In the information and communication technology sector, data centers are one of the largest consumers of electricity, as they use approximately 3% of the total global electricity consumption, but by 2030 they could consume as much as 4%. This electricity consumption contributes to climate change, so Tet has been working for a long time to reduce consumption as efficiently as possible.
The company invests EUR 300,000 every year to improve the energy efficiency of data centers. The goal is to improve power efficiency by using less electricity to cool equipment and quench computing power to offer more competitive services to customers. Tet evaluates the energy efficiency of data centers using the PUE indicator. Already at the moment, it is 1.38 for the Perses Street data center, which is very close to the best indicators that the most efficient data centers in the world can currently achieve.
“Our data centers have a unified monitoring system so that data can be accumulated, analyzed and the system improved. We are increasing the cooling temperature thresholds in the data centers, because the new servers can be cooled at a higher temperature. In cooling technologies, we use the coldest air available outside, without specially cooling it (free cooling technologies), we also change air conditioning equipment to more environmentally friendly and energy efficient ones. We believe that the low-emission data center service will become a growing value in the eyes of customers and improve the company’s competitiveness,” says Māris Sperga, Head of Tet Data Center Business Development.
Five servers can be replaced by one
When working on the development of IT solutions on a daily basis, Tet specialists prefer cloud computing services, including the “Cloud first” strategy, which allows for much more efficient use of both computing power and is significantly more energy efficient. Currently, around 39% of data center capacity is used directly for providing cloud services. However, there are customers who choose to build their IT infrastructure on physical servers. Tet specialists have concluded that although new servers consume more electricity than old servers, the ratio of computing power to consumed energy is much higher. As a result, 4 to 5 servers that have served for more than 7 years can be replaced by 1 to 2 servers, which gives significant energy savings.
To reduce consumption – stricter rules
Although network equipment and data centers are becoming more energy efficient, their overall energy consumption is increasing as enterprise infrastructure expands and data traffic increases. Currently, in total, digital technologies consume 5% to 9% of the world’s electricity, and with the development of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain solutions, this will only increase. For this reason, energy-efficient cloud computing has been put forward as one of the EU’s priorities. The European Commission has mandated that data centers become more energy efficient and use more renewable energy sources.
Over the next decade, EU legislation will limit economic activities that contribute to climate change and promote adaptation to climate change. In the near future, companies will be expected to have a clear action plan on how to ensure the compatibility of the business model and strategy with the transition to a low-emission economy. Likewise, EU institutions are currently working on conditions and financing initiatives, as well as methods for evaluating the energy efficiency, climate neutrality and general sustainability of data centers.
In the coming years, Tet will expand consumption monitoring
The company has already calculated scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions for the past year. In the near future, it is planned to expand the calculation by covering all companies of the group and by adding the necessary scope 3 emission categories. Tet has also added ESG risks to the company’s risk assessment framework, including climate risk assessment. Last year, an ambitious network reorganization project was completed, replacing technologies with more efficient and energy-efficient ones, as a result of which the company’s annual electricity consumption decreased by 2.5 GWh. The company actively monitors the availability of renewable energy at a favorable price in the necessary volumes.
Tet’s commitment to reducing its impact on the environment is defined in the company’s Sustainability Policy, which envisages a gradual transition to renewable electricity for self-consumption as the company’s main decarbonization strategy.
2023-08-07 07:30:00
#Tet #invests #thousand #euros #year #improve #energy #efficiency #data #centers
