Data Centers Optimized Integration with Multi-Energy Grids: Test Cases and Results in Operational Environment

In this paper, we address the management of Data Centers (DCs) by considering their optimal integration with the electrical, thermal, and IT (Information Technology) networks helping them to meet sustainability objectives and gain primary energy savings. Innovative scenarios are defined for exploiting the DCs electrical, thermal, and workload flexibility as a commodity and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are proposed and used as enablers for the scenarios’ implementation. The technology and scenarios were evaluated in the context of two operational DCs: a micro DC in Poznan which has on-site renewable sources and a DC in Point Saint Martin. The test cases’ results validate the possibility of using renewable energy sources (RES) for exploiting DCs’ energy flexibility and the potential of combining IT load migration with the availability of RES to increase the amount of energy flexibility by finding a trade-off between the flexibility level, IT load Quality of Service (QoS), and the RES production level. Moreover, the experiments conducted show that the DCs can successfully adapt their thermal energy profile for heat re-use as well as the combined electrical and thermal energy profiles to match specific flexibility requests.