THE DATA CENTERS, LLC
APPLICATION TO PRESENT AT 7X24 EXCHANGE FALL CONFERENCE 2013
The presentation will be delivered 50% by Bruce Myatt and 50% by Bob Krizman. We will use a power point format to
deliver our presentation. We are open to ideas from 7x24 about how to improve things.
NAME OF THE PRESENTATION
On-site “Critical” Power Generation for the Data Center
The Data Centers, LLC (TDC) has developed patent pending designs for first of a kind, “Off-Grid”, independently
powered data centers. It provisions data centers primary and secondary power from on-site “mission critical” power
plants and micro-grids. It establishes a new paradigm for data centers to operate continuously without the need for
public utility power or traditional back-up power systems.
TDC has fully developed innovations that will help data center operators meet the critical challenges of
tomorrow’s energy markets.
Risk Management: Removes data center loads from the Grid and contributes excess redundant power to Grid
capacity. Uniquely supports utility “demand response” programs. Data center availability is expected to be better
than Tier IV with two independent diverse gas supply lines and N+2+1 redundant generators.
Environmental Compliance: Supports EPA guidelines for improved energy efficiency and lower carbon emissions.
Offsets need for construction of new transmission and distribution facilities. Offloads existing coal fired power plants
with cogeneration efficiencies, reduced emissions using natural gas combustion, and data center energy efficiency
“best practices”.
Natural Resource Utilization: Efficiently uses abundant and underutilized global natural gas resources instead of
fossil fuels that are more difficult to extract, transport and refine. Produces low quality steam and hot and chilled
water to economically provide for community needs.
Investor Profitability: Offers reduced capital investment alternatives to traditional data center backup power systems
with income-producing power generation plants. Sets precedence for utilities to execute power purchase agreements
and long-term gas pricing contracts with data centers that result in excellent returns on investment.
TDC developed our Vision to support the needs and challenges of data centers around the globe.
Global demands have created opportunities for us to benefit in all of the ways described above, and more. The
availability of electrical power, “green” environmental standards, and the effective use of natural and financial
resources are all supported by the concept of “critical” and independent power generation. It allows us to respond to
two ongoing global challenges nearing crisis levels. First, we can dramatically improve the availability and stability of
power across the globe where our public Grid systems have failed all too often recently. Secondly, we can minimize
our global dependence on fossil fuels from resource-deprived and politically-unstable regions around the world that
put our power generation capabilities at risk.
The greatest challenges met with are simply public perception and acceptance of a new and improved way of
operating our datacenters. Questions about reliability and efficiencies can only be proven by many years of publically
available performance information. However, we believe that as much as other new efficient and reliable changes
have been recently accepted, that it is simply a matter of time before we broadly embrace the use of on-site “critical”
power plants to save much more energy and operate independently and with less risk.
The process that we developed and followed helped us validate our ideas taken from elsewhere and to
deploy them into a data center environment?
We have assembled an experienced team with both power plant and data center experience, as well as a
partnerships with a successful Investment Banker, real estate experts, engineering design and construction
professionals, and we have found support from several developers, politicians, financiers, regulators, and operators
that have provided us with the information needed to validate our concepts.
We have established economic and technical credibility for the concept by validating our financial models using Total
Cost of Ownership criteria and our design basis using natural gas generator and data center design “best practices”.
Validations were submitted for review and comment and approval to experts in each field. Our financial models and
design basis has been validated though an extensive and exhaustive studies by world-class design firms. Critical
design features replicate a similar “critical” power plant supporting a semiconductor fabrication facility with awardwinning operating history, including many years of uninterrupted power generation.
Similar facilities have also been deployed successfully for years on off-shore oil rigs where drilling operations must
operate without momentary loss of power for safety reasons and must operate as an Island without public utility
resources and with a “critical” power plant.
In order to make our vision fit into the datacenter environment we needed to modify our original ideas
through the processes described above?
During the validation process we found that the typical CHP model was not altogether suitable for our data center
facility type, size and location for our first project. Other variables such as operating cost variables, fuel prices, and
environmental compliance were different and reconsidered as such.
These differences changed our design for the data center’s “critical” power plant in several ways. First, we increased
the size of our natural gas turbines and added natural gas engines to provide for more efficient and responsive
facilities operations. We also found that our TCO model drove us to cogenerate by making steam to produce
electrical power to sell to the Grid instead of using absorption chillers to cool the datacenter as we had intended. We
also minimized off site water demand and ultimately designed a much larger facility to better realize the economies of
scale of power generation.
We changed our economic models to better reflect the “futures” pricing of natural gas, the possible variations in spot
pricing for power sold to the grid, the competitive market information about future lease rates in nearby managed
services facilities and the effects of various different power densities and reliabilities for the facility.
The key innovation in our self-powered data center facility allows us to operate as an “islanded” micro grid
in a way that cannot be achieved by other approaches.
The most innovative and challenging feature of the design is the power transfer system that assures continuous
power to the datacenter in case of a generator failures, without the utility Grid or diesel generation for back up. The
design redirects redundant generator power, normally exported to the Grid, to the data center, while maintaining the
precision required by a highly reliable data center (i.e., without momentary loss of power, power sags or power
surges). The design includes a unique and proprietary micro-grid protection system made up of multiple electrical
buses with power storage and conditioning devices only large enough to support an isolated generator failure
(instead of for the entire data center load as required by facilities where the Grid provides primary power).
A related innovation includes the use of a site wide distributed control system (DCS) in lieu of different controls
systems for different facilities. Current practices may have otherwise leaded us to use a DCS for the power plant,
PLC controls for the power transfer systems and DDC BMS for the data center. This approach of using a single
controls type will result in more reliable operations, and most of all will allow us to control the entire facility as one with
the power plant responding to data center monitors and alarms.
Our vision and concepts can be further developed and deployed across the world to provide great benefits to
the global data center community.
Our “critical” power plants and independent micro-grids should encourage the data center community to take
responsibility for the generation of their own power needs by operating without utility power and as independent
Islands unaffected by Grid outages and changes.
Our designs may provide an example to others about the value of operating dedicated power plants with a constant
7x24 data center load that allows for the continuous operation of large turbines right in their “sweet spot” and
cogeneration facilities in their most efficient operating modes. Our “Off-Grid” and “critical” power plant designs can be
applied to other natural gas generators, such as fuel cells, as well as other types of power plants including renewable
fuel-powered facilities, all while providing the highest level of availability needed for a data center.
The deployment of this innovative design dramatically reduces the total cost of ownership of the data center complex
and allows large high density data centers to be constructed in space constrained areas. The convergence of power
production and data processing opens the door to larger, more efficient and profitable data centers in areas where
current economies make traditional implementation and operation unreasonably expensive.