EcoDataCenter, founded in 2014, is continuing to grow and expand its operations to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC). EcoDataCenter operates multiple data centre facilities in four Swedish locations.

The two new data centres in Falun are planned to be commissioned at the beginning of 2025. The project includes an expected installation of 96 Vertiv Liebert PCW chilled water cooling units for a total capacity of around 12MW. These floor-mounted systems feature optimised coils and an aerodynamic design of the internal components, including patented elements, allowing a reduction of energy consumption. Moreover, the units are customised according to customer specifications, further enabling enhanced cooling efficiency and effective waste heat reuse.

“We selected Vertiv’s cooling systems due to their energy-efficient, reliable solutions, exceptional expertise and service. Vertiv is quick to translate technological advances into products, and its innovations integrate seamlessly with our deployments” says Mikael Svanfeldt, CTO at EcoDataCenter.

“This framework agreement with EcoDataCenter is a feather in the cap for Vertiv in the Swedish market. EcoDataCenter and Vertiv have a history of working together to apply innovative, efficient, and reliable solutions to support EcoDataCenter’s sustainability goals. This knowledge sharing helps both companies to anticipate future needs,” says Victor Elm, strategic segment and partners director, colocation and hyperscale for Northern Europe at Vertiv.

The companies plan to continue their technology partnership to support AI and HPC applications.

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To improve resilience and guarantee service uptime, energy and utilities companies know that digitisation is key to transforming the services they deliver, but aging technology stacks, a lack of interoperability and collaboration, and poor security hygiene are all limiting progress. This is where APIs are making the digital vision a reality for this sector, enabling energy and utilities companies to move away from the heavy-lifting manual tasks, to automate, to digitise, and to create optimised customer experiences.

However, at the same time, they are also creating a wave of API-related security incidents resulting from leaky APIs, vulnerable systems APIs, authorisation flaws, and more. As a result, the sector is increasingly becoming a target for cyber-attacks. The rush to bring energy and utilities technology up-to-date can lead to APIs being exploited.

Our recent research surveyed over 100 CIOs, CISOs and CTOs from the energy and utilities sector to better understand the trends and effects of API security in their industry.

The threat is real

Compared to previous research, the energy and utilities sector was the only industry to see no change or decrease in the number of businesses affected by API security incidents. However, 78% were affected, demonstrating that the issue shows no signs of abating – and it is not being dealt with properly.

There are several reasons why this could be the case. One might be that the issue is not properly understood, and it is not clear to energy and utilities companies that APIs represent such a large weakness in their cybersecurity strategy. Another could be that cyber criminals are more voraciously targeting this sector compared to others, especially as they know downtime has a big impact, effectively cancelling out the efforts to mitigate against threats.

However, the research points to another significant issue, and that is complacency. Despite the consistently high frequency of API security incidents, 94% of energy and utilities respondents expressed confidence in their API security tools. The apparent disconnect between confidence in existing tools and a high number of API security incidents is concerning, to say the least.

Another concern is the method of attack. Our research showed that web application firewall attacks were most common in 2023, whereas Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks were previously most likely. This emphasises the need for security professionals in energy and utilities to have an end-to-end holistic platform to identify and mitigate attacks of every kind.

The impact of API security incidents

As the energy and utilities sector is critical to worldwide economies and society, they are in the spotlight when things go wrong – with customers and stakeholders asking difficult questions.

Being on the receiving end of an API security incident can impact the organisation’s bottom line, with the associated costs for quickly restoring systems, reimbursing unhappy customers, and from a loss of business efficiency and productivity. Over half (57%) of global respondents in the energy and utilities sector have suffered a loss of employee goodwill, whereas 53% have cited a loss of productivity due to an API security incident.

With the energy and utilities sector so highly regulated – and in some countries controlled by central government – energy and utilities firms can quickly amass heavy penalties and fines should they be compromised by an API security incident. Nearly half of our survey respondents stated that this had been an issue for their organisation.

At the same time, 79% of said respondents said their API security platform provider helps them to maintain compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), whilst 80% of sector respondents said their provider helped them to comply with GDPR – the highest percentage of any sector surveyed.

What can be done?

This sector may be considered to be behind in digital transformation initiatives, and therefore the need to modernise has become essential. This poses unique challenges, especially when it comes to securing legacy technology. Whilst our research indicates that respondents in this sector are both increasing their visibility of APIs and testing APIs for vulnerabilities, progress must accelerate in order to robustly shore-up defences.

Energy and utilities companies should work with an API security platform provider that can deliver the strong API security they need. With the ongoing drive towards automation and digitisation, dependence on APIs will only continue to grow and a greater focus around API security is required to set energy and utilities companies on the right path in the coming years.

In the evolving energy and utilities landscape, amidst countries and governments deciding how to redesign infrastructure to ensure customer satisfaction and energy security, enabling organisations to implement a robust API strategy across discovery, posture management, runtime protection, and API security testing is paramount.

Noname’s API Security Disconnect report is available here.

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CENTIEL’s true modular UPS are now available in an IP54 enclosure offering a sophisticated and robust power protection solution for semi-industrial and more environmentally challenging sites.

Aaron Oddy, Sales Manager, Centiel explains:  “Centiel’s award-winning IP54 three phase, true modular, UPS CumulusPower^TM has now been installed in a large number of UK sites with harsh environments.  It means clients have all the benefits of a state-of-the-art uninterruptable power supply (UPS) integrated into a more robust chassis to offer a higher grade of protection from dust and water.”

At Data Centre World 6-7 March, Centiel will show its new, sustainable UPS StratusPower^TM in a high quality Rittal IP54 enclosure for the first time.  StratusPower^TM shares all the benefits of its three phase, true modular UPS CumulusPower^TM – including “9 nines” (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime; class leading 97.6% on-line efficiency to minimise running costs; true “hot swap” modules to eliminate human error in operation – but now also includes long-life components to improve sustainability.

Aaron Oddy confirms: “StratusPower uniquely offers a 30-year design life to help data centres to achieve net-zero targets.  The system is highly efficient, scalable, and reliable, providing complete peace of mind when it comes to power availability and uptime for critical power protection.  The IP54 versions of CumulusPower and StratusPower mean the solution is also suitable for semi-industrial applications both within different areas of the data centre and other industrial sites which might include water treatment facilities, power plants or some medical plant rooms.

“Both the IP54 rated CumulusPower and StratusPower solutions benefit from integral batteries and front access to improve ease of maintenance and save space while offering a more cost-effective solution than a more traditional industrial UPS.  We are looking forward to welcoming visitors and discussing the flexibility and wider applications of our leading UPS at DCW this year on booth D725.”

Centiel now protects critical loads for data centres and comms rooms in over 100 countries across five continents.  www.centiel.co.uk

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Data centre operators are under increasing pressure to shrink the industry’s growing power use and carbon footprint, both set to grow further with the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI).

The International Energy Agency calculates data centres already consume over 1% of the world’s electricity and emit as much CO₂ as commercial aviation. That could rise to 134.0 TWh before 2027, driven by the power needs of AI chips.

Other estimates suggest that annual electricity demand for information and communication technology could grow to as much as 8,000 TWh by 2030, equating to 20.9% of projected electric demand.

Under the partners’ AI Net Zero collaboration, NexGen Cloud’s AI solutions will be hosted on AQ Compute’s European infrastructure that uses renewable energy to power and cool its data centres.  The partnership will aim to ensure that NexGen Cloud’s $1 billion AI supercloud will be Net Zero.

London-headquartered NexGen Cloud says it is investing $1 billion to build Europe’s first AI Supercloud to support Artificial Intelligence applications across healthcare, finance, media and entertainment.

By June, the duo’s European AI Supercloud will eventually consist of more than 20,000 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs, providing enterprises with access to one of the world’s most powerful GPU-accelerated platforms.

“The AI market is expected the grow exponentially over the next 12-24 months and as such it is imperative to decarbonise as much of the data generated as possible,” said Chris Starkey, NexGen Cloud’s CEO.

“By housing the data created within our AI Supercloud in AQ Compute data centres, we are not just innovating technologically, we are pioneering a sustainable shift in the way AI data is processed. We are not only the first to be doing this in Europe but hope to set the industry standard at the same time.”

AQ Compute is able to run its high-density data centres efficiently, supporting client’s sustainability goals and enabling the deployment and growth of AI applications. NexGen Cloud will improve its energy efficiency while wasting no water in the cooling process.

“AQ Compute has set out to deliver sustainable and efficient solutions for the data centre and colocation industry. Considering the growing importance of AI technology, we are excited to partner with NexGen Cloud to create a sustainable path for implementing this new technological advancement,” said Henry Daunert, CEO, AQ Compute.

The companies are committed to deliver Net Zero emissions operations by 2030, in line with the Carbon-Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP). This commitment involves structuring power purchases to match hourly carbon-free electricity generation with consumption, a strategic move towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.

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Ocean Winds is a 50:50 joint venture by Madrid-based developer EDP Renewables and retailer ENGIE. The offtake is enough to power a notional 650,000 UK homes annually.

Located in the Moray Firth off Scotland’s north east coast, the 882MW offshore farm is currently under construction, and anticipated to generate its first power in 2024.

The PPA deal rests on Ocean Winds speeding up the park’s construction. Moray West will support Amazon’s goal of powering all operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the company’s original target.

Paulo Almirante, ENGIE Senior Executive Vice-President Renewables & Energy Management, said: “This deal strengthens ENGIE’s leadership position for CPPAs, through which we have sold a substantial capacity of renewable electricity generated by its wind and solar assets.”

“This CPPA’s innovative character shows it is possible to create, together with Amazon, the conditions to achieve the UK objectives of renewables deployment and Net Zero economy.

ENGIE signed 19 ground-breaking deals last year, spanning five countries, covering over 1GW of clean energy capacity, bolstering ENGIE’s CPPA portfolio to 7.3GW.

Every year since 2021, Amazon’s investments in solar and wind have enthroned the company as Europe’s as well as Britain’s biggest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.

The multinational announced 39 new renewables projects across Europe last year, adding more than 1GW of dedicated low carbon capacity to the region’s grids.

Between 2014 and 2022, Amazon says its clean power investments in Britain alone amount to £285 million. They supported 600 local jobs in 2022 alone.

Lindsay McQuade, director of energy for Amazon Web Services covering Europe, said: “Projects like Moray West will play a critical role in decarbonising Amazon’s operations and the UK grid.”

“We are on track to meet our ambitious goal of powering our global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. In 2022, 90% of electricity consumed by Amazon was attributable to renewable energy sources”.

Bautista Rodriguez, CEO at the Ocean Winds joint venture, said: “I am proud that the collective efforts of the Moray West and Ocean Winds teams, working closely with ENGIE, helped secure this important deal with Amazon.

“The programme for delivery is ambitious but the project and sponsor boards have supported us to keep the project firmly on track.”

Moray West represents continued investment by Ocean Winds to deliver its 2025 targets of up to 7GW of projects in operation, or construction, and up to 10 GW under advanced development. The project, part of the company’s 6GW portfolio of secured offshore wind farms in the UK, is expected to inject up to £500 million in the local Scottish economy throughout its lifespan, and during construction phases it will create and support more than 1,000 jobs in Scotland, with 70 long-term operational roles. Local supply chains are prioritised, through a new operational team based in the coastal town of Buckie.

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Deep Green’s business model seeks to recoup the high intensity heat used in running data centres. Its technology means this energy doesn’t go to waste and instead is used to provide free heat for energy-intensive organisations like leisure centres. By teaming up with Deep Green, a public swimming pool in Devon was able to slash its pool heating bill by over 60%.

In return, Deep Green gets free cooling which provides it with a significant competitive edge over traditional data centres. This allows it to offer more affordable, highly energy-efficient computing to businesses across the UK.

Deep Green’s customers require data centre processing for a range of uses including AI, machine learning, video rendering or cloud applications. Deep Green’s current customers include York University, and the company has signed partnerships with industry suppliers Civo and Alces Flight who offer the servers to their customers.

Installed on-site, Deep Green data centres in for example swimming pools, don’t require additional grid upgrades or planning permission so can be up and running in a matter of weeks.

The investment is made via Octopus Energy Generation’s dedicated Octopus Energy Transition Fund (OETF) and the Sky (ORI SCSp) fund which it manages.

Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation said: “To tackle the energy crisis head-on, we need innovative solutions to unusual problems. By using excess heat from data centres to slash energy bills for communities across the UK, Deep Green solves two problems with one solution. We’re looking forward to them rapidly rolling this out and positively impacting even more people as we drive towards a cleaner, cheaper energy future.”

Mark Bjornsgaard, founder and CEO of Deep Green, commented: “We are thrilled with Octopus’s commitment to support our next phase of growth. Placing data centres within the fabric of society transforms the waste heat they produce into a valuable resource that benefits communities.

“The data centre sector is rightly facing scrutiny about its growing energy demand and associated carbon emissions. Our data centres are highly energy efficient and support local communities with free heat.”

OETF launched in 2023 to scale companies in fast-growing sectors decarbonising society, from heating, to storage, low carbon transport and more. Octopus has also backed ground-source heat pump company Kensa Group through this fund.

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The Energy & Utilities sector holds a special place within critical infrastructure because it provides an enabling function across all sectors. It supplies energy that is integral to a country’s economic growth, including fuel to the transportation industry and electricity to businesses and households. Without a stable energy supply, health and welfare would be threatened and a country’s economy could not function.

As a uniquely critical sector, Energy & Utilities requires special consideration with regards to physical security, especially as it is currently undergoing a major transformation explains Nick Smith, Business Development Manager at Genetec.

Securing critical infrastructure and improving operations

A comprehensive physical security strategy is key to ensuring operational efficiency. Breaches in security often result in downtime that can cost organisations millions of pounds. But, more than that, when it comes to the Energy & Utilities sector, breaches can have a far reaching and potentially catastrophic impact on other critical infrastructure.

What Energy & Utilities organisations need is a unified security platform like Genetec Security Center that is designed with critical infrastructure owners in mind. By blending IP security systems within a single platform and unifying video monitoring, access control, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), and intrusion, a solution like Security Center can help organisations improve their physical security and, as a result, increase their operational efficiency.

Deploying a unified system can help organisations extend their security beyond the perimeter. It can allow them to use radar, LiDAR, fence intrusion detection, and video analytics to detect potential intruders or drones beyond the fence line and then take action to protect facilities before a breach occurs. This can be especially important for isolated facilities like transmission stations or storage depots.

Within the perimeter, ANPR can provide a real-time inventory of vehicles on-site that would allow security personnel to manage access to restricted areas based on license plates. This can also reduce downtime associated with people attempting to access restricted areas without authorisation.

An IP video management system (VMS) can give security teams a clear picture of events and enable them to quickly respond to threats and incidents.  Organisations can further improve security with an IP access control system (ACS). For example, by using built-in people counting together with access control events, security personnel can monitor where employees, contractors, and visitors are at all times.

This includes during routine operations as well as incidents and evacuations. In addition to tracking movements over a geographical map or through visual reports and dashboards, the system can also be set up to automatically send reports to key personnel within the organisation as well as to first responders.

Strong cybersecurity is key

Modern physical security devices and systems are becoming more interconnected, which is helping security teams keep people and organisations secure. At the same time, this growing connectivity is increasing the risks associated with criminal cyber activity.

Greater connectivity of systems over the internet means that a vulnerable device can become a gateway to an organisation’s data and sensitive information. A poorly protected camera, unencrypted communication between a server and client application, or out-of-date firmware all have the potential to be exploited by cybercriminals.

This means that security systems can no longer focus solely on physical threats. Organisations must choose hardened solutions that also work to protect all other systems and information connected to the network against criminal cyber activity.  Companies like Genetec can provide solutions that help organisations protect their data and operations, help them comply with regulations and meet audit requirements without compromising physical security functions.

Because no single approach is enough, any solution deployed within the Energy & Utilities sector must include multiple layers of defense.  Genetec security solutions use strong encryption, authentication, and authorisation protocols to protect data captured for management, analysis, and storage. In this way, Genetec is helping organisations incorporate multiple and varied lines of defense to face common and emerging threats and to secure their environments.

Conclusion

As the Energy & Utilities sector undergoes transformation, organisations have the opportunity to build stronger physical security strategies. This in turn will help them to improve their ever-expanding operations and bolster their defenses against increasingly complex cyber threats.

Working in partnership with trusted physical security vendors will help them protect this core component of every nation’s critical infrastructure today and in the future.

The post Physical security for resilient critical infrastructure appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Entitled Scope Emissions White Paper, it explains the relevance of scope emissions reporting, the origins of the term, and the relevant standards. Furthermore, the paper provides an overview of how Scope emissions tracking can benefit a business, examines two reporting profiles within the tech industry, and finally takes a look at the relationship between Scope Emissions reporting and Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCAs).

Accurate reporting of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions provides transparency on an organisations year on year emissions. They are a vital step in enabling companies to assess and evaluate their current emissions and identify strategic areas for improvement.

Andrew Harrison, Chair of the EUDCA Technical Committee highlights, “Many companies are already reporting on their Scope 1 & 2 emissions and their sustainability efforts are becoming a part of the public record. While Scope 3 reporting is currently voluntary, it is not unlikely it will become mandatory, as sectors including the data centre industry are increasingly regulated.  Our ‘Scope Emissions White Paper’, setting out standards in the GHG Protocol as well as providing some useful examples of tech company reporting as a starting point for concerned businesses.”

He continues, “Regulation is not only something we have anticipated but also something to be welcomed. It not only makes transparent the strident measures being taken in the data centre industry to abate its carbon impact but also creates a competitive advantage for those demonstrating greater sustainability throughout the facility lifecycle. Ours is an industry which has been living by a mantra of monitoring and measurement to deliver improvement for nearly two decades. It is well set to help deliver 2050 goals through increased digitalisation and decarbonisation of ageing processes in the industrial, commercial and residential sectors.”

Authored by Jack Cook, David Davies of Arup, and peer-reviewed by the EUDCA Technical Committee, copies of “Scope Emissions White Paper”, can be obtained by visiting here.

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Houston we have a problem!  The explosion in data.  This means datacentres have a problem because they literally burn energy.  And, due to the rise in data fuelled by increased online activity such as social media, online shopping and the widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) about to revolutionise our technological landscape beyond recognition, we need more datacentres.

One press article in the Irish Times recently suggested that if all the data centres in Ireland seeking planning permission were successful, they would take up 70% of the Irish National Grid. That’s a big problem.

This is the situation today, but what about in five- or ten-years’ time?  The developing world will also need to get on the technology bus too, so we must urgently look at ways for the growing number of datacentres to become more energy efficient and accelerate sustainability if we are to aim for anywhere near net zero.

Fortunately, it is in the interests of datacentres to become more energy efficient.  According to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) there was a 260% rise in electricity prices between 2004-2021. However, more recently, we have seen even more dramatic increases.

The good news is that sustainability and energy efficiency with the aim of moving towards net zero, go hand-in-hand with reducing costs, possibly for the first time in history.

Reducing energy consumption

Within the datacentre there are a variety of culprits burning electricity. For example: the load itself, environmental controls (air conditioning) and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).  However, how these systems are managed can have a significant impact on their operational efficiency.

For example, if UPS and batteries are located together, more air conditioning is needed because while a UPS can happily operate in an ambient temperature of 40⁰C the VRLA (valve regulated lead acid) batteries must be kept at around 20⁰C to optimise their useful working life.  Locating the batteries away from any heat source in a well-ventilated environment will reduce or even negate the need for any cooling.

If it is not possible to physically separate the batteries from the UPS consideration could be given to using Li-ion (actually LiFePO4) batteries which are oxygen free and as safe as VRLA batteries and will happily operate at higher ambient temperatures.

Rightsized for operational efficiency

Modern modular UPS make rightsizing easy for datacentre operators. They can now install large, but empty, modular UPS cabinets and only install enough UPS modules in the cabinet to support the load, “N”, and provide the required redundancy, “n”.  By using UPS modules, the UPS can be sized to operate at an optimum point on its efficiency curve, saving considerable OPEX in terms of both operational efficiency and ongoing maintenance costs. CAPEX is also saved as the datacentre operator only needs to buy the UPS capacity they need.

Moving to a culture of sustainability

Up until now, datacentres have needed to install a UPS and replace it at the end of a typical design life of around ten years, causing considerable disruption.

In the past, despite such disruption, upgrading the UPS meant upgrading to better technology.  Like buying a mobile phone, you tend to replace it regularly to take advantage of the latest advancements in tech.  However, with UPS this no longer needs to happen.  Modern UPS systems like StratusPower   offers 97.6% efficiency meaning we have now pretty much reached the physical limit of technological advancement.  Silicon carbide (SiC) components may offer small operating efficiency gains in the future but their present unreliability makes them unsuitable for use in a UPS whose primary role is guaranteeing power availability.

Fit and forget

So, just like installing cabling, cable trays, switchgear, generators and other electrical infrastructure and expecting it to last for the entire 30-year design life of the datacentre, why not install a 30-year design life UPS too?

Quite simply, a UPS designed to last 30 years hasn’t been available until now!  Market forces were centred around driving prices down and not to driving sustainable options up and so it was not created as an option, but now it is.

To aim for net zero we need to shift expectations about the perception of a UPS.  After all, in three decades time we will still be using the same 400V, 50Hz electrical supply we were using 30 years ago.

Future Demand

For the past four years, Centiel has been looking at developing a sustainable UPS.  The result is StratusPower and due to the high quality of its components, it now offers a much longer design life than any other UPS solution on the market.  Instead of replacing capacitors every four years, they will need replacing just once, after c.15 years, during their entire 30-year design life.  Quality components cost more but we are talking just tens of pounds per module. To replace the entire UPS system every ten or so years will cost tens of thousands of pounds. Combined with Centiel’s approach to act as trusted advisors, it means Cential can help organisations take steps to move away from a “throw away” culture with a genuinely sustainable offering.

Society now depends on IT and technology so heavily; we must all look at innovative ways for the growing number of datacentres to become more energy efficient and sustainable it the future, like just the few examples illustrated above.

To go back to the slightly misquoted words of Jack Swigert astronaut support crew, during the Apollo 13 mission: Houston we have a problem.  This phrase is now often used in popular culture with a sense of ironic understatement.  It is so applicable to our industry right now, that if we don’t all work to help datacentres introduce the most energy efficient, sustainable options possible in our datacentres our future generations really will have a problem.

For further information please see: www.centiel.co.uk

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Scores of thousands of new homes and premises divided between London, Lancaster, Watford and Suffolk will benefit from the £65 million trial, warmed with streamed pixels and wonga from Whitehall’s Green Heat Network fund.

In a UK first, waste heat from the server barns close to new construction sites will be being recycled as a source of both low carbon comfort for homes and factories, as well as of thousands of new high-tech jobs.

Heat in buildings is estimated to account for 30% of all UK emissions. So the transition to networks pumped with second-life heat is a major plank in the nation’s drive towards Net Zero.

In north west London, the Old Oak & Park Royal Development Corporation straddles premises in the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, and Hammersmith & Fulham. The Corporation’s upgraded heat network, backed by £36 million of government cash, will connect 10,000 new homes and 250,000 square metres of commercial space to waste heat from rack-heavy computer ‘barns’.

OPDC chief executive David Lunts enthused: “Recycling the huge amounts of wasted heat from this locality’s data centres into heat and energy for local residents, a major hospital and other users is an exciting and innovative example of OPDC’s support for the mayor’s net zero ambitions”.

Lancaster University will fully decarbonise its campus, courtesy of £21 million given in support of a new low-carbon heat network.  Lagged pipes both over- & underground will warm its 15,000 students with heat from a large electric pump, powered by a new solar PV farm and an existing wind turbine.

Today’s round of funding comes on top of £122 million already awarded to support eleven new heat networks across the country, under the government’s Green Heat Network Fund.

Energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Innovative projects, like these announced today, are another example of why the UK is a world leader in cutting carbon emissions.

“We are investing in the technologies of the future so that families across the country will now be able to warm their homes with low-carbon, recycled heat, while creating thousands of new skilled jobs.”

Brent will benefit further, receive £5.2 million for a district network in south Kilburn. 2,900 customers on 34 sites will receive heat generated by air source heat pumps via a 2.79km pipe network. Gas boilers will linger as back-up.

In Suffolk, a new housing estate at Chilton Woods will see nearly a thousand homes and a primary school provided with low-carbon heating. Awarded £745,000, the project will also include a thermal battery, meaning excess energy generated can be fed into the National Grid.

Watford Community Housing (WCH), a not-for-profit provider of approximately 5,700 homes, gets £1.8 million to strip out old gas burners in its district network, replacing them with ground source and air source pumps. Turned toasty in consequence will be 252 flats in six blocks.

Energy efficiency minister Lord Callanan added to his boss’s words:   “Keeping homes warm with waste heat from technology is a glimpse into the future – and demonstrates just how innovative this country can be when it comes to reducing our carbon emissions.

“The £65 million we’ve awarded today will help spread this success across the country, by rolling out innovative low-carbon heating to help to drive down energy bills and deliver our Net Zero goal.”

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The motivation for attacks on Critical National Infrastructure has typically swayed towards financial gain, but this is evolving with more emphasis being placed on hacktivism. The Energyst talks to Illumio’s Director of Critical Infrastructure Solutions Trevor Dearing about cybersecurity in the energy sector.

With the current energy crisis and dated software, the sector is facing an increase in ransomware attacks. This was recently shown by the hacking of Tata Power in October due to decades old software. As a result of this increasingly dated security, there is a real need to adapt the ways in which attacks are managed, shifting from outright prevention to a policy of ‘assume breach’, coping with and limiting the impacts of inevitable attacks. “Energy security and energy supply is so vital that it becomes a prime target,” says Dearing.

Any cyberattack moves around so that it gets to the point in the system where it can have the highest impact. “This has been seen in the past through the unique example of hacking of a fish tank thermometer in a Las Vegas casino to steal intimate data, but mostly it’s through emails. For the last 35 years since cyber security has existed, companies have spent a lot of money trying to prevent those attacks. But they still happen. What we have to do is to reduce the impact of those attacks.  What Illumio is about is containing attacks so if that if someone releases ransomware the attack couldn’t get to the finance centre or the grid in energy.”

These attacks will continue to grow as more devices become connected to the same networks. The outdated software on older hardware continues to open up more and more vulnerabilities. Recently there has been a shift the focus from prevention to surviving an attack. Infrastructure needs to be designed to be attack tolerant. “If a dodgy email is opened that’s bad, however, it’s our job is to stop it shutting down the entire grid,” comments Dearing.

Zero Trust

There has been a move towards Zero Trust. Rather than having areas that are trusted and areas that are untrusted, the concept is that you should trust nothing. From there you only allow access through verified privilege. “Not working out what’s bad and keeping it out but work out what’s good and allow it in,” explains Dearing.

The challenge was that no one owned it or defined exactly what it was until NIST set out a clear definition. One thing to come out of this standardisation is the need to produce a map that shows all communication with all of your, the other is to be able to control that communication.

Everything is becoming smarter and relying on energy even things like phones with voice over internet. Dearing explains how the danger in increasing in the energy sector, “Many, many things are driving this in energy, obviously security and worrying about nation state players. But the energy crisis has also led to the desire to optimise things and this means data around supply and delivery management which requires intelligent equipment. Add to this new grid edge equipment such as storage batteries, solar panels, smart meters and so on and you are creating a new model but with multiple points of entry.”

Illumio creates a map and you can click on it and apply a rule to make Zero Trust relatively easy to manage. Any system will have vulnerabilities. The prime thing I have to do is to deliver electricity, for instance, everything is subservient to that. If someone does get into a network, you don’t want them getting to the relays and transformers. Illumio tests the system to see what would happen if we have a ransomware attack.

“The bad guy is getting more sophisticated,” says Dearing, “They’re getting better at avoiding a lot of the detection tools. If I attack a business down the road, I may get a little bit of money but if I can stop the electricity supply someone’s going to pay a huge amount to rectify it.” There’s a lot more analytics to work out, people want to know how much of their power is from renewables and so on, so there needs to be more smart technology on the grid. “As soon as you do that, it becomes more vulnerable. You just have to make sure that the development of IoT doesn’t outpace security. Regulators are worried about this. Many companies think the security guys are slowing us down, while the security guys will say the others are creating risk. Those teams need to be working together.”

There is a convergence of the IoT/OT (operational technology) security side and the IT security side. “There is a need to make sure that there is a single authority responsible for security across the whole organisation,” says Dearing, “Illumio can do both sides, OT & IT, we can show a map of that sever talking to that relay etc. Highlights new kit and doesn’t trust it until it is verified.” In fact, this disconnect could open organisations up to bigger security threats as hackers take advantage of the silo.

Illumio believes that organisations should prioritise a single and structured approach to their security defences to improve visibility and monitoring. Once this is in place, then they can look to take steps to enforce critical policies across their entire networks.

The post Getting to grips with the increasing threat of cyberattacks appeared first on theenergyst.com.

Sébastien Surply, ABB Global Product Group Manager, Power Protection, said, “The ABB Ability SmartTracker is just the latest ABB Ability innovation giving customers greater visibility and an instant connection to ABB expertise. For any UPS keeping critical applications running, real-time UPS status data is essential; when equipment is installed in remote or secure locations, remote access is even more important. The SmartTracker simplifies monitoring, helping users manage their critical power assets with greater ease and confidence.”

The ABB Ability SmartTracker uses cloud-based infrastructure to provide remote supervision of multiple UPS devices and the electrical system. When critical power events occur, SmartTracker sends immediate alerts to users and to a team of UPS professionals in ABB’s 24/7 technical support center in Quartino, Switzerland.

Asset health can be verified at any time, with ABB’s cloud-based algorithms using the UPS data to provide actionable insights. Service teams can be automatically notified when action is required. Automated reports also help customers improve their use of assets.

A simple plug-and-play upgrade suitable for ABB’s high-performance UPS solutions, the proprietary ANC Network Card is easy to install. Once connected, customers can use SmartTracker to monitor their system at any time and from anywhere. Both the hardware and firmware are designed for cybersecurity, guaranteeing the highest levels of protection and security.

Giovanni Capua, ABB Global Product Manager, Digital, said, “ABB Ability solutions combine ABB power supply and energy management expertise with connectivity and software innovations to give users real-time data insights to drive better decisions. The SmartTracker demonstrates how we deliver solutions that only make power supplies more resilient and energy efficient – and how ABB’s continuous digital advancements enable customers to adapt as their power requirements evolve.”

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The finished facility will support the Hartree Centre in continuing to deliver high performance computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence services, as well as paving the way to realise their ambitions for the deployment of the UK’s first exascale supercomputer alongside their already world leading research into quantum computing.

By utilising the latest in liquid cooling technology, the facility can accommodate systems with a much higher heat flux than that which traditional air cooling would be limited to, and is able to do so with greater control over the operational semiconductor temperatures, allowing both high levels of efficiency, and very high performance to be realised.

Power to the facility will be provided via a new private HV network, incorporating highly resilient standby power systems, within final supplies to the critical IT systems protected by high efficiency redundant UPS systems. To further ensure efficiency and performance can be optimised throughout the life of the facility, the state-of-the-art engineering systems have each been designed with a high degree of controllability to ensure that ongoing operation can continue to be optimised and improved by the highly qualified and experienced Client Operational Team, with support as required from Sudlows Facilities Management and Design Teams.

Zac Potts, Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Sudlows commented;

The post Sudlows to Deliver Supercomputer Data Centre for STFC appeared first on theenergyst.com.

The recently published study with Meta suggests the advantages of improved thermal management, reduced vibration, and equalised temperature across the JBOD, which leads directly to lower failure rates and costs for data centre operators. The hard drive systems supplied in a rack form factor in chassis drawers are an ideal fit for precision immersion cooling technology.

Neil Edmunds, Director of Innovation, Iceotope, said, “As demand for data storage continues to escalate, so will the solutions needed by hyperscale data centre providers to efficiently cool the equipment. The study demonstrated that liquid cooling for high-density storage successfully cools the drives at a lower, more consistent temperature for fewer drive failures, lower TCO and improved ESG compliance.”

High-density storage proliferating

With constant streams of data emerging from the Internet of Things, video, artificial intelligence and more, up to 463 exabytes of data is expected to be generated by each person, each day by 2025. How data is accessed and interacted is constantly changing, causing a real impact on the processing and storage of that data. In just a few years, it’s predicted that global data storage will exceed 200 zettabytes of which half will be stored in the cloud.

This presents a unique challenge for hyperscale data centre storage infrastructure. According to Seagate, cloud data centres choose mass-capacity hard disk drives (HDDs) to store 90% of their exabytes. Typically found in a 3.5-inch form factor, HDDs are tried and tested technology which continues to offer data centre operators cost-effective storage at scale. Current top-of-the-range units provide 20 TB capacity, but this is expected to reach >120TB by the end of the decade.

More data storage means more spinning disks, higher-speed motors, and more actuators – all of which translates into more power being used. As disks go up in power, so does the amount of heat they produce. The introduction of helium into hard drive enclosures over the last decade has not only improved disk performance with less drag but with the units now sealed, the practicality of using liquid cooling solutions at HDD level has been opened.

Meta study liquid cooling for high-density storage

The study showcases an air-cooled, high-density storage system re-engineered to utilise single-phase immersion cooling. The standard commercial storage system consisted of seventy-two hard drives, two single socket nodes, two SAS expander cards, NIC and a power distribution board in a 4OU form factor. The hard drives were hermetically sealed, and helium filled.

The liquid cooling system tested was an Iceotope precision immersion liquid cooling system – the air-cooled version was modified with the addition of a dedicated dielectric loop connected to a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger and pump. Meta proceeded to measure temperature variation across the hard drives and cooling pump power in the air-cooled and liquid-cooled systems.

The results are conclusive

The study successfully demonstrated precision immersion cooling was a more efficient means of cooling the HDD racks with the following results:

• Using precision immersion liquid cooling, the variance in temperature between all 72 HDDs was just 3°C, regardless of location inside the JBODs
• Liquid cooling demonstrated that the HDD systems could operate reliably in rack water inlet temperatures up to 40°C.
• System-level cooling power was less than five percent of the total power consumption.
• Liquid cooling’s virtually silent operation helps mitigate acoustic vibrational issues for drives often encountered with air-cooling solutions.

While precision immersion is found to be a superior alternative to air-cooling high-density disk arrays, other forms of liquid cooling including cold plates, tank immersion, or two-phase immersion, don’t preserve the operational benefits such as HDD density, user access for serviceability and ability to hot swap drives to the same degree.

To download your copy of the study, please visit https://www.iceotope.com/company/news-events/iceotope-study-with-meta-reveals-efficiency-of-precision-immersion-liquid-cooling-for-high-density-storage-drives/

The post Iceotope study with Meta reveals efficiency of precision immersion liquid cooling for high-density storage drives appeared first on theenergyst.com.

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