Coordinated system for controlling ICT equipment and CRAC loads in data centers

Reducing power consumption in data centers is becoming increasingly important. We have been developing a data center energy management system (DEMS) for power saving in data centers. DEMS consists of an active control layer and passive control layer. In the active control layer, the total power in a data center can be reduced by controlling the cooling output of computer room air conditioners (CRACs) together with the central processing unit load, including switching the information and communication technology equipment on and off. In the passive control layer, the energy of the CRACs can be reduced by attaching air-flow control elements. The effectiveness of each control layer and the results of applying the air-flow control elements in the passive control layer based on computational fluid dynamics are shown.