ST Telemedia unit, ABB tie up to optimise energy use at data centre

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) on Thursday announced that it will partner technology firm ABB to optimise energy use at its data centres through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology and advanced analytics as part of a pilot programme.

The company said the pilot will be split into two phases. In the first phase, initial data exploration, modelling and validation will be conducted, followed by the deployment of AI control logic in a live data centre environment in the second phase.

Through the pilot, the company aims to achieve at least a 10 per cent reduction in energy use by its data centres' cooling systems, which contribute most to the consumption of electrical power in these centres.

STT GDC estimates that this optimisation in cooling efficiency will improve power usage effectiveness and lead to an estimated reduction of 1,100 tonnes of carbon emissions into the atmosphere for every 10 megawatts of IT load utilised.

To achieve these efficiency improvements, STT GDC will go further than previous AI research work in the white-space of data centres and instead develop AI neural network models for the whole data centre cooling plant, including the upstream chiller and distribution systems.

The pilot will leverage ABB Ability Genix, an AI and industrial analytics suite, to track and monitor systems in the data centre and better facilitate dynamic cooling optimisation.

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STT GDC's chief technology officer Daniel Pointon said that the collaboration will help the company to transition their data centres to be net carbon-neutral by 2030. Energy efficiency and renewable energy use were cited as key areas to help the group achieve its sustainability ambitions.

"In view of growing data demands from end users and emerging business applications that require increasingly higher computing power, the resources that data centres consume have the potential to increase if not appropriately addressed," Mr Pointon said.

Madhav Kalia, ABB's global head of data centre automation, said that the company looks forward to supporting STT GDC in achieving energy efficiencies.

"We are committed to exploring the synergies between our offerings with STT GDC as it embarks on an ambitious plan," he said.

STT GDC opened its eighth data centre in Loyang on July 6, and has 130 facilities across Singapore, the UK, India, China, Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia.