Designing and Managing Data Centers for Resilience: Demand Response and Microgrids  

Education Type: 
On-Demand
Duration: 
1.5 Hours
Level: 
Introductory
Prerequisites: 

None

FEMP IACET: 
0.2 CEU
Sponsored by: 

DOE Federal Energy Management Program - FEMP

Presidential Policy Directive 21 on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience calls upon federal agencies for a "national unity of effort to strengthen critical infrastructure security and resilience," including federal critical information facilities.

This webinar will review typical data center features that already support reliability, then describe two pathways—demand response (DR) and microgrids—that can enhance resilience or the ability of data centers and surrounding infrastructure to withstand and rapidly recover from attacks, accidents, or naturally occurring threats or incidents.

This training will describe DR and microgrid technologies, the business case for their deployment, and proven examples of their implementation. It will also explore questions that should be asked and practical steps that can be taken to enhance the resilience of data centers.

Instructors

Dale Sartor, P.E., Staff Scientist/Engineer, LBNL  

Dale Sartor focuses on building efficiency technology applications. He leads projects to develop and transfer new technology and stimulate the use of underutilized technology. Dale has an AB in Architecture, and a master's in business administration. He is a licensed mechanical engineer and a licensed general building contractor. He has over forty years of professional experience in energy efficiency and renewable energy applications including ten years as a principal of an architecture and engineering company, and seven years as the head of LBNL's In-House Energy Management Program. Currently Dale is focused on RD&D on energy efficiency in buildings for high tech industries (i.e. laboratories, cleanrooms, and data centers). He oversees the Federal Energy Management Program's new Center of Expertise for Energy Efficiency in Data Centers.

Rish Ghatikar, Senior Program Manager, Electric Power Research Institute  

Rish Ghatikar leads an initiative on information and communications technologies for distributed energy resources and grid integration. Rish has been a professor in energy informatics, chief research officer and strategic and technical lead for a firm focused on electric vehicle charging and grid integration with distributed energy resources. He has master's degrees in infrastructure planning from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and in telecommunications and computer technologies from California State University.

Bruce Myatt, Mechanical Engineer/Founder, Silicon Valley Critical Facilities Round Table (CFRT)/leader of Data Center Business for Arup North America  

Bruce Myatt has over 30 years of engineering consulting experience working with critical facilities such as data centers, clean rooms, semiconductor fabs, nuclear power plants, and DOE's nuclear weapons production facilities. Bruce has also served as CTO and EVP of The Data Centers, LLC, and Executive Editor of Mission Critical Magazine where he still serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Board and writes a data center column "Zinc Whiskers." Bruce has recently led the development of advanced data center designs for which he has been recognized as Finalist in the 2013 Data Center Dynamics NorAm annual Awards competition and has twice been selected as a Finalist in eBay's national design competitions for their Mercury and Quicksilver projects. Previously, he led work for LBNL and PG&E related to data center energy efficiency benchmarking, technology demonstration, new construction and retrofit design assistance, and retro-commissioning. Bruce has been selected as a technical advisor to DOE, EPA, CEC, LBNL, and PG&E committees focused on data center energy efficiency, and he has provided data center technical presentations and panel discussions at several data center conferences. He is recognized for his leadership in the industry's adaptation of data center aisle containment cooling solutions.

Russell Carr, Chartered (IET) Engineer, Arup North America  

Russell Carr has led renewables technical development in Arup Leeds by supporting teams with his expertise in solar and wind power technologies. Russ left Arup Leeds in 2012 and now works in the Arup office in San Francisco, California. He is heavily involved with high technology projects such as large scale microgrids, datacenters and energy storage applications. He has managed extension and new construction electrical design for large data centers and modeling and implementation of microgrids in large campus environments.

Doug Nordham, Manager, Arup North America  

Doug Nordham provides engineering and management consulting services that include strategic energy planning, renewable energy feasibility, microgrids, financial/technical due diligence, mechanical and electrical design, building retrocommissioning (RCx), and project financing. Mr. Nordham has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell and an advanced degree in architectural engineering from Princeton. He has been a director or principal at such firms as ESource, EnerNOC and Nexant.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this training, attendees will understand:

  • Federal policy on critical infrastructure and resilience and how these may be understood to apply to data centers;
  • Demand response and microgrid strategies and what they can offer data center operators;
  • Barriers to and the business case for implementing DR or a microgrid for a data center;
  • Steps to identifying the value that DR and/or a microgrid may bring to a given facility; and
  • Relevant resources that can assist data center operators and agencies in considering DR and microgrids as contributors to reliability and resilience in their specific context.
Federal Agencies and Facility Criteria: 
Building Types: