Equinix has announced its commitment to reducing its overall power use by increasing operating temperature ranges within its data centres – the first such commitment by an operator of colocation data centres. Starting immediately, Equinix will begin to define a multi-year global roadmap for thermal operations within its data centres aimed at achieving significantly more efficient cooling and decreased carbon impacts, all while continuing to deliver the premium operating environment Equinix is known for.
Over time, this initiative is expected to enable thousands of Equinix customers to reduce the Scope three carbon emissions associated with their data centre operations as supply chain sustainability becomes an increasingly important part of the overall environmental initiatives of today’s businesses.
As a part of this new efficiency initiative, Equinix expects to operate its facilities closer to 27°C (80°F), aligning operating limits across its global data centre portfolio with the globally accepted boundaries of the A1A standards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). When combined with existing Equinix initiatives such as optimising the use of outside air temperatures to cool its data centres, this new initiative will contribute to the overall sustainability of its data centres through efficiency improvements measured through Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
“Our cooling systems account for approximately 25 per cent of our total energy usage globally,” said Raouf Abdel, Executive Vice President, Global Operations for Equinix. “With this new initiative, we can intelligently adjust the thermostat in our data centres in the same way that consumers do in their homes. Once rolled out across our current global data centre footprint, we anticipate energy efficiency improvements of as much as ten per cent in various locations.”
