The latest Global Interconnection Index (GXI), an annual market study published by Equinix, predicts private connectivity at the edge will grow by 51% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and exceed a total bandwidth capacity of more than 13,300 Tbps, equivalent to 53 zettabytes of data exchanged annually. This is enough to support every person on earth simultaneously downloading a complete season of Game of Thrones in ultra-high definition resolution in less than a single day. Read more…
Containerised data centre delivered for Envision AESC UK
Envision AESC UK required a new data centre to support its newly acquired office and production site at their newly acquired Sunderland site. While there was a requirement for additional rack space, the primary driver was space and location. The client chose to relocate an internally based data centre (potentially consuming office or warehouse room), placing it instead externally. Rittal was able to provide a solution consistent with the previous system, in terms of both design Read more…
Power networks ‘need massive investment’ to increase resilience and flexibility
Power networks will require major investment in resilience and flexibility to hit net zero according to EDF president and CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy. “Creating a carbon-free world is a sizeable challenge requiring the mobilisation of human inventiveness,” Lévy told the InnoEnergy TBB conference. He said EDF’s strategy is based on “three levers; decarbonising energy use, generation and adapting electricity networks to enable these changes”. On networks, Lévy said the electrical system will play “an increasingly central Read more…
Mark Davis swaps Total for GridBeyond
GridBeyond, the demand-side response and flexibility firm, has hired Mark Davis as UK & Ireland director. Davis was previously head of UK business development for Total Gas & Power, spending seven and a half years with the energy supplier. Prior to that, he spent ten years at Npower as corporate sales manager, with a stint at DSR platform Open Energi in between. At GridBeyond, Davis will take responsibility for sales and marketing strategy. “Mark’s experience in Read more…
Lithium-ion batteries could ‘deliver six hour grid services’
Lithium-ion batteries will soon deliver economically viable daily storage – not just short duration bursts, according to Marek Kubik, market director at Fluence Energy. Speaking at Aurora’s battery storage conference, Kubik claimed Fluence has 1.5GW of storage projects “awarded or operational around the world.” He said the firm, formed by Siemens and AES, is “building systems to fit markets”. Some of those markets favour batter storage that delivers for “20-30 minutes”, said Kubik, others reward Read more…
Cyxtera expands with new Amsterdam data centre
Cyxtera Technologies, the secure infrastructure company, has announced the opening of its latest European data center in Amsterdam slated to commence business operations during the first quarter of 2020. Cyxtera’s newest facility in Amsterdam (AMS1) will provide a highly connected secure infrastructure platform to help customers in the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. Additionally, the company announced plans to expand its CXD on-demand data centre platformto Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The new Amsterdam facility will expand the Read more…
Schneider partners with Avnet and Iceotope on liquid-cooled data centre solutions
Schneider Electric has announced that it is teaming up with Avnet and Iceotope to jointly develop innovative, chassis-level immersive liquid cooling solutions for data centres. This newly announced partnership brings together three global technology innovation leaders: Avnet for technology integration services; Iceotope for chassis-level immersion cooling technologies; and Schneider Electric for data centre infrastructure solutions. “Compute intensive applications like AI and IoT are driving the need for better chip performance. Our quantitative analysis and testing Read more…
Future proofing cooling in data centres…
Every watt counts during round-the-clock operation in data centres… Today, data centres are springing up wherever you look. So much waste heat is generated in each of these data centres that around half of the required electrical energy must be used for cooling the hardware alone. Yet the information age has only just ‘warmed up’; the larger the volume of data is, the higher the required cooling capacity and thus the energy consumption will also Read more…
Solving Europe’s data centre and cloud infrastructure capacity challenges
Taking place at Billingsgate, London (5-6 November), DCD London explores the full on-premise/off-premise infrastructure ecosystem, from enterprise to hyperscale, and colocation to edge. With an audience of senior executives and technical teams from many of the largest data centre operators globally, responsible for the design, build, management and operation of mission critical IT facilities, this is a must attend event. This year the key themes focus on five pertinent topics: Energy Smart Infrastructure From future battery Read more…
PeaSoup expands with ‘eco-friendly’ data centre in Lincoln
PeaSoup Hosting has expanded its business to deliver its resilient cloud service from a new, environmentally friendly data centre in Lincoln, after receiving a £108,000 financial injection from HSBC UK. The funding has enabled PeaSoup Hosting to build on its UK cloud service with another data centre in Lincoln, UK that provides a completely resilient position to complement the existing London based services and with a minimal ecological impact when running the technology. A critical element Read more…
Importance of battery choice for UPS performance
Battery technology is key to ensuring optimum UPS performance says Mark Coughlin, from EnerSys. He argues that operators should consider using thin plate pure lead as an alternative to traditional lead acid and lithium-ion… Data centres today experience a rising incidence of power outages and grid fluctuations caused by increased urbanisation and demand. Meanwhile, their workload is expanding, with a move to multi-user hosting services and larger data storage capacity requirements. These factors increase pressure for ‘best Read more…
Will the backup stack up?
Finning UK & Ireland’s Jason Harryman provides some valuable advice on how to ensure your backup generation kicks in when it is needed, and what to do if it does not… The major power outage on 9 August saw almost a million people across large areas of England and Wales affected in what was the country’s most severe blackout in more than a decade. With Ipswich Hospital investigating why a backup generator failed to kick-in Read more…
Wave goodbye to unsustainable IT
The world’s first ocean powered data centre will be built in Scotland, giving access to predictable renewable generation with grid backup, at a location which benefits from low temperatures… Simec Atlantis Energy (Atlantis) has announced plans for a tidal-powered data centre in the Caithness region of Scotland. The power supply for such a data centre would include electricity supplied via a private wire network from tidal turbines at the existing MeyGen project site. Described as Read more…
DSR: market hit by uncertainty, but end users remain satisfied with outcome
Firms helping to balance the power system via demand-side response (DSR) say they could provide significantly more flexibility – given sufficient reward and revenue certainty. Meanwhile, most companies that do not provide DSR would consider doing so – if it did not impact day-to-day operations. The findings, from a survey conducted by MCP’s sister title, The Energyst, come as National Grid ESO recommends reviewing security of supply standards to determine whether they require strengthening – Read more…
World in union: Powering the Rugby World Cup
Aggreko is providing reliable power for the Rugby World Cup in Japan, ensuring uninterrupted enjoyment of one of the biggest tournaments in history… The Rugby World Cup is being held in Asia for the first time in 2019, marking a historic year for both the host nation, Japan, and the sport. With 1.8 million tickets available for the event, 600,000 of which have been purchased by international fans, this year’s tournament is set to be one of the biggest Read more…
Testing times: critical facilities putting backup at risk
Crestchic’s Paul Brickman warns that many sites are not properly testing their standby power systems. In light of recent events, critical facilities need to up their game… The UK’s energy mix is going through a transition from fossil fuel-generated electricity to an increased reliance on renewable sources – posing challenges to the National Grid when it comes to balancing demand with ensuring a stable, consistent supply. That said, managing frequency deviations on the transmission grid Read more…
Finning launches new guide on Medium Combustion Plant Directive
Finning UK & Ireland has launched a free new guide, to help plant owners and operators ensure they don’t fall foul of legislation introducing new emissions limits for mid-sized machinery and plant. Available to download from https://poweruk.finning.com/powerplayermcpd, theguide explores the implications of the Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCPD), and strides made by manufacturers and suppliers, such as Finning, to engineer solutions that can help limit pollutants. The guide is the first in what is set Read more…
Understanding the UPS’s role in power quality management
Alex Emms, operations director at Kohler Uninterruptible Power, explains the UPS’s vital role during mains presence, as well as in blackouts, and shows the importance of selecting online systems… Most people in IT are aware that UPSs use batteries to seamlessly take over the critical load if the incoming mains supply fails. While this is certainly true, UPSs form an equally important role in managing power quality when the load is being supplied from the Read more…
Energy storage and flexibility: key to resilience in uncertain times?
While a UPS is sufficient to deal with short-term power failures, the installation of a behind-meter-battery could deliver far greater value to mission critical facilities, argues GridBeyond’s Michael Phelan. He tells MCP how sites can increase resilience and generate revenues… In the days following the August blackout, National Grid described the outage as a “rare and unusual event”. This has raised an important question about the resilience of our networks during the transition towards a Read more…
How healthy is our power infrastructure?
Power Control’s Robert Mather looks at the implications of the August blackout and highlights the importance of applying best practice within hospitals, and other critical facilities, to avoid risk… Following the blackout on 9 August, National Grid confirmed that due to the fall in frequency of the system, it followed its planned isolation process by disconnecting selected segregated areas. Although regarded as standard procedure by National Grid, it has raised some questions. How have these Read more…
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