Most electrical energy consumed by IT equipment ultimately appears as heat. Where suitable external demand exists, part of that energy can potentially be recovered and used outside the data center.
Use the ERF KPI
ISO/IEC 30134-6:2021 specifies Energy Reuse Factor (ERF) as a KPI for quantifying reuse of energy consumed by a data center.
Identify a useful external energy sink
Potential applications can include building heating, district-energy systems or industrial processes. Technical feasibility depends on temperature level, distance, demand profile and interface requirements.
Cooling design affects reuse potential
Higher-grade recovered heat is generally easier to use. Cooling-water temperatures, liquid-cooling architecture and heat-pump requirements can therefore materially affect the engineering case.
Protect data-center availability
The external heat user should not become a critical dependency for data-center cooling. Failure or maintenance of the reuse system should be accommodated without compromising environmental control.
Measure useful exported energy
Defined boundaries and metering are required to demonstrate how much energy is actually reused and to avoid overstating environmental benefit.
References
- ISO/IEC 30134-6:2021, Energy Reuse Factor (ERF).
- ISO/IEC 30134-1:2016, Overview and general requirements.
