An Analysis of the Energy Infrastructure in Generic Data Centres

This paper discusses how data centres have become essential to modern life due to our dependency on them in an ever-growing cloud age. However, data centres also cause problems on a global scale on account of the copious amounts of electricity they consume, and the attributed carbon emissions associated with their operations. This paper presents a novel methodology to study their energy infrastructure by creating an open-source model built in Microsoft Excel that captures all elements of the energy flow in and out of data centres. The developed model can output hourly figures that can be studied to conceptualize the natural and active cooling requirements, energy consumption, the amount of renewable energy generated, and the energy utilization of what is consumed by the data centre; be it renewable energy, imported electricity, or excess generation. The model can also account for local weather conditions for a specific time of the year and utilize previous weather data averages to predict future energy consumption trends and performance.