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New report advocates using waste heat from data centers for district heating


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A new report from the Cool-Data project sheds light on the flexible usage and heat dissipation possibilities from data centers in Denmark. DTU researchers answered five questions about how energy could be used in county heating.

In the Cool-Data project, a team of researchers from DTU (DTU Compute, DTU Construct and DTU Management), along with four companies and a utility, worked to develop and implement an integrated cooling system creative combination and storage system Adjust for small and medium data centers (up to 500 servers). The cooling process generates a lot of heat that can be used in the surrounding energy system.

In a new report, Cool-Data provides a comprehensive review of the rules and incentives affecting data centers in Denmark providing flexibility and waste heat recovery as the Federation European Union wants data centers to be connected to surrounding regions area heating network to use the excess heat..

We asked the researchers, Juan Jesús Jerez Monsalves, Claire Bergaentzlé, Martijn Backer and Dominik Franjo Dominkovic from DTU to answer five questions about how the research contributes to the EU’s plan for data centers to be established. connected to the heating of the surrounding area to utilize waste heat.

Why should small and medium-sized data centers be integrated into the surrounding energy system?

Small and medium-sized data centers have a significant advantage in providing waste heat for regional heating. The most important benefit is their location: they are often located close to existing networks, greatly reducing potential network expansion investments and line losses and thus improving cost competitiveness. of waste heat.

In addition, waste heat from small data centers can be recovered even in county heating networks that cover a small area, of which the county heating company does not have to risk providing a significant portion of the heat. tell a single establishment. Finally, data centers with less than 250 kW of heat generation capacity are exempt from the price regulation, allowing for more flexibility in negotiating with the county heating company.

The importance of smaller data centers in the energy system is also reflected in the revision of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, which is part of the Fit for 55 package. force new data centers larger than 1 MW to implement Cost benefit analysis for waste heat recovery, including its use in county heating systems. However, an amendment was recently approved to include data centers larger than 100 kW, highlighting the potential contribution of smaller data centers to European energy security.

An even bigger benefit from small and medium-sized data centers is that they can often use their waste heat directly in the commercial building(s) where it is located, which is even more efficient. than using waste heat in the district heating grid. In contrast to large data centers, they are usually located in commercial buildings.

Why didn’t it happen today?

Until 2021, the regime of regulating waste heat suppliers has hindered the participation of small participants; they are subject to the same budget notices and price verification requirements as county heating companies. These requirements create additional administrative burdens and costs that make small suppliers unfavourable. In addition, the former waste heat recovery tax further limits the circumstances under which heat recovery would be economically feasible.

The new regulation, effective from 2022, has shifted the administrative burden to district heating companies, who have the tools and expertise to handle it. It has also eliminated taxes on waste heat produced from electricity, effectively removing data centers’ key barriers to heat delivery. It takes time to observe more waste heat recovery data centers, as these regulatory developments are fairly recent.

Furthermore, established practice is lacking about who will actually treat the waste heat, especially when we need to add a heat pump to the system (to raise the waste heat temperature). It’s not clear whether the operator should be a data center owner or county heating company, and who should invest in heat pumps.

Would it always be a good business case to use waste heat?

Technically, air-cooled data centers, the most common type of cooling system of data centers, require heat pumps to raise the waste heat temperature to the temperature of the heating network. district. The lower this temperature gap, the less electricity the heat pump consumes.

Thus, the economic viability of this type of project is determined by three key factors: electricity prices, heat pump investment costs, and connection to the county heating network (and its expansion). .

Considering the current regulation that places a ceiling on the price of waste heat, projects that do not have good conditions in these areas may have higher production costs than the ceiling and will not be able to sell heat to county heating companies.

What could make it more accessible to the county heating/data center?

The current regulatory framework requires more certainty in the method of calculating the ceiling price. The Danish Energy Agency set a ceiling for 2022 at 77 DKK/GJ, considering the cost of heat production from biomass boilers and heat pumps. The potential changes in this methodology and the high electricity prices observed this year lead to considerable uncertainty about price ceilings in subsequent years, increasing the risk for waste heat recovery projects.

In the case of new data center projects, the early involvement of developers with companies and district governments is the most impactful. Hopefully, this communication should happen before the project is presented for licensing. As waste heat recovery is considered from the planning stages, developers can consider potential waste heat revenue to determine optimal project location and cooling system design. Once a data center has been built, retrofitting is often too expensive.

The required cost-benefit analysis currently being discussed in the European Parliament will help project developers realize the potential benefits from waste heat recovery. However, how strongly this affects their decision will depend on the local context.

How much interest do you see in industry organizations?

The industry has shown great interest, especially as the EU is preparing a mandatory regulation on waste heat reuse. Industry partners are willing to participate in various test and demonstration sites.

The data center industry, on the other hand, is a conservative one where security and reliability standards are always at the forefront.

Because of the latter, data centers are often only interested in using technologies and settings that have passed many tests in real-world operations. This is the main reason why the implementation heat dissipation setting reuse is slower than technically possible.

More information:
Juan Jesús Jerez Monsalves et al., Regulatory Framework and Business Model for Data Centers Integrated with Energy Systems, Technical University of Denmark (In 2022). DOI: 10.11581 / dtu.00000242

Quote: New report advocating for the use of waste heat from data centers in county heating (2022, Nov. 4) retrieved Nov. 4, 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news /2022-11-advocates-centers-district.html

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