Delta Mission Critical Infrastructure Solutions BU helps NCCU build a green data center

Delta recently helped the National Chung Cheng University (NCCU) Computer Center with the green renovation of its data center, which has so far been the largest data center upgrade project in Taiwan. It has successfully increased reliability of the data center’s operations, while improving education and research quality. What’s more, it has reduced the data center’s overall power consumption by 35%, saving about NTD 1.7 million dollars annually on the university’s electricity bill. This huge reduction in university expenses is a significant achievement.

Energy efficiency: Energy savings almost equals all of the CO2 emissions absorbed by Daan Park

All of Taiwan is affected by PM2.5 air pollution, while Taipei Daan Forest Park is able to absorb 370 tons of carbon dioxide every year. The electricity saved by the renovation of the NCCU data center is equal to about 258 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, according to calculations based on the electricity emissions factor set by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. This reduction is almost 70% of the carbon dioxide absorption amount of Daan Park, which demonstrates the social responsibility of the university. It is also a practical example of carbon reduction and energy conservation, and many universities and high schools have requested visits to the new green data center.

Li Xin-Lin, director of the NCCU Computer Center, indicated that the former data center was already 28 years old. The air conditioning and servers were aged, the coaxial cables had to be replaced by optic fibers, and the equipment was in need of replacement. Proper planning for this project was desperately required, but there was a certain level of difficulty in the in-situ renovation. The NCCU data center, serving 13,000 of faculty and students, was also the data center for the College Admissions Committee, and the Chiayi and Yunlin local network center, which is connected externally to 500 to 600 schools.

It meant that there was no room for errors for the renovation. Director Li commented that the onsite renovation was like tailoring clothes while still wearing them. It would be restricted by the existing space, and data center operations could not be suspended for equipment replacement. The renovation was much more difficult than building a completely new data center.

Li Xin-Lin, Director of the NCCU Computer Center, indicated that the experience of this green project from planning, implementing, to operating, has shown us that the complete replacement greatly improves efficiency and conserves energy

NCCU green data center project: Delta Infrastructure

This infrastructure improvement project had the full support of NCCU President Fong Zhang-hua for creating a green data center in accordance with international Green Grid standards. The university cooperated with Delta’s MCISBU in planning for the installation of RowCool cooling equipment, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), power distribution cabinets (PDCs), network server racks, and environment monitoring equipment (including the asset management network detection, referred to as DCIM - Datacenter Infrastructure Management). The old data center was divided into two rooms, occupying almost 265 square meters. Ling Ke-Wei, NCCU resource management group leader, pointed out that the rooms were stacked with a variety of aged equipment and the air conditioning was in constant operation all year round. The data center’s PUE (power usage effectiveness) had reached 2.1. After the upgrade was performed during the three months of summer vacation, the two rooms were combined into one single clean and fresh green data center of 205 square meters. The updated infrastructure has a cool aisle area of only 50 square meters, and was reduced to 81% of the original cooling coverage and decreased the PUE to less than 1.5.

The new, smaller data center helps enhance operation efficiency and power savings. Leader Lin pointed out that the old equipment was bulky, occupying more space, and offering lower operating efficiency. The new servers use virtualization technology and can load several application systems in one server rack, while providing more stable information and communication services for academic affairs and reducing the risk of a blackout. The overall design also includes environment control and management software which offers active warning and spreadsheets to allow administrators to obtain instant information and troubleshooting, which reduced the labor needed for walkthrough inspections.

A module framework was adopted in this project, which allowed the data center to be designed with flexibility according to the equipment and capacity growth, thus further saving costs and optimizing the benefits. To improve the reliability and the efficiency of the UPSs, the university used an adjusted 150kW/220V with dual input, transformer-less UPS framework based on actual power consumption. It reduces the risk of power malfunctions, improves efficiency to over 90%, and also considers future expandability.

Heat dissipation solved bycool and hot aisles

About 45% of a general data center’s power consumption is for air conditioning. The key to improving cooling effects on hot spots in the data center is to create cool and hot aisles and manage the air flow. By separating the air flow created by the air conditioning system and the heat emission paths from the servers, the cooling effect is not reduced by the hot air.

Leader Lin, a licensed professional electrical engineer, is a former information section chief of the Chiayi County Government, and a former electrical operations section chief of the Chiayi County Tax Office. In this project, he made adjustments for specific demands of the air conditioning control contact points, to ensure regular air conditioning operations in case of a machine malfunction. To prevent server overheating, the new data center changed its complicated wiring system to a color-coded ceiling route that is easy for users to understand and distinguish.

The cables of the data center are colored on purpose

More eco-friendly and more energy-efficient by replacing aged equipment

A single concept can change everything. Director Li pointed out that many agencies refrain from replacing all their equipment at the same time, which restricts the resulting benefits. The experience of this green data center project, from planning, implementation, to operation, as well as replacing equipment (UPS, air conditioning system) that has passed its useful lifespan, demonstrates that a complete replacement greatly improves efficiency and conserves energy.

Delta has always provided customer-oriented services and offered discounts to academic institutions. In addition to data center solutions, it also helps clients with overall planning such as server site selection, spatial design, air conditioning, and electricity distribution. With the powerful support of its local engineering teams, Delta guarantees the quality of subsequent services.