European data center provider Interxion is offering the EkkoSense energy optimization service to its enterprise customers in EMEA.
Tests at the Digital Realty subsidiary's facility in West Drayton, London went well, with Interxion saving up to 20 percent on its cooling energy.
Ekko chamber
The EkkoSense service monitors energy use by data center equipment, and optimizes energy use while keeping data center equipment in a favorable environmental range. Interxion used the service from February 2019 for an extended trial at its West Drayton site, which enabled it to reduce the energy used in cooling the site by around one-fifth, making a contribution to Interxion's carbon reduction targets.
Interxion customers in EMEA can now use the EkkoSoft Critical thermal optimization software, which includes performance analytics, to spot potential airflow and cooling inefficiencies in real time, says Interxion.
Interxion's parent, Digital Realty, has made promises to reduce its carbon footprint, but has not promised to be carbon-neutral by any particular date. Instead, it has signed up to the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTI), a cross-industry body that promises to set "carbon emission reduction targets backed by climate science rather than internally self-defined parameters."
"Digital Realty will partner with SBTi to develop precise targets by year-end," said Digital CEO Bill Stein in a blog back in May, adding that the company is committed to emissions which are "in-line with a significantly below two-degree climate change scenario by 2030." Of course, achieving that goal does require the cooperation of the rest of humanity, instead of being achievable by Digital Realty on its own.
In Texas, Digital has taken a 105MW power purchase agreement with Pattern Energy for 12 years, which funds a solar farm sufficient to cancel the energy needs of Digital's Dallas. Customers can choose to use renewable energy from 2021.
In April 2020, Digital had already signed a 7.5-year power and renewable energy credit agreement with Citi to provide power to its 13 data centers in the Dallas, Texas area from the Bearkat II Wind Energy Project. In 2019, Digital signed a PPA with Engie North America, to use up to 107TWh of solar energy at some of its Northern Virginia facilities.
“We’ve already had considerable success in reducing cooling system energy consumption for both Interxion in Europe and Digital Realty in the US, and we’re really looking forward to unlocking further savings for Interxion enterprise customers across EMEA,” said Dean Boyle, CEO, EkkoSense in the Interxion release.
