world model, that gains merit simply because it’s been around for a long time. Fundamentally, PFM designs offer an ideal solution for building out efficient, agile and globally consistent capacity from the core to the edge. Eventually, a technology that is still perceived as an outlier or disruptor by some parts of the industry, could and should become the default option for all new builds. l

DATA CENTRE TRENDS

ata is the oxygen of the current industrial revolution… and it is driving rapid growth in the data centre sector in Ireland, as well as on a global scale, says Host in Ireland’s Garry Connolly. He explains that Ireland has a long history of providing a gateway to Europe for large US technology companies. In 1956, IBM came to Ireland to establish its international presence across Europe – attracting a wealth of other major technology brands in its wake, including Microsoft, Intel, Oracle and many others. The ‘5 Ps’ (policy, people, pedigree, pipes and power) have often been cited as being key to the success of Ireland as a data hosting location. However, rapid growth in the past five years has seen the emergence of another important driver: the 6th P of ‘proximity’. “Proximity between businesses, proximity to staff, proximity to universities and proximity to different data sets have been major drivers,” says Connolly. “Today, Google, MCP August 2019

Going green in the Emerald Isle The data centre industry in Ireland remains a strong ‘renewable first’ advocate. But should it go further with a ‘renewables only’ vision? Host in Ireland’s Garry Connolly argues that geographical areas that seize this opportunity will be the winners of future investment Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon are all located in a cluster within the city of Dublin.” Inward investment from data centres has trebled during the past four years and there are now 53 data centres in Ireland, with 600MW of grid-connected power capacity. So what challenges is this rapid growth having for the allimportant ‘P’ – of power? Currently, there is about 500 MVA of datacentre capacity in Ireland, which is anticipated

to reach 1,500 MVA by 2025. Projections for 2030 range predict an increase of between 350 and 1,450 MVA. Mark Foley, chief executive of National electricity grid operator EirGrid Group, described the growth in demand in Ireland as “unprecedented”. “Data centres consume a lot of power and can require the same amount of energy as a large town. EirGrid Group’s analysis shows that data centres could account for approximately

one quarter of all electricity demand in Ireland by 2027,” he commented. In November 2018, EirGrid announced plans for a ¤110m-plus boost to part of its network to meet rocketing demand from data centres. “There is an over-demand for electricity right now,” acknowledges Connolly. “In the interim, industry and commerce has to continue. We are seeing quite a lot of natural gas co-generation on site, as an interim measure, before grid connection. This is expected to hit a peak over the next 12 months, due to the lag of power being applied for and power being delivered. It is not a sustainable trend,” he continues. “One of challenges is the larger carbon footprint associated with co-gen, compared with energy supply through the wire. It is a tactical, rather than a strategic, move.” Biogas offers significant potential for data centres and other industry sectors in the region, according to Connolly. missioncriticalpower.uk

Ireland’s farming industry has significant waste resources that could be used in biogas generation. He claims that about 25% of Ireland’s natural gas could come from biogas sources by 2030. “We are starting to see more joined up thinking,” says Connolly. “There is recognition, in Ireland, that we have to do more in terms of electricity, agriculture, transport and housing.” The data centre industry in Ireland remains a strong ‘renewable first’ advocate and there have been several good news announcements with respect to renewable energy in the first quarter of 2019. They include a ¤1.5bn investment from Statkraft to construct a series of windfarms around Ireland. However, the most significant is Amazon’s decision to invest almost ¤200m in the construction of a windfarm off Donegal without subsidies, the first of its kind in Ireland. The announcement sets missioncriticalpower.uk

an important precedent and highlights how serious hyperscalers are in pursuing ‘renewables first’ policies. Connolly believes that operators need to go further in the long term, however: “The data centre industry, globally, needs to move to renewables only – not renewables first. We are encouraged by the Irish government’s acknowledgement that Ireland needs to ‘up its game’. Rather than having just 34% renewable energy, the desire is to have 70% of the electricity on the grid produced by renewable sources by 2030. “We have been working with the Irish solar and wind associations to make Ireland an optimum place to host data… Fulfilling our obligation to have a higher degree of renewable energy of the grid is important going forward… Moving from 34% to 70% renewables is a huge step and I think the geographical areas that can demonstrate that commitment are the ones that are going to be the winners of data centre investment, in the medium to long term,” comments Connolly. The first prototype for district heating in Ireland, using heat from a data centre, is also out to tender. Earlier this year, it was announced that Codema (Dublin’s energy agency) will be partnering with South Dublin County Council to develop the Tallaght District Heating Scheme (TDHS), which will establish a sustainable district heating solution in the Tallaght area to provide low-carbon heat to public sector, residential and commercial customers. The objective of this project is to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of fossil fuels for heating in Tallaght in order to contribute to national level renewable energy, energy efficiency and CO2 targets and establish Tallaght as a leader in innovation in the area of climate change. The scheme forms part of the council’s ambition

for the Tallaght Town Centre Local Area Plan, and will receive funding of almost ¤4.5m through the Irish government’s Climate Action Fund, as well as support from the HeatNet NWE project. (HeatNet NWE is a ¤11.5m project promoting the roll-out of the most advanced form of district heating, known as 4th Generation District Heating and Cooling, across northwest Europe.) This project will deliver a high level of innovation in the heating sector, with the first Irish data centre to be used to supply waste heat to nearby buildings and will be the only such system in Ireland and the UK. This project will allow transfer of knowledge and replication of solutions for other

and possibly demand response services, while also providing a source of back-up. The energy centre will include full peak load back-up to ensure heat supply can be met at all times in the event of any possible primary heat supply failures. With increasing renewables, it has been suggested that data centres could have a role to play in helping to stabilise the grid by participating in demand-side response. However, there is still some trepidation in the sector and there is a need to build confidence going forward. “DSR is not a driving narrative right now but EirGrid is working with energy technology companies to present products that will allow data centres to actively participate in the

Moving from 34% to 70% renewables is a huge step. The geographical areas that can demonstrate that commitment are the ones that are going to be the winners of data centre investment heat networks, based around the growing number of data centres in Ireland. Amazon has committed to the project and received planning permission on the basis that it will supply lowgrade waste heat to the TDHS, through a centralised largescale heat pump, housed in an onsite pump house. The pump house will include thermal storage facilities to take advantage of off-peak electricity

network… They are talking for sure. But DSR needs a proof of concept, with respect to the technology, and we need to be mindful that the businesses running inside these data centres, want the same service level agreements globally,” says Connolly. “Also, if you have to kick-in your generators, it is not great for your green credentials. My feeling is that there is no resistance from the data centre industry to explore these approaches. “Ultimately, they are very large ‘bakers’ and they just want the ‘corn’ to be as pure as they can get. They can’t achieve the level of growth they want without growing their own ‘corn’… They need to invest in renewables and energy systems, as the traditional routes are not fast enough,” Connolly concludes. l August 2019 MCP

MARINE & PORT SOLUTIONS

S Yuasa’s lithium-ion batteries have been installed on Japan’s first fully battery-powered, zero-emission passenger ship. Built by Oshima Shipbuilding Co, the state-of-the-art 340 tonne vessel, known as ‘e-Oshima’, uses GS Yuasa Li-ion storage batteries as its only propelling power source, as well as for all additional power required during operations. The ocean-going passenger ferry, which had its naming ceremony on 12 June, is the first of its kind in Japan and has a capacity of 50 people as well as space for one large bus and four cars. Being battery-powered means the zero-emission vessel emits no CO2 – either while in motion or at anchor. It also helps reduce noise and vibration. At 35m long, e-Oshima is equipped with an automatic ship handling system and aims to establish functions such as channel maintenance and collision prevention, while being utilised as a company’s customer pick-up ship. In addition to providing motive power, GS Yuasa’s high capacity Li-ion batteries (approximately 600kWh) supply power for communications, navigation,

Li-ion chosen for Japan’s first fully battery-powered vessel

Zero emissions: plain sailing? radio equipment and air conditioning. They also play an important role in the ferry’s labour-saving automatic navigation function, which employs next-generation IoT technologies and has enhanced safety features. The vessel can be charged in approximately two and a

half hours and the battery system includes management equipment that provides multiple layers of redundant protection for the batteries. GS Yuasa Li-ion cells are designed for marine operations that require highly efficient charging and discharging. They have high energy density

and long life, as well as a track record of being installed in numerous high-profile, special applications, including deep sea submarines, the International Space Station and the state-ofthe-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner. GS Yuasa LIM50EN-12 Li-ion batteries are also used for various industrial applications. Their reliability and long cycle life makes them suited for uninterruptible power supply (UPS), high energy industrial systems, energy storage, smart grid and AGV traction power. l

Loadbank solution to regenerative power Crestchic helps deep water container port negate risk to generation equipment

MCP August 2019

any container ports are choosing to expand their power capacity by using standalone temporary power solutions, such as diesel generators, rather than waiting for additional power infrastructure. This is often the best way to secure additional crane power, thereby increasing the number of containers that can be moved simultaneously. It does, however, come with the downside of producing ‘regenerative power’. This means that power is returned to the generator when the crane is lowering load –

which can have a catastrophic effect on the generator. In the case of Hutchison Ports Pakistan, in Karachi, the solution came from Crestchic, a specialised load bank manufacturer. Crestchic was able to introduce a resistive load bank into the circuit, allowing for the dissipation of the regenerated power. This means that the power coming from the crane load back towards the motor was stopped before it reached the power house, thereby negating the risk to generation equipment. Using two medium voltage

load banks, Crestchic has been able to divert regenerative current to the load bank, ensuring the generator is left undamaged. The installation of the load banks also acted as a tracker, which allowed the load banks to automatically apply load to the generators when running on light load, such as during the night. This is an essential maintenance safeguard as it helps to sustain fuel and generator efficiency, automatically shedding load to the generators as site load increases. l missioncriticalpower.uk

UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLIES

ninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are often overlooked as a backup supply of power for emergency lifts as they usually evoke images of large data centres and IT infrastructure. However, in order for a premises to comply with BS 9999 regulation, there must be a secondary source of power feeding all emergency lifts. In many cases, providing a secondary mains feed simply is not possible, so a UPS and/or generator combination is used instead. When an authorised person is present, emergency lifts provide an evacuation route for disabled persons in the event of a power outage. During normal operating conditions an emergency lift should be available as a passenger lift and not solely for evacuation or an occasional use of transporting goods. With facility managers becoming increasingly more safety conscious, leading power protection specialist Power Control is keen to remind them of the ‘hidden’ considerations that cannot be missed. Commenting, the company’s special applications director, Matt de Frece, says: “Many people often overlook that in certain specific applications there may be a need for a third level of backup power. For example, often sports stadiums run on generator during games. “If the site has a mains power cut while running on generator the majority of guests can remain and enjoy the event. However, at this time there is only one power supply to the emergency evacuation lifts, so if disabled guests are reliant on a lift to exit the building they would need to be asked to leave, which could be viewed as discriminatory. Installing a UPS in this application would prevent this scenario. “In some circumstances, a

During normal operating conditions an emergency lift should be available as a passenger lift and not solely for evacuation

The importance of UPS for emergency lifts To ensure compliance with safety regulations, a secondary source of power is required to feed all emergency lifts. For some installations, such as sports stadiums, a third level of backup power may be required. According to experts at Power Control, UPS systems can offer many advantages, yet they are often overlooked UPS solution is preferable as it is easier to install into the lift plant room, often located at the top of the lift chassis. The logistics associated with installing a generator onto the top floor of a high-rise building can be costly and the spacesaving benefits of a UPS system appeal to building managers.” Whether a generator, UPS system or both, these must operate the lift for either 60 minutes or three hours depending on the evacuation plan and whether immediate evacuation of the premises is

Whether a generator, UPS system or both, these must operate the lift for either 60 minutes or three hours depending on the evacuation plan MCP August 2019

possible. For example, hospitals and care homes require a longer evacuation process and so would need backup power for at least three hours. The emergency lift must be provided with communication networks from the plant room to the lift car and the main floor. It is recommended that the lift control panel is also fitted with a smaller single phase UPS solution to resume communication during a power outage. The plant room typically requires a standalone threephase UPS system compliant with the European compliance standard BS EN 50171 standard to provide backup power to the lift motor. De Frece explains: “A BS EN 50171-compliant UPS solution differs from a standard

commercial backup power system as they would include enclosures that are resistant to heat and fire. “In addition, the inverters also need to be capable of supporting 120% of the load requirements continuously, battery chargers need to be able to recharge the batteries to at least 80% capacity within 12 hours, the inverter shall be protected from reversal of battery polarity and the batteries should have a rated design life of 10 years at 20 degrees C. “Power Control supplies a range of EN50171 UPS systems that have been designed based on standard, commercial UPS solutions, which means that spare parts and UK engineering support are readily available. All modifications to meet EN50171 standards are carried out at missioncriticalpower.uk

manufacturers’ factories to deliver quality confidence. “Our long-standing UPS partner, Borri Spa, has its ECS [Emergency Central System] range of life safety UPS systems. Designed specifically to meet the EN50171 standard, these transformer-free, static solutions from Borri can be used as a CPSS [Central Power Supply System] instead of a distributed power supply, which delivers huge cost benefits as they require less sophisticated electrical design.” Available from 10kVA and 160kVA, the E8031/E8033 ECS (10-50KVA 3/1, 3/3) and the Ingenio ECS (60-160KVA 3/3) offer 10-year battery life, battery polarity reversal protection and charger temperature compensation. The Borri ECS range has also been designed with acid-proof battery cabinets and racks and IP20 metal enclosures as per EN605898-1. Power Control also offers a modular compliant solution from Legrand. The Legrand MCS CPS is available with 3-80kW modules and provides a highly intuitive scalable centralised UPS solution for life safety applications. A fully adaptable singlephase, three-phase input/output system, the Legrand MCS achieves flexible redundancy and reduced MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) time. “These specialist UPS systems from Borri deliver efficient backup power solutions for a huge range of life safety applications from evacuation lifts and emergency lighting through to smoke extraction, warning systems and fire suppression,” says de Frece. “Power Control has seen the uptake of the Borri ECS and Legrand MCS range rise

considerably over recent months as it is fast becoming recognised as an affordable and practical emergency power solution. Finally, there are several additional points to consider when it comes to protecting emergency lifts, such as a variable speed drive (VSD). Due to the nature of motors, they have quite high inrush currents which often means the UPS needs to be oversized in order to cope with the starting current, which are often 8x or 9x the running current. “Fitted in between the UPS and lift motor, a VSD limits this inrush of electricity to 1x the running current, softening the initial start-up and not affecting the overall supply, and allowing a smaller UPS to be installed,” says de Frece. “Also, there is a need to be aware of the potential risk of a regenerative load, a common occurrence with lifts when the UPS has no load from other equipment. “The lift motor can become a generator and feed power in the wrong direction. Most lifts are sufficiently counterweighted to minimise this effect but care needs to be taken in the design if this could potentially be an issue.” When it comes to an effective power protection solution for emergency lifts, it depends largely on the size of the premises and the number of lifts requiring support. A three phase UPS of 10kVA to 160kVA capacity is sufficient to replicate the mains supply normally serving the lift. Providing the ability to run the lift at normal speed and sufficient capacity to complete a required number of journeys, meeting BS 9999 regulations. l

A BS EN 50171-compliant UPS solution differs from a standard commercial backup power system as they would include enclosures that are resistant to heat and fire missioncriticalpower.uk

THERMAL OPTIMISATION

oday our lives are increasingly reliant on digital services and we typically have a low tolerance when these services are unavailable. Therefore it is imperative for organisations to do everything they can to ensure their mission critical infrastructure is as resilient as it can be. Whether it is banks, retailers, airlines or social media networks, we know it is not uncommon for even the largest digital or transactional service providers to experience outages within their critical IT facilities. Service disruptions are inconvenient for customers, but for organisations they can have far reaching effects. Digital services we use everyday – for example, Facebook, Uber and Amazon – will see operational revenues significantly affected during a major systems outage, but more so, reputational damage is further reaching than the initial revenue impact. It is incumbent on organisations to do everything they can to ensure end-toend business processes are as resilient as possible. At the same time, data centre operators need to ensure that their mission critical facilities are as efficient as possible. Effective optimisation of resources, delivered via the latest software-driven thermal optimisation solutions, has a key role to play here – not just in terms of increasing resilience but also by helping data centre operators to increase efficiency. Within data centres, where the traditional solution to thermal challenges has typically been to run the cooling systems at colder set points, adopting softwaredriven thermal optimisation offers an alternative approach: reducing high cooling energy costs and unlocking additional IT capacity. This is all best practice, and clearly makes sense for today’s critical environments from both a resilience, energy efficiency and corporate social MCP August 2019

Intelligent software holds key to resilience EkkoSense’s Adrian Barker argues that intelligent software has a key role to play in ensuring critical facilities continue to perform to their true potential

responsibility perspective. Effective thermal optimisation will become even more important over the next two to three years as the cost of energy is set to rise significantly. A third of electricity costs are subject to global influences due to commodity prices and are therefore difficult to predict. However, the largest, noncommodity element – the

actual cost of delivering energy – is projected to grow over this period. So, for those data centres that are running excess cooling for their resilience strategy, instead of effective thermal performance, there will need to be a major readjustment as energy costs increasingly come under the corporate financial spotlight. With a heightened focus on achieving annual energy

reductions and associated savings, a proven approach such as software-driven thermal optimisation can make an important contribution to reducing data centre cooling energy costs. With the latest generation of software thermal optimisation this can be achieved quickly and without operational risk, providing significant energy savings. From a business case

There’s a misconception that thermal optimisation is a discipline you only need to apply once. The reality is that your critical facilities evolve, through daily operational activity, moves, adds and changes and other business drivers, that can quickly work to unravel previous optimisation within the data centre missioncriticalpower.uk

43 The potential losses to the business in both revenues and brand value from a thermal-driven outage could easily run into seven figures plus

perspective, the use of these software platforms delivers a proven return on investment, typically within a year. Today’s data centre infrastructure has never been under more pressure, with increasing IT load demands placing an ever more onerous requirement on operators to run their critical facilities more efficiently. Given this, perhaps it is time to stop treating efficient data centre operation as a black art. You do not need overcomplex DCIM suites or expensive, non-real-time and often imprecise external CFD consultancy to tell you what is going on in your own data centre. It is much more useful to have a real-time dynamic missioncriticalpower.uk

viewpoint of your mission critical estate. DCIM itself can take years to implement. It often proves overly complex and inevitably ends up costing more than originally quoted. Softwaredriven thermal optimisation, when combined with real-time sensors, means that you get the right data all of the time. This provides data centre teams with exactly the kind of datadriven decision-making and scenario planning that allows them to identify and fix issues before they can start to impact operational performance. A recent example is a client that was able to turn off several CRAC units and the data hall actually reduced in temperature. This would not

have been possible without live data across the estate. While Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be a valuable tool, it is best suited as a tool to support the design process – certainly not for use in a live dynamic environment. For CFD to provide useful data you need to be doing ongoing simulations, and that is expensive, and both time and resource intensive. There is also a significant price disadvantage with CFD, and it can’t show if a rack is over or under temperature in real time or advise as to whether one of your critical CRAC resources is at risk of failure. Data centres operate in real time, so the systems supporting them also need to operate in real-time. Some organisations are solely reliant on their building management systems (BMS) to help manage their critical facilities, but BMS systems do not have the required datapoint density to optimise the critical space, and certainly not dense enough to manage an optimised site in a risk-free way. Because BMS sensors typically report on a blend of hot and cold average temperatures, it is easy to be lulled into a sense of false security as things generally look great. But that is not rigorous enough for true optimisation and reduced risk operation, particularly if you need to be certain that all of your different racks are performing within precise temperature and power parameters. That is not to say that your BMS investment can’t play an active role in helping to manage your optimised critical facilities – with softwaredriven thermal optimisation solutions such as EkkoSoft

Critical, for example, the software alarms can be sent to the BMS so that it can serve as a platform of reference for any critical fault events. However, it is probably more effective to use software dashboards as it is easy to overwhelm the BMS with hundreds of datapoints. Also, it is a lot easier to update your NOC environment with EkkoSoft Critical than it is to keep updating the BMS. So, are critical sites giving sufficient attention to thermal optimisation? While there is an increasing awareness of what best practice thermal optimisation can achieve, it is an approach that requires much more attention. Data centre teams recognise that the benefits softwaredriven thermal optimisation can bring – reduced risk, unlocking increased IT capacity from existing resources and lowering energy costs – are important. They also like the fact that as an optimisation approach it is both low risk and light touch – with benefits available immediately, payback in under a year and costs typically financed by the 20-30% energy savings that organisations are already achieving. Now is the time to take action. From a financial perspective it is getting harder to delay thermal optimisation, with energy costs only set to increase in the years to come. Risk reduction is also a key factor, particularly as although an individual rack might hold £100,000 of hardware, it is probably running multiple software applications and services worth anything up to £1m and beyond. The potential losses to the business in both revenues and brand value from a thermal- » August 2019 MCP

THERMAL OPTIMISATION

driven outage could easily run into seven figures plus. When this happens, we quickly see thermal optimisation, complemented by its associated risk reduction capabilities, move to the very top of the ‘must do’ list. So how can intelligent software help? There is a misconception that thermal optimisation is a discipline you only need to apply once. The reality is that critical facilities evolve, through daily operational activity, moves, adds and changes, and other business drivers that can quickly work to unravel previous optimisation within the data centre.

This makes for a strong argument for applying thermal optimisation as an ongoing activity to ensure that your critical facilities continue performing to their true potential. This why EkkoSense has introduced a ‘Cooling Advisor’ capability built right into the heart of its thermal optimisation software. This platform is able to provide data centre teams with clear recommendations to action, to help maximise their data centre’s operational performance. This could involve identifying data centre floor

It is getting harder to delay thermal optimisation, with energy costs only set to increase in the years to come

tiles or grilles that need changing, giving guidance on immediate adjustments to cooling set points, and also advising on those CRAHs (computer room air handlers) that are not actively cooling, are in competition and could be suspended or modified respectively. It is this kind of accessible, practical, intelligent software insight that can make a real difference for data centre operators in-house, giving them greater control over their critical facilities and significantly reducing the risks associated with potential thermal failure. l

Calculating cool energy savings for data centres Cooling Advisor builds on EkkoSoft Critical’s proven real-time data centre M&E capacity planning and simulation functionality by providing operations teams with specific cooling performance recommendations and advisory actions to monitor, manage and maximise their data centre’s operational performance. By following Cooling Advisor’s advice, organisations are able to secure ongoing average data centre cooling energy savings of 10% (on average) – without the requirement for specialist data centre thermal optimisation services. “Organisations should see the average 10% of cooling energy savings achievable with EkkoSoft Critical’s Cooling Advisor capability as just the entry point into effective data centre performance optimisation,” comments EkkoSense CTO, Dr Stu Redshaw. “EkkoSense customers already achieve an average 25-30% reduction in their data centre cooling costs, and that’s only likely to increase when we further evolve our proposition to embrace the kind of fully autonomous cooling we’re already achieving for our beta customers.” To take advantage of Cooling Advisor, data centres need to ensure they have a rack temperature sensor on all their racks, as well as EkkoAir Wireless sensors deployed to provide real time cooling duty performance for any CRAC/AHU units. These can be fitted in moments and enable EkkoSoft Critical’s Cooling Advisor capability to track thermal instabilities across individual data centre rooms as well as broader data centre estates. MCP August 2019

missioncriticalpower.uk

UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLIES

A sure thing: delivering secure power for the Channel Islands G4S Secure Solutions has provided a complete critical power solution to Sure’s Channel Island data centres. Centiel’s UPS systems are helping to ensure zero downtime

ure’s Tier III data centres in the Channel Islands provide the ideal environment to keep some of Europe’s largest organisations’ critical data safe and secure in a location outside of mainland UK and Europe. Housing sensitive information from some of the largest internet retailers, providing long-term data solutions for clients in the legal sector, financial institutions and government departments, Sure’s clients rely on the company’s solid infrastructure to store confidential and important information in a secure environment and to ensure that services are continually available. G4S Secure Solutions works with Sure to provide a complete critical power solution to its Channel Islands’ data centres. The spring of 2018 marked the start of an infrastructure upgrade and replacement programme of back-up technology to these critical facilities including the UPS systems. Louis McGarry, sales manager at Centiel UK, explains: “Although Sure’s data centres have always provided high-quality power protection to their clients, there becomes a point where equipment is superseded by the inevitable advances and improvements in MCP August 2019

technology. The critical power protection for data centre A and B included traditional, legacy transformer-based UPS technology. “Two UPS systems operated in parallel and as well as occupying a large physical footprint, the legacy systems were taking up commercially valuable rack space. In addition, they were not running as efficiently as the latest generation system would. A total cost of ownership study determined that the commercial benefits of the latest technology outweighed the maintenance and operating costs of the existing legacy equipment which justified their replacement. “A typical UPS lifetime is generally around 10 years,” continues McGarry. “At this time VRLA batteries and capacitors will generally require replacing and so if a UPS is approaching a point where a technical a refurbishment is recommended – ie batteries, capacitors, fans etc – it is worth considering the potential commercial advantages of replacement versus refurbishment. A new system will also have a warranty and the advances in technology mean it will be more efficient, making significant savings on running costs on both electricity and

Sure has seen an 18% saving on energy costs in the data centres since the installation of CumulusPower and has predicted a payback period of less than three years reduced cooling requirements.” Wayne McKane, critical power engineer with G4S, comments: “We were looking for a truly modular solution to ensure efficient running and maintenance of systems within the data centres, where our staff could be easily trained to provide a first level response and the ability to exchange

modules if required. We were also looking for the very latest technology to ensure maximum availability combined with a low total cost of ownership. Centiel ticked all the boxes.” McGarry continues: “The G4S Secure Solutions team visited our R&D facility and factory in Switzerland early in 2018 as part of their selection process. missioncriticalpower.uk

47 in the data centres providing a minimum of 10 minutes run time. Each unit contains 320 internal battery blocks in an internal UPS frame for maximum autonomy and high-density power in an extremely small footprint. Due to the architecture of the CumulusPower UPS modules, they can be changed if needed

Because the UPS was right-sized and ran at maximum efficiency, the air conditioning required was significantly less

CumulusPower, Centiel’s 4th generation, three-phase, modular UPS system, is now successfully deployed in two data centres on Guernsey G4S is an integration and implementation specialist and we have been delighted to work and train such a professional team on this project.” The result is that Centiel’s 4th generation, threephase, modular UPS system CumulusPower is now successfully deployed in two data centres on Guernsey and G4S Secure Solutions engineering staff have completed their initial training and are currently undertaking further advanced training to be able to provide ongoing support for these major installations. Two 60 kW N+1 UPS have been supplied and installed missioncriticalpower.uk

CumulusPower is known for its ‘9 nines’ (99.9999999%) system availability

without reverting to external maintenance bypass and raw mains. Therefore, the G4S team is able to service and maintain these systems with zero downtime. McKane explains: “For the Data Centre A installation, we implemented a temporary shut down while work took place. However, for Data Centre B, we were able to swap out the UPS while the load was secured by generator so no shut down was needed, providing an uninterrupted service to our valued client base. “Power is supplied to the Channel Islands by undersea cable from France. The islands have diesel generation and a solid infrastructure to continue to supply power to the communities and businesses in the unlikely event of a power outage. Shortly after the

new UPS were installed this summer, the islands suffered their first major power outage in two and a half years. We were pleased to report that the new Centiel UPS systems did their job perfectly and seamlessly protected the load of the two data centres.” CumulusPower is known for its ‘9 nines’ (99.9999999%) system availability and low total cost of ownership through its maximum efficiency management (MEM) and low losses of energy. McKane comments: “One immediate advantage Sure noticed in implementing CumulusPower was that because it was right-sized and ran at maximum efficiency, the air conditioning required was significantly less. I received a phone call shortly after installation to say: ‘I can’t believe how much airconditioning we have had to switch off!’” Sure Data Centre facilities manager Simon Roger adds: “Sure has seen an 18% saving on energy costs in the data centres since the installation of CumulusPower and has predicted a payback period of less than three years. “We have also had comments on the drastic reduction in operation noise levels of the new UPS. We can also add that Sure has commissioned a third unit for installation this year.” McGarry concludes: “From our experience, the energy savings when replacing old for new could result in the system paying for itself in three to five years. This is good news for the environment and the client alike. This reduced total cost of ownership is supplemented by having high availability and ease of maintenance. “CumulusPower has now been installed in data centres and comms rooms in over 60 countries across five continents, protecting more than 50 MW of critical power loads in locations including: the UK, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and now the Channel Islands.” l August 2019 MCP

ENCLOSURES

Hot stuff: Panduit gains seal of approval at Kao Data Campus Kao Data appoints preferred supplier for hot aisle containment solution Panduit solutions will help support and maintain the efficiency of Kao Data London One data centre

anduit has achieved approved supplier status to the Kao Data Campus for its Universal Containment, hot aisle containment enclosure and rack systems. This highly energy efficient and leak-free solution is in situ at Kao Data’s London One data centre, located in the LondonStansted-Cambridge corridor. Panduit’s hot aisle containment range of cabinet rack enclosures and exhaust and inlet ducts guarantee the air flow is directed to where the cooling air is required and exhaust air is extracted, so no mixing of the airflows occur. The Panduit Universal Containment System is compatible with all major cabinet brands and sizes, offering flexibility to customers. As a manufacturer of the full range of infrastructure solutions, Panduit has engineered these systems to provide seamless product integration. During tests, they are claimed to have demonstrated up to 20% less air leakage than other solutions. Panduit EMEA managing director Ralph Lolies comments: MCP August 2019

“We welcome the opportunity to provide Kao Data’s customers Panduit’s hot-aisle containment solutions within this industryleading data centre. Kao Data has achieved an ultra-low 1.2 PUE, and Panduit solutions will help support and maintain the efficiency of the data centre, as customers implement their chosen compute solutions at Kao Data London One.” Kao Data CTO Gerard Thibault states: “The data centre design means that hot aisle containment is the most efficient approach to cooling the technical space, and perfectly complements the indirect evaporative cooling system which is in operation at Kao Data London One. “We are offering customers the leading containment technologies from the best suppliers, and the Panduit solution is complementary to our requirements and those of our customers.” Cooling energy efficiency is critical to low PUE in data centres. The current trend towards high heat and load density cabinets in data centres

illustrates the requirement for hot air containment systems to segregate cool air cooling and vertical exhaust ducts for hot air removal to optimise cooling efficiency, as within the Kao Data Technology Suites. Operating at server manufacturers’ temperature specification allows maximum product performance and longer life-cycles, which benefits operators and customers.

Hot aisle containment is the most efficient approach to cooling the technical space, and complements the indirect evaporative cooling system which is in operation at Kao Data London One

Kao Data London One uses indirect evaporative cooling technology, which requires no mechanical refrigeration, offering ‘free cooling’ to the data halls. To maximise the cooling effectiveness and enable high density compute loads, Kao is deploying technology cells in its data halls (Technology Suites) – a 34 rack/ 350kW cube with enclosed hot aisle. This allows up to 58U cabinets and 20kW/ rack position, although the power density can be even higher if required. Panduit has a comprehensive offering of switch inlet ducts and works with leading server and switch manufacturers in development, test and manufacture of the systems to ensure containment capabilities and airflow manageability to create effective front to rear airflow patterns. Optimising containment system design allows for lower fan speeds, higher data centre supply air temperature and higher chilled water temperature, which ultimately reduces potential energy use. l missioncriticalpower.uk

PRODUCTS

Cool savings for server rooms A new split air-conditioning system – the EC Tower – has been launched by Stulz UK, offering high levels of reliability and precision control, in a fraction of the footprint of conventional air-conditioning systems. The EC Tower series combines the reliability of Stulz’s precision air-conditioning technology with the advantages of modern inverter outdoor condensing unit. A split climate solution, the EC Tower range can be rapidly deployed for heat loads of 5kW to 24kW. A key advantage of the outdoor condensing unit is the ability to support dynamic capacity adjustment of the rated cooling capacity – which delivers significant energy savings. The EC Tower series is designed for continuous, 24/7 cooling of technical rooms. While conventional comfort air-conditioning units can use up to 40% of their cooling capacity in dehumidification, the EC Tower generates between 90% and 100% of sensible cooling capacity, which reduces dehumidification and lost performance. The high sensible heat ratio (SHR) value eliminates problems associated with removing moisture via the evaporator, which can be an issue in technical environments, causing static

build up within the technical equipment. The outdoor unit requires just 35% of the footprint of a conventional precision airconditioning condenser and operation is also much quieter. Since the compressor is located in the outdoor unit, no noise emissions and no additional heat are generated in the technical room.

Lithium-ion battery cabinet Vertiv has introduced its HPL lithium-ion battery cabinet, for use with larger capacity UPS systems. While Vertiv was an early adopter of lithiumion batteries for the data centre, this marks the first offering with Vertiv’s own battery management system. The cabinet is ready to use with most current and legacy Vertiv three-phase UPS systems. The Vertiv HPL is configured in a cabinet the size of a standard data centre rack and ships pre-assembled with six lithium-ion battery modules. The modular configuration allows for connection of up to eight cabinets to a single UPS in order to customise runtime capacity and redundancy to the application. Vertiv batteries are nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC), a proven chemistry commonly used for the rigorous standards required for the automobile industry. Built-in sensors in each battery module and seamless integration with the battery monitoring system allow for real-time monitoring and information at the cell, module, system and facility level. Vertiv HPL allows direct communication between the battery monitoring system within the unit and the external UPS, ensuring early notification of potential issues and maximising battery life. Redundancy built into the battery management system eliminates single points of failure and ensures high availability of the battery across a range of operating conditions. The Vertiv HPL is warranted to operate up to 86°F (30°C), allowing data centre operators to reduce battery cooling costs compared with most alternative solutions. The batteries in the Vertiv HPL have a 10-year life guarantee under normal operating conditions.

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UPS innovation Centiel has announced the extension of its PremiumTower range. PremiumTower is a threephase, online double-conversion UPS, designed to maximise efficiency and minimise footprint and is now available in a range of sizes from: 10-250 kW. PremiumTower is suitable for small and medium data centres, comms rooms, IT networks and any mission critical application which demands high availability and energy efficiency. Gerardo Lecuona, co-founder, and global sales director, Centiel, comments: “When floor space is a premium, there is now no need to compromise on performance. PremiumTower provides up to 415kW per square metre of energy, while delivering efficient and uncompromised availability. The standalone cabinet can be placed against the wall as only front access is needed for services, saving space and making maintenance straightforward.” PremiumTower can be paralleled to provide either additional power capacity or redundancy. In addition, its on-line operating efficiency of 96.6% in double conversion mode minimises running costs and reduces the total cost of ownership. Internal batteries are available for 10-60kW versions, reducing the footprint to ensure it can fit into even the smallest comms room. Flexibility in the number of battery blocks (20 to 50 x 12V blocks) allows system designers to optimise costs versus autonomy time without power derating and enables the upgrade of the UPS without changing the battery installation. Advanced monitoring through ethernet adaptors, dry contacts and serial ports allows for remote real-time control and early detection of alarms for fast reaction in case of power outages or reduced battery autonomy. PremiumTower is capable of up to 120% continuous overload ensuring load protection even on marginally rated supplies. Ultimately, the product range offers additional flexibility and ensures that systems can be right-sized to suit any business critical application. August 2019 MCP

Q&A

Marc Garner The vice-president of the Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric UK & Ireland discusses Genghis Khan, living every day like it’s your last and his dream of playing football for Liverpool Who would you least like to share a lift with? On the one hand there are some politicians I could think of... on the other, there are a few Manchester United and Everton coaches that would cause an uncomfortable silence too.

there are so many, but maybe who killed JFK? And why?

You’re God for the day. What’s the first thing you do? Given the result on the final day of the Premiership last season, I might inflict an illness – temporary and curable of course, like man-flu – on key members of the Manchester City squad, so that Liverpool could win the title on their own merit. However, in the best interests of sustaining our planet, I would rid the oceans of plastic and make renewables the primary energy source used globally; in data centres and buildings.

What’s your favourite book? My favourite books are The Genghis Khan series and the Caesar series, both by Conn Iggulden. They are all inredible reads.

If you could travel back in time to a period in history, what would it be? I’d really like to go back to Liverpool in the era of the 1960s or 1970s. I would love to see what the city was like then, just for the buzz of what was happening with the Beatles and the whole music scene at the time. It would have been an incredible era to see. Who are you enjoying listening to? Right now I’m really enjoying listening to George Ezra. However, I also really like The Killers and listen to many more classic albums like Definitely Maybe by Oasis. That’s a firm favvourite on my Spotify playlist at the moment. What unsolved mystery would you like the answers to? This is a great question as MCP August 2019

What is the best piece of advice ever been given? Live every day like it’s your last; if you’re not happy doing something you must change it.

What would you take to a desert island? It might seem obvious but electricity and a fridge. Desert islands are fine but I like my creature comforts...

What would your super power be and why? I think it would be the ability to fly, primarily to avoid traffic jams and wasting time. Sitting in traffic is arguably my biggest pet peeve. What would you do with a million pounds? I would travel round the world to see as many incredible places as possible and to experience all the different cultures. I’d also love to take part in every sports activity available in those places; things like whitewater rafting, ski-ing and bungee jumping. I have always dreamed of sticking a backpack on and travelling around the world. I might even take my wife and daughter with me! What’s your greatest extravagance? I don’t really Royal Ascot: There’s worse places to be on a sunny day

I’d retire at Liverpool, having made my millions playing for Real Madrid, Barcelona or Paris St Germain have one. I enjoy a day at the races, occasionally, which could be termed an extravagance, depending on how much you hand over to the bookies, but in essence I’m in a man of simple things. I love being with my family and to travel when the opportunity is there. Other than that, there really isn’t one. If you were blessed with any talent, what would your dream job be? If I could have one I would be playing football for Liverpool. That is, I’d retire at Liverpool, having first built my reputation and made my millions playing for Real Madrid, Barcelona or Paris St Germain in Europe.

What should energy users be doing to help themselves in the current climate? The simplest way of saving energy is changing personal behaviour, but this is difficult – like turning electrical appliances off when you don’t need them. That is why it is important we continue to invest in automated systems because they take a lot of the behavioural element out of the situation. They will remember to turn the lights off, switch off the heating when it is not needed and so on. As an industry we must remember that this is a complex question and requires everyone to do their part, both businesses and consumers. What’s the best thing – work wise – that you did recently? We took some important clients to Ascot recently. There are worse places to be on a sunny day. Spending time with the executive team members at Datacloud in Monaco was also excellent – in fact, I should have added Monaco as a place to play football. My best days in work are the ones I spend with customers and we are involved in some incredible projects at the moment. One in particular is a life sciences customer who we are helping to secure data flow and optimise issues in the health and safety side of their business. Working at Schneider Electric opens doors for you to work closely with customers on projects that you never thought possible. In my role there is never a dull day. l missioncriticalpower.uk