Professional In-depth Analysis: Achieves Energy Saving Best Practices for Data Centres

This project aims to save energy by optimizing airflow in data centre halls. To enhance the overall energy efficiency of the data centre industry, CLP provided funding and and collaborated with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to conduct an in-depth energy analysis at Equinix’s data centre to verify the effectiveness of the best practices.

Focusing on optimized airflow supply to data halls, the objective of the project was to identify potential quantifiable power and operational savings for the industry to refine and expand on this energy-saving methodology. This new set of airflow management practices will help stabilize the hall environment, improve cooling conditions, lower operating costs and minimize air conditioning energy wastage for data centres in Hong Kong.

CLP is committed to assisting our business customers in their low-carbon transformation and supporting Hong Kong’s move towards the goal of carbon neutrality. With the funding from the CLP Community Energy Saving Fund, we launched an in-depth energy analysis program for industries with high levels of energy consumption this year. As an energy partner of Equinix, we are pleased to collaborate with PolyU to provide an in-depth energy saving data analysis for Equinix to further improve its energy efficiency and reduce its operating costs. At the same time, this project set an example for the data centre industry on energy saving. This is the first study result released under the program.

A press release had been organised on 7 December 2023 with 20 media outlets had reported. This new set of airflow management practices will help stabilize the hall environment, improve cooling conditions, lower operating costs, and minimize air conditioning energy waste for data centres in Hong Kong. The results have verified that the energy consumption of the computer room air conditioning units was lowered by 29.3% through the implementation of best practices.

Apart from data centres, CLP is also conducting in-depth energy analysis for various industries, such as hospitals, shopping malls, food manufacturing plants, and encouraging them to apply innovative technologies to enhance energy saving and carbon reduction.