New approach to data centers could stem power crisis
A new private-sector approach to developing reliable energy may hold part of the answer to the nation's energy crisis and to corporate concerns about protecting their critical IT systems and data.
That approach -- building one's own on-site power-generation facilities -- is being considered in Prince William County, Va. This week, officials there plan to decide on a land-use agreement that would allow San Jose-based U.S. Data Port Inc. to begin construction of a 188-acre Internet campus that will be equipped with its own 250-megawatt power-generation facility.
If approved, the campus' 10 to 20 data centers would be completely self-sufficient, thanks to a new Critical Reliable Energy Center (CREC). The CREC would generate enough excess power during its first three years of operation that it would enable U.S. Data Port to sell the surplus electricity back to the county's local utilities.
However, while facilities like U.S. Data Port's CREC may insulate large data centers from problems on the public grid, they aren't for all companies, particularly if infrastructure management isn't the core of the business. "There are tremendous barriers, and capital is one of them," said Lewis Shadle, senior vice president of business development at the company.
Not for Everyone
About 2 million square feet of data center space is required to offset the cost of building and operating a CREC, said Shadle. U.S. Data Port's CREC is costing about $300 million. "If your primary business is hosting Web sites and managing IT infrastructure, then your core business is not real estate, energy or the network," he said.
To date, no other company has attempted to build an electric co-generation facility of this scale. However, more and more companies, including banks and Internet service providers, are looking at alternatives to relying on the public grid, Shadle and other experts said.
Allen Tucker, vice president of the telecommunications practice group at The Staubach Co., a high-tech real estate development company in Tysons Corner, Va., has helped companies like America Online Inc. in Dulles, Va., and PSInet Inc. in Ashburn, Va., develop similar facilities. "Companies [with large data centers] are beginning to say that we need to have the power flowing before we can start revenue flowing," he said.
U.S. Data Port's 250-megawatt CREC will be about half the size of an average local public power-generation facility and will generate enough electricity to power about 2,500 homes. Officials say the system will be reliable enough to offer less than 10 minutes of failure in 20 years.
The U.S. Data Port project "is a great solution" that could insulate companies that can afford to build such a facility from the rising cost and fluctuations of the public grid, said Armando Perez, director of grid planning for the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO), a Folsom, Calif.-based self-described "part utility, part high-tech company" that operates 75% of the electric grid in California. "Internet farms are one of the biggest causes of [electricity] load growth," he said.
Although Perez said California is "for the moment out of the woods," with no Stage 1, 2, or 3 emergencies in effect, companies in California and other Western states will face rising electric prices and potential crises for another two years, he said.
U.S. Data Port's CREC will also emit fewer chemical compounds into the environment, which was a critical factor in the state of Virginia's decision to put the U.S. Data Port project on a fast-track approval schedule, Shadle said.
U.S. Data Port, which builds Internet campuses for use by Web hosting companies, Internet service providers and other firms, is developing a similar facility in San Jose. It's seeking approval for a third campus in the New York metropolitan area. All three Internet farms will be powered by a CREC.
The pending approval of the land-use agreement for U.S. Data Port comes as the nation's supply of electricity sinks deeper into crisis.
In addition to California, where large Internet data centers have been blamed for stressing the power grid there beyond what its Korean War-era design can handle, other states, including Oregon, Utah and Washington, are now preparing for possible rolling blackouts.
Nationwide rolling blackouts could have a devastating impact on the economy. Recent estimates by the Electric Power Research Institute placed the cost of these blackouts to California IT companies at $1 million per minute, not to mention the potential loss of data.
"I would go as far as to say that the electric grid in the U.S. is the Achilles' heel to a productive economy," said Shadle. "It scares the hell out of me."
Computerworld
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