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FOCUS 74: Energy Powered Solutions For Data Centres

Alexandre Menu, South East Asia Area General Manager at Legrand, explains how datacentres can be built with sustainable infrastructure in place. 

The data centre industry is focusing on sustainability as never before. How does Legrand manage the environmental impact of its energy solutions?  

Datacentres(DC) are full of high technology and valuable equipment. The life duration of those equipment is shorter than in traditional buildings due to technology evolution.  

Sustainability in DCs & consciousness around it have indeed evolved a lot. This aspect can be covered through evaluation, reduction of environmental impact and transparency. It is key to evaluate their environmental impact through a full life cycle assessment and to reduce their footprint.  

At Legrand, we provide equipment that follow eco-design and declare their environmental profile.  We ensure limited footprint (e.g, steel consumption for racks), easy recycling (e.g., environmentally friendly cable trays and modular busbars).  

Energy Efficiency 

Reducing the power needed for DCs is probably one of the main challenges faced by DC designers, consultants, investors and all of the DC ecosystem. Legrand proposes a wide range of solutions that support and help manage enhanced energy efficiency, in particular in what is called the white room (where all the IT equipment are installed) as well as for the infrastructure of the DC. 

Green energy 

More datacentres aim at using “clean energy”. We provide equipment that support green energy such as specific solutions that create photovoltaic cells (e.g. cable management) or complete their installation (e.g. dry type transformer, power components ).   

Sustainable purchasing 

Legrand has a long-standing commitment to limit the impact of our activities on the climate. In July 2020, we announced our aim to eliminate fully our net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 across all our activities, aligning our strategy with the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement. We also work with responsible suppliers who consciously reduce their carbon footprint.  

 What are the different solutions that promote energy efficiency in data centre construction and management? 

 Limit unnecessary loss of energy by choosing the right type of dry type transformer or Ups to enhance efficient consumption. Reduce the need for coolers which represent 40% of the energy consumption of a DC - choose quality equipment such as cold/hot aisle containment or rack solutions designed to manage airflow to “contain” heat from servers and control it better. Measure in detail the environment of the datacentre at every moment - for example, some solutions can reduce the inner consumption of IT devices thanks to precise monitoring of each server smart “racks power distribution units” and metering sensor solutions. 

Where is Legrand expanding in the data centre market? 

Datacentre is a growing market worldwide and increased digitalisation has accelerated this trend. Currently, we have an organic presence in more than 90 countries, the largest being in the US. In Asean, we cover all countries with localized teams and partners. We also regularly increase our scope of presence to provide additional solutions to our customers and partners. For example, we are global leaders in rack Pdus thanks to three consecutive acquisitions; we have reached Top 5 position worldwide in UPSs ( Uninterruptible Power Supply ) and more recently acquired US brand Starline, the worldwide leader in busbar for white space DC. Those are three critical components of DC that can support enhanced sustainable approach.  

 

 

 

^{Interview with Alexandre Menu, South East Asia Area General Manager at Legrand , for FOCUS #74. To read more articles from this issue, download your digital copy here}