ASHRAE seeks comment on proposed standard

ASHRAE is seeking comments on a proposed standard that addresses the unique energy requirements of data centres.

Standard 90.4P, Energy Standard for Data Centers and Telecommunications Buildings, is being developed in response to requests to recognise the energy performance profiles unique to data centres. Previously, data centres were included in in ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.

Standard 90.4P will feature a performance-based approach that is more flexible and accommodating of innovative changes which rapidly occur in the data centre design, construction and operations, according to chair Ron Jarnagin.

“The explicit needs of data centres drive a fundamentally different approach to regulating minimum efficiency requirements for the electrical and mechanical systems that support the plug loads,” Jarnagin said.

“By using an approach that requires compliance to a ‘system’ level of performance, designers and end users can utilise various trade-offs in their optimisation strategies depending on their company-specific business models.”

Also, current industry modelling tools do not possess all the necessary mathematical models to accurately and appropriately model data centre HVAC and power design. As a result, demonstrating compliance to the 90.1 Chapter 11 or energy cost budget approaches is not always a practical option. Instead, Standard 90.4P proposes to utilise a performance compliance path known as the Power Utilization Efficiency (PUE) developed by The Green Grid.

Although there is proposed research for the development of mathematical methods and associated software tools to assist data centre designers down the road, compliance with 90.4P is intended to be possible without the use of modelling tools at this time.

Standard 90.4P is open for advisory public review from 15 November to 30 December 2013. For more information, visit www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.