THE PROJECT - OBJECTIVES

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the RenewIT project is to develop a simulation tool to evaluate the energy performance of different technical solution integrating RES in several European climate regions. The public RenewIT tool will be implemented in a user-friendly web interface helping actors from both the energy and IT sectors to reduce the carbon footprint of planned Data Centres in the horizon of 2030. The tool is based on selected meta-models extracted from advanced dynamic simulation models of challenging energy concepts for renewable energy supply of Data Centres.

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SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

Objective 1

To develop management algorithms for virtualised Data Centres in a Cloud ecosystem

This objective aims to develop management algorithms for virtualised Data Centres in a Cloud ecosystem running heterogeneous workloads that optimize their operation with respect to energy performance or useful work in function of the energy consumed and ecological efficiency.

Objective 2

To define common and harmonized metrics

The RenewIT project aims to contribute to a common understanding of existing metrics towards the establishment of a consistent approach for the energy evaluation of a Data Centre from the points of view of infrastructures, equipment and IT workload management, including renewables.

Objective 3

To develop an high quality system for Data Centres energy monitoring

The RenewIT project will develop a monitoring systems specifically customized to evaluate the Data Centres performance. Modularity and scalability will be two main features of this new concept of monitoring system in order to guarantee a proper evaluation of the energy performance of the Data Centre regardless of what is the technology used to produce the energy which feeds the data centres or used to increase its energy efficiency.

Objective 4

To develop concepts and technical solutions for renewable energy supply

The development of advanced concepts and technical solutions for the efficient and renewable energy supply of Data Centres is the key objective of RenewIT. In several cases, the novelty will be based in the integration under a holistic approach of already existing technologies with the objective of achieving a massive penetration of renewable energy supply. Regarding the different situations in Europe, different concepts for generation, re-cooling, heat recovery, storage, distribution and renewable energy generation need to be provided.

Objective 5

To develop dynamic energy modelling

Once the conceptual technical solutions has been developed, there is a need for developing advanced dynamic energy models of the proposed cooling supply and heat recovery systems for Data Centres. The models are a must to evaluate the potential of each technical solution. Each technical solution will be assessed by means of a multi-dimensional analysis, considering the multiple factors with relevant impact over the environmental performance figures considering also the climate, workload and other.

Objective 6

To develop a planning software tool

A new tool, the RenewIT Tool, will be developed based on meta-models extracted from the advanced dynamic energy models developed in the framework of the project.
This tool will be the first software tool specifically dedicated to the evaluation of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy solutions potential in Data Centres, and given this, it will be conceived as a fast and simple prefeasibility analysis that can be used by a wide public, coming both from the engineering and IT sectors. Figure 2 represents schematically the conceptual framework of the RenewIT tool.

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Objective 7

To validate the RTD results and the simulation tools

Verification of the proposed concepts and software tools will be performed through several forms of validation. Development of green management algorithms and heat re-use concepts will be validated at laboratory scales using the micro Data Centre test bench. Novel technical solutions proposed will be validated though the dynamic energy models. These will be partially validated with real information of Data Centres where actual information will be available, as they constitute the case studies for the project. RenewIT tool will be validated based on the dynamic complete energy models. RenewIT project will perform energy simulations to a complete set of scenarios, based in real cases. These simulations will collect conclusions to better plan, design and operate the identified technical solutions.

Objective 8

To disseminate the RTD results and project outcomes

Effective dissemination is essential to maximize the technical, social and economic impact foreseen by the RenewIT consortium in order to help the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy for data centres. The communication of the project outcomes and their benefits should be focused and addressed to the target markets and communities, in order to create awareness of the RenewIT and other outcomes and interest towards the new developments related to energy efficiency and renewability for data centres.

THE PROJECT - WORKPLAN

The structure of project work packages (WPs) is conceived to efficiently organise the work plan and oriented to the RenewIT objectives. There are eight WPs: Two of them are responsible for project management (WP1) and dissemination, exploitation and standardisation activities (WP8) and the rest ones have technical character (WP2 to WP7). Figure 3 shows the structure of the WP and the relationship between them.

WP1

The overall objective of this WP is to perform the overall management of the administrative, financial and quality assessment activities of the project.

WP2

This WP will develop management algorithms for Data Centres in a Cloud ecosystem which optimises their operation with respect to energy.

WP3

This WP aims at designing a high quality system for Data Centres energy monitoring. The monitoring system will be used not only to evaluate the energy efficiency of computing modules and data centre facilities but also to evaluate the effect of the integration of renewables, energy recovery systems and innovative cooling systems.

WP4

This WP will investigate and develop advanced concepts and technical solutions for the efficient, renewable and cost-effective energy supply of Data Centres.

WP5

This WP is focused on developing advanced energy system models of the proposed RES systems and heat recovery systems to be integrated in Data Centres. Through the use of these models, the potential of each solution will be assessed by means of a multi-dimensional analysis, considering the multiple factors.

WP6

This WP aims to provide a public tool, the RenewIT tool, for assessing the energy consumption on Data Centres.

WP 7

In this WP the RenewIT tool and the models of the energy systems will be tested and implemented in different Data Centres case studies as a way of validating the results of the other WPs.

WP8

This WP will disseminate the results of the project to carefully selected target communities.

THE PROJECT - PARTNERS

The RenewIT consortium (Figure 4) shows a good balance between experience and knowledge, companies and public and research organizations and IT and energy specialist partners. Participants were chosen taking into account their expertise, knowledge and profile in order to create a strong consortium representing the excellence in research activities in the field of IT and energy, and specially, in the Data Centres and internet energy efficiency and renewable.

IREC is the leading research centre in energy in Catalonia, constituted as Foundation with the participation of the Catalan regional government (Generalitat de Catalunya), the Spanish Ministries of Industry and Science & Innovation, the Univ. of Barcelona, the Polytechnic Univ. of Catalonia, the Univ. Rovira Virgili and private companies from the energy sector. Created in 2008, the Institute constitutes a research organization committed to carry out, promote, spread, transfer and improve research activities in the energy and environment sectors of knowledge and of their applications. It specializes in researching and developing technology in connection with energy savings and efficiency and with renewable energies.

The research group of IREC that will participate in the project is the Thermal Energy and Building Performance Group. The group has wide expertise in building and energy systems dynamic simulation and offers state-of-the-art experimental laboratory facilities for evaluating and improving the performance of emerging energy technologies and building thermal/electrical components under realistic dynamic conditions. The laboratory, named SEILAB, is provided with cutting-edge technology comprising systems for energy generation, heat and cool storage and state-of-the-art facilities for testing HVAC equipment and the interaction of energy systems with the grid.
IREC will act as coordinator of the project and will be responsible of the scientific and financial management of the project. IREC will also lead the objective of developing the RenewIT Tool and the deployment of the micro Data Centre test bench in the SEILAB laboratory.