me to see the real-time effect of warm
weather as the day heats up. As the
day starts, our PUE figure is running
at about 1.20 but by the end of a hot
afternoon it’s up to about 1.25, 1.27 and
then drops down again as the evening
cools . This degree of detail enables me
to be confident that we are adopting an
appropriate operating regime for the
cooling system.”
Monitoring in real time the effects
of small changes to operations enables
clarity about the interaction of the
control of the chillers and the operation
of the HPC servers. For example, if the
chillers are running below maximum
power, it can be seen immediately
whether it is more efficient to run all
three at reduced load, or turn one off
and run the remaining two at part load,
etc. “The only way you can clarify this
is by having this instrumentation and
trying it under varying operational
conditions,” he said.
Conclusion
Dr Beedie has long contended that
“going green saves you money,” so
he’s pleased that the Comtec software
solution is helping to verify this
assertion. “The additional investment
for the Energy Efficiency module
enabled me to prove firstly that the
business case for the cooling upgrade
was vindicated, and secondly, to fine
tune the services operation to achieve
the best PUE possible for the mix of
climate, HPC server demand and
services efficiency. The key point is
that I can now make a change and
see whether it has had a positive or
negative impact on the energy use of
the supporting services. The University
has a longstanding relationship with
Comtec,” continued Beedie. “Having
completed our original data centre
design and build, plus the previous
upgrade requirements, they were able
to deploy the Energy Efficiency DCIM
module quickly and without causing
disruption to ARCCA. This latest
project has provided immediate energy
efficiency improvements, and has repaid
our trust in both them and Schneider
Electric.”
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NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 6 2015 31