Singapore Unveils Sustainability Standard For Data Centres By CIOTechOutlook Team

Singapore Unveils Sustainability Standard For Data Centres

CIOTechOutlook Team | Thursday, 08 June 2023, 06:17 IST

For data centres operating in tropical climes, Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority set a sustainability guideline. It follows the creation of standards by a working group to allow data centres to operate at higher temperatures while maximising their energy efficiency.

With the aid of the new standard, data centres will be able to gradually raise their operational temperatures to 26 degrees Celsius or higher.

“In a typical data centre, cooling systems account for up to 40 per cent of total energy consumption with many operators choosing to operate their equipment at temperatures of 22 degrees Celsius and below,” said IMDA in a press release.

As more energy is required to run the cooling systems in warmer climates, cooling data centres offers new issues.With every 1 degree Celsius increase in operating temperature under the new guideline, data centres might experience energy savings of 2% to 5%, according to IMDA.

The organisation tested the standard with Singaporean data centre operators. One of them, Digital Realty, was able to successfully raise the operating temperatures in two of their data halls by 2 degrees Celsius. According to IMDA, this resulted in a 2 to 3 percent decrease in the overall amount of energy used in these data halls throughout the trial period.

In a government data facility, the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has also started testing higher temperatures.Data centres are essential to the digital economy, but they also consume a lot of electricity, water, and other resources, which adds to the carbon footprint.

Energy efficiency will be essential for guaranteeing the industry's sustainable growth as demand for data centres rises, according to IMDA.