Data centre infrastructure: Connector selection can improve interface efficiency by up to 50%
25/05/2022 HARTING Ltd
To reduce the carbon footprint of their production and operations, companies in the data centre sector are focusing on making their equipment more energy-efficient and climate-friendly. One important method is the sustainable use of renewable energies from wind and solar resources. Another is to continuously increase the energy efficiency of the infrastructure used, and connectors are one of the components that can contribute significantly to better efficiency. According to a HARTING study, the use of Han-Eco® connectors can reduce the electricity consumption for connection technology by up to 50%.
By Andras Meszaros, Global Industry Segment Manager Energy at HARTING
The HARTING Technology Group takes account of social megatrends such as sustainability, (de)globalisation and demographic change. The resulting products and solutions offer customers and users concrete added value. HARTING calls this “Connectivity+”. The connector, as the core competence of the Technology Group, is one of the components that can significantly contribute to sustainability; in the case of Han-Eco®, low-impedance contacts reduce energy losses when supplying industrial components.
Positive impact on sustainability
A HARTING study on the energy efficiency of data centres shows how connectors with low-impedance contacts can contribute to energy savings of up to 50 % in connection technology. In the analysis, standard CEE interfaces, typically used in data centres, were compared with solutions from HARTING. The result is promising for data centres; advanced connectivity can also have a positive impact on sustainability in other industrial sectors. When operating data centres, PUE (Power Usage Efficiency) is an important indicator for energy management. It relates the power consumption of the entire data centre to the power consumption of the information and communication technology infrastructure. For this indicator to be useful, it should be monitored regularly for a sustainable data centre operation.
Chart 1: The electricity demand of data centres (light blue) and the entire ICT sector increases significantly by 2030, depending on the sustainability scenario used*
In the environment of data centres, the PUE (Power Usage Efficiency) is an important KPI for energy management. It represents the ratio between the power consumption of the entire centre and the power consumption of only the IT equipment. For this metric to be useful, it should be monitored frequently for sustainable data centre operations.
Around 80% of the data centre owners participating in the Uptime Institute survey in 2021 stated that they closely monitor the power consumption of their data centre as well as the energy efficiency. Thereby, 70% of the responders rely on the PUE as a key indicator.
Chart 2: Power consumption / PUE are key sustainability measures**
To monitor the power flow and the performance of the components in the power chain it is also critical to avoid disruption. This is especially true as outages in power are the second most common cause of downtimes in data centres, after networking-related outages.***
An important tool for the sustainable operation of facilities is a constant review of the components used and a strategic investment in the critical infrastructure. In addition, the issue of PUE reduction has reached a point where owners and operators are beginning to intensively monitor their equipment subsystems as well. When operators use advanced plug & play solutions, they do not only save installation time and enable a quick deployment but also reduce transmission losses, electricity costs and, in parallel, operating costs. As a result, HARTING connectors enable a reliable and sustainable transmission of data, power, and signals as it is required for data centres.
Comparison of CEE plugs with Han-Eco® connectors in data centres
Suppliers to the highly innovative data centre industry should also strive to contribute to energy efficiency and sustainability goals. HARTING has therefore examined the effects of one of its advanced connector series on the operational costs of data centres and compared them with using the products of two other manufacturers. In each case, the results showed that the HARTING connector reduced the power consumption of the connectivity by up to 50%, compared to the products of the two other brands. The Han-Eco® connector that took part in the comparison offers exceptional advantages here, while its contacts have a voltage drop only half that of the CEE solutions.
Although there are higher acquisition costs associated with using the more advanced HARTING connectors, the quality pays off in the long run. In a HARTING White Paper on the energy efficiency of data centres, various scenarios for hyper-scale data centres were outlined. Depending on the electricity price, which differs regionally and worldwide, different monetary gains can be realised. An operator buying electricity in Europe can achieve annual electricity cost savings of around €100,000 using HARTING’s Han-Eco® connectors instead of the CEE plugs
(refer to Chart 3).
Chart 3: Scenario of cost reduction in a hyperscale data centre by using HARTING connectors
Connectors enable a quicker assembly and more economical design
Lower transmission losses are not the only positive effects on the sustainable use of connector solutions. A longer than average service life and smaller installation space required by the HARTING interfaces also contribute to a cost-effective operation, especially as the server density is increasing these days. In total, Han-Eco® transmits more power per installation space than the CEE connectors. The lightweight plastic hoods/housings facilitate rapid assembly in PDU (Power Distribution Unit) applications as well as the quick replacement of components during service and maintenance times.
Therefore, the Han-Eco® series offers several methods of reducing the energy consumption of data centres and drives both decarbonisation and sustainability efforts. Detailed calculations about the impact of connectors on data centre operating costs can be found in the HARTING White Paper “Connector selection can improve energy efficiency by up to 50%”.
[HARTING Electric Stiftung GmbH & Co. KG, 2021, URL: https://www.harting.com/UK/en-gb/energy-savings-for-data-center]
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Detlef Sieverdingbeck
HARTING Stiftung & Co. KG
Marienwerderstr. 3
32339 Espelkamp
Germany
Tel: 49 (0)5772 47-244
Email: Detlef.Sieverdingbeck@HARTING.com
Web: www.HARTING.com
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