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When The Power Goes Out at Google
March 8th, 2010 : Rich MillerWhat happens when the power goes out at a Google data center? We found out on Feb. 24, when a power outage at a Google facility caused more than two hours of downtime for Google App Engine, the company’s cloud computing platform for developers. Last week the company released a detailed incident report on the outage, which underscored the critical importance of good documentation, even in huge data center networks with failover capacity.
Most of Google’s recent high-profile outages have been caused by routing or network capacity problems, including outages in May and September of last year (see How Google Routes Around Outages for more). But not so with the Feb. 24 event.
“The underlying cause of the outage was a power failure in our primary datacenter,” Google reported. “While the Google App Engine infrastructure is designed to quickly recover from these sort of failures, this type of rare problem, combined with internal procedural issues extended the time required to restore the service.”
Power Down for 30 Minutes
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Data center power outages typically fall into two categories: those in which the entire data center loses power for an extended period, and those in which power is restored relatively quickly but hardware within the data center has trouble restarting properly. The Google App Engine downtime appears to fall into the latter category. Power to the primary data center was restored within a half hour, but a key group of servers failed to restart properly. The somewhat unusual pattern of the recovery presented the first challenge. -
Greenpeace’s Hosting: Not ‘Truly Green’
March 3rd, 2010 : Rich Miller
Finding renewable energy sources for huge data centers is a daunting challenge. It’s a far more complex issue than reflected in recent headlines, in which the environmental group Greenpeace International has bashed Facebook over its power choices for a new data center the social network is building in Oregon.
In its stinging critique of Facebook’s power sourcing, Greenpeace asserts that “the only truly green data centers are the ones running on renewable energy.” Given that stance, one might expect Greenpeace’s hosting operations to be housed in a “truly green data center” powered entirely by 100 percent renewable energy.
You’d be wrong. Although Greenpeace has taken steps to account for the carbon impact of much of its IT infrastructure, some of its servers are housed in data centers powered primarily by coal and nuclear power.
RECs, Offsets and Wind-Sourced Power (Mostly)
Greenpeace hosts its main web site in a Global Switch data center in Amsterdam. Gary Cook, a Climate Policy Advisor for the Greenpeace CoolIT Campaign, says Greenpeace chose the site because Global Switch bought renewable energy certificates (RECs) to offset the carbon output of its data center facility.“We’re definitely trying to run the greenest operation we can,” said Cook. “We’re buying RECs because we want to put our money where our mouth is.” The organization’s U.S. operations include about 30 servers housed in its Washington D.C. office, which is supported by wind power purchased from West Virginia, Cook said.
But Greenpeace also has a number of servers in a colocation center in northern Virginia. “They’re using whatever the grid mix is in Virginia,” said Cook, who added that the colo deal was arranged about five years ago. “At that point in time, there weren’t providers that met our requirements (for renewable energy). We’re in the process of reworking some of our IT infrastructure, and we’ll clean that up.”
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Can Bloom Boxes Power Data Centers?
March 2nd, 2010 : Rich Miller
Is the Bloom Energy Server the future of data center power? Or is it the latest promising energy technology to fall short of the economics and scale required to support major data centers?
Last week Bloom Energy officially unveiled its fuel cell, also known simply as the “Bloom Box.” The company has deployed its units at a lineup of blue-chip customers including Bank of America, Coca-Cola, eBay, FedEx, Staples and Wal-Mart.
Early adopters are enthusiastic, including major players in the data center space. “Distributed power is a big deal,” said Google co-founder Larry Page. “I’m a big supporter of this. I’d love to see us having an entire data center running on this some day.”
Can a Bloom Installation Scale?
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Google’s data centers are believed to use large amounts of power - 20 megawatts, and perhaps much more. That kind of scale has been a major barrier for companies seeking alternatives to utility power. Each Bloom Energy Server provides 100 kilowatts of power in roughly the footprint of a parking space. -
Google Using Bloom Box, But Not in Data Center
February 22nd, 2010 : Rich MillerGoogle was the first customer for Bloom Energy, and is using the startup’s gas-powered fuel cells in its operations. But is Google using the “Bloom Box” units in one of its data centers? 60 Minutes reported Sunday that Google has been using four Bloom Boxes to power one of its data centers for the last 18 months.
It turns out that’s not quite correct. “These fuel cells aren’t powering any off-site data centers,” said a Google spokesperson. “Instead, Bloom fuel cells are powering a portion of Google’s energy needs at our headquarters right here in Mountain View. This is another on-site renewable energy source that we’re exploring to help power our facilities. We have a 400kW installation on Google’s main campus. Over the first 18 months the project has had 98% availability and delivered 3.8 million kWh of electricity.”
The Bloom Energy units run on methane or other hydrocarbons. The machine produces electricity, as well as some heat, carbon dioxide and water. While 400 kilowatts is a lot of power for some commercial buildings, it’s a fraction of what would be needed for a major data center. The same goes for the 98 percent availability, as data centers typically shoot for at least “four nines” (99.99 percent uptime) and beyond.
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No Harmony in Harmonics
February 12th, 2010 : Kevin NormandeauHarmonic currents generated by non-linear electronic loads increase power system heat losses and power bills for data center operators. These harmonic-related losses reduce system efficiency, cause apparatus overheating, and increase power and air conditioning costs. As the number of harmonics-producing loads has increased in the date center, it has become increasingly necessary to address their influence when making any additions or changes to an IT installation.
This Harmonics white paper from Eaton looks at:
- The trouble with harmonics in modern power systems
- Solutions to compensate for and reduce harmonics
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Facebook’s Green Data Center, Powered by Coal?
February 2nd, 2010 : Rich MillerHere’s an interesting wrinkle on the unveiling of the new Facebook data center in Prineville, Oregon. In announcing the facility, Facebook emphasized its energy efficiency and use of renewable power resources. Cheap, green hydro power was a major attraction when Google built a data center in Oregon, so it was assumed that the Facebook data center would be supported primarily by hydro power from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).
Not so, according to Matt Stansberry from SearchDataCenter. Matt, an Oregon resident, took a closer look at the utility power that will support Facebook.
“Pacific Power, a utility owned by PacifiCorp, will provide the electricity” in Prineville, Matt writes. “While Pacific Power gets some hydropower from BPA, its primary power-generation fuel is coal, according to Jason Carr, the manager of the Prineville office of economic development for Central Oregon.”
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Will Utilities Help Fund Thermal Storage?
January 28th, 2010 : Rich Miller
The 8 million gallon tank providing thermal energy storage for McCormick Place and a nearby Digital Realty Trust data center building (seen in background).
A California power authority will buy thermal energy storage systems and distribute them to commercial customers, hoping the move will shift up to 50 megawatts of daily electricity usage to off-peak hours.
Although the project is targeting small to medium-sized customers, the concept may hold promise for the data center industry, where thermal storage is lightly implemented but offers the potential for significant savings on power bills. Utilities in some states are already offering incentives to data centers that reduce energy use by virtualizing servers or upgrading to more efficient equipment.
Thermal energy storage can reduce costs by allowing companies to run air conditioning systems at night, when power rates are cheaper. During daytime hours, when demand on the grid is higher and electricity is mor expensive, these customers can tap the energy storage system, which serves as a “battery” that substitutes for the air conditioner. Thermal storage systems typically use ice or liquid coolant that can be chilled and then used in heat exchange systems.
The Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), which serves the Los Angeles market, announced an agreement Wednesday with vendor Ice Energy that will place the company’s storage systems at customer sites to create a “distributed energy storage project.” Ice Energy’s rooftop units integrate with air conditioners from leading HVAC vendors, including Carrier, Data-Aire, Lennox, Trane and York.
Changing When Power is Consumed
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“By using storage to change how – and more importantly when – energy is consumed by air conditioning, we can offset enough peak demand in the region to serve the equivalent of 10,000 homes,” said Bill Carnahan, Executive Director of SCPPA. -
Flywheel Maker Gets $13M Investment
January 20th, 2010 : Rich MillerVYCON, which makes flywheels for backup power systems, announced today that it has closed a $13.7 million round of funding. The Los Angeles company said it would use the financing to ramp up manufacturing to meet strong demand from data centers, hospitals and rail transportation applications.
Flywheels are an alternative to using batteries in a data center UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system. A flywheel is a spinning cylinder which generates power from kinetic energy, and continues to spin when grid power is interrupted. In most data centers, the UPS system draws power from a bank of large batteries to provide “ride-through” electricity to keep servers online until the diesel generator can start up and begin powering the facility.
The funding, led by the BankInvest Group in Denmark, includes conversion of $6.5 million in existing convertible notes and $1.1M of existing trade debt. Several of VYCON’s existing investors participated, as well as several new investors.
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Are MicroTurbines Gaining Traction?
January 13th, 2010 : Rich Miller
A Capstone micro turbine installed at an IBM-built data centers on the campus of Syracuse University.
For most data centers, on-site power generation means backup diesel generators. But a small but growing number of facilities are turning to gas-powered microturbines with a lower emissions profile.
Capstone Turbine (CPST) today said that a Houston data center has ordered four additional C65 microturbines, bringing to 13 the total number of Capstone microturbines at the site. The unnamed facility was described as a large data center serving 50,000 employees in offices worldwide.
Last fall IBM installed 12 Capstone microturbines at its new data center at Syracuse University, which is serving as a testbed for combinng “green” technologies to achieve the highest energy efficiency.
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