Energy

Data Center World / AFCOM · 2026

From the Desk of Bill Kleyman: 2026, The Gigawatt Era Begins

Use 27 kW as the 2026 AFCOM average-density reference in density selectors.

• 66% of respondents are considering or already deploying on-site power generation such as microgrids.

U.S. DOE Federal Energy Management Program / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory · 2014

General Recommendations for a Federal Data Center Energy Management Dashboard Display (FEMP, July 2014)

In the metering design tool, let users pick Level 1/2/3 metering and display the resulting PUE uncertainty band.

• The author recommends a Level 3 measurement package, subject to budget.

Eaton · 2021

Grid-Interactive Data Centers: Enabling Decarbonization and System Stability

When sizing UPS batteries, model a grid-services band on top of the required autonomy.

• Irish field case: the UPS delivered a static 25 kW response when frequency fell below 49.70 Hz.

Danfoss · 2024

Harmonics in HVAC applications - Surprisingly simple ways to reduce harmonic mitigation costs

In the power-quality check compute THDv at the PCC for every supply mode (both transformers, one transformer, generator only); generator mode is usually the worst case.

• Design to 5% THDv at the PCC rather than THDi <= 5% or 8% at each drive.

TMMOB Makina Mühendisleri Odası (MMO) - Tesisat Mühendisliği Dergisi · 2025

Hava Soğutmalı Veri Merkezi Soğutma Sistemleri ve Güncel Gelişmeler (Air-cooled data-centre cooling systems and recent developments)

Provide a cooling-topology picker (room, row, rack, economiser direct/indirect) with Turkish labels.

• Tesisat Mühendisliği, Volume 33, Issue 206; based on the repository abstract only.

Open Compute Project Foundation · 2025

Heat Reuse Subproject Update (OCP EMEA Summit 2025)

Site and compliance rules should hold jurisdiction-specific targets (for example Germany: PUE 1.2 for new builds and 10-20% ERF).

• Related documents: Directive (EU) 2023/1791, German Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) and ISO/IEC 30134-6 (ERF).

Uptime Institute Intelligence · 2023

Heat Reuse: A Management Primer

For EU sites of 1 MW and above, trigger the EED waste-heat assessment as a step in the design process.

• Published as UII Briefing Report 114, October 2023.

iMasons Climate Accord (Infrastructure Masons) · 2025

Heating Emergency Power System Engines with Heat Pumps (Levi J. Westra)

Include generator auxiliary loads (block heaters, battery chargers) in the parasitic load and PUE calculations.

• Block heaters are typically 1-9 kW each, with multiple heaters on large engines.

Schneider Electric · 2011

High-Efficiency AC Power Distribution for Data Centers

Offer a 'North America 415/240 V' one-line template (480 V UPS, auto-transformer RPP/PDUs, isolation transformer on UPS bypass) next to the traditional 480 to 208/120 V.

• IEC C14 and C20 are rated only to 250 V; 240 V circuits use C13/C19.

National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly NREL) · 2026

High-Performance Computing Data Center Heat Capture and Reuse (ESIF)

In the heat-reuse module, support on-site end uses (low-temperature terminals, snow melt).

arXiv preprint (Texas A&M University) · 2026

How AI Load Swings Reduce Datacenter Power Conversion Efficiency

In power-chain loss calculators for AI halls, do not evaluate PSU, UPS and transformer efficiency only at average load; accept a load-profile descriptor (duty cycle, high/low power, frequency).

• Cycle efficiency is computed as (D*PH + (1-D)*PL) / (D*PH/etaH + (1-D)*PL/etaL).

Vertiv · 2024

How Chilled Water Systems Meet Data Center Availability and Sustainability Goals

Add a TEWI calculation to cooling options (refrigerant GWP, charge kg, leak rate, life years, grid emission factor).

• Cooling accounts for roughly 25-35% of data-centre energy in many facilities.

Schneider Electric · 2020

How Microgrids for Data Centers Increase Resilience, Optimize Costs, and Improve Sustainability

Add an on-site energy/DER layer: sources utility, diesel_standby, gas_chp, cchp_absorption, pv, wind, fuel_cell, bess with a continuous vs standby flag.

• Cybersecurity aligned with IEC 62443-4-2 and IEC/ISA 62443-3-3.

Schneider Electric · 2022

How Modernizing Aging Data Center Infrastructure Improves Sustainability

Add expected-life defaults to the asset catalogue (LV switchgear 15-25, MV switchgear 30-40, UPS 10-15 years), insulation medium for MV gear (SF6 or SF6-free), refrigerant with GWP for cooling units, and links to PEP/EPD documents.

• UPS life is 10-15 years; a UPS at 25% load or lower is a candidate for a smaller unit.

Consulting-Specifying Engineer · 2021

How to design data centers: HVAC systems (roundtable)

Offer integrated-free-cooling chillers as a catalogue option with the free-cooling changeover ambient field.

• NREL ESIF: water-cooled racks with thermosyphon plus towers achieved PUE 1.04 and halved water use.

Vertiv · 2023

How to Maximize Revenues from Your Data Center Energy Storage System with Grid Interactive UPS

Model UPS battery state of charge as partitioned: reserved backup energy used for autonomy checks plus an optional grid-service band.

• Minimum asset size for frequency response services is typically 1-50 MW.

Leibniz Supercomputing Centre · 2025

HPC and AI in Supercomputing Centres: Green Today, Greener Tomorrow (SCA25 Workshop on Energy Efficiency, LRZ)

Let liquid-cooled design templates allow facility supply temperatures up to 45 C with dry-cooler-only heat rejection, and show the resulting PUE.

• Systems span from SuperMUC (2012) to SuperMUC-NG Phase 2.

Schneider Electric · 2015

Humidification Strategies for Data Centers and Network Rooms

Accept humidity limits as dew point plus RH in the environmental envelope settings, default to current ASHRAE recommended values rather than the 2011 ones quoted here, and recommend dew-point control mode for multi-CRAC rooms.

• Static buildup: 250 V at 80% RH vs 12,000 V at 20% RH on a raised-floor tile; 1,500 V vs 35,000 V on synthetic carpet.

Burns & McDonnell (BenchMark) · 2025

Hyperscale Data Centers and How to Power Them

Capture a phased load-ramp schedule (MW by date) as a first-class input.

• Authors: Keegan Odle, Tom Parker, Chris Ruckman, Christine Wood; 2025.

International Energy Agency · 2025

IEA Energy and AI Observatory (data tool)

Link to the observatory from the tool's energy-context panel and take current national and regional data center demand figures from it rather than hard-coding values.

• The related PDF reports are CC BY 4.0 and downloaded separately.

IEEE · 2012

Impact of Operating Conditions on a Chiller-less Data Center Test Facility with Liquid Cooled Servers (ITherm 2012)

In liquid-cooling energy calculations, account for glycol concentration (higher pumping power, lower heat transfer) and flow-rate set points, not just supply temperature.

• Typical baseline facilities spend about 50% of IT energy on cooling, mostly in chillers and CRAHs.