Question: Why would (or wouldn't) your company switch your datacenter
loads to generator (or other off-mains) power sources, if you had the
capability and/or capacity?
1. Due to price caps, it costs me less to take electricity from PG&E
(which, because I run a datacenter 24x7, I don't take with time-of-use
metering) than it does to run my generator on diesel. Especially so
if I factor in the non-fuel costs of operation.
2. My permit from the local air quality management district restricts me
to operation when the utility is offline plus a total of 60 hours per
year for all testing. I would need to apply for a permit for a different
type of operation (voluntary load shedding, peak shaving, or prime
generation) and for that, a full environmental impact report is required.
Given #1, it isn't worth my trouble. (And my AQMD is the Monterey Bay
AQMD... I can't even imagine the pain of applying in the Los Angeles area)
3. Other than as a PR effort, this doesn't make as much sense as having
some industry which uses much more power than the Internet data center
industry do this. Perhaps an industry which can easily move their peak
load to a different hour of the day.
Of course, if we had *real* deregulation, my price for power as a commercial
user would closely reflect the utility's cost for power, and they might even
charge me differently by time of use whether or not I wanted that... then
the cost equation changes for item 1, and I'd have an incentive to go look
at the true costs of item 2.
-matthew kaufman
Tycho Networks/DSL.net
matthew@tycho.net
Anyone using or considering using a gas turbine instead of diesel to run
their generators?
-Sean
On Tue, Jan 16, 2001 at 09:49:00AM +0000, Matthew Kaufman put this into my mailbox:
Of course, if we had *real* deregulation, my price for power as a commercial
user would closely reflect the utility's cost for power, and they might even
charge me differently by time of use whether or not I wanted that... then
the cost equation changes for item 1, and I'd have an incentive to go look
at the true costs of item 2.
Given that, is there anyone in the San Diego Gas & Electric area (fully
deregulated, passing on the generation cost to consumers -- my residential
power bill was $215 for december, after the state-mandated 'price
reduction') who's looked at the costs of doing this, and possibly found
it cheaper to run off of the generators?
Also -- again to throw something out there -- there is at least one hosting
company that touts itself as running entirely off of solar. (see
http://www.enn.com/features/2000/07/07262000/solarhost_14768.asp;
solarhost.com is what I'm thinking of). Has any other large commercial
entity looked into the economics of installing a PV array say on the roof
of the building above and around the cooling packs, etc? At the very
least, I would think it would be a good way to supplement a battery
network. Or perhaps (going even further out there) a wind generator or two?
-dalvenjah
Has any other large commercial entity looked into the economics of
> installing a PV array say on the roof of the building above and
> around the cooling packs, etc?
Our draw isn't huge, and we had a fair bit of roof space, so ran the
numbers, and current-generation PVs would meet about 15% of our draw,
measured over a 24-hour period with fair weather and average
length-of-day. Is it worth the money? Probably. Would it help us in an
emergency? Not substantially.
-Bill
Anyone using or considering using a gas turbine instead of diesel to run
> their generators?
Yeah, we talked quite a bit with Caterpillar, and looked at a bunch of
their installations. That's actually Solar Turbines, which they bought.
Also, we looked at the Capstone units (www.microturbines.com) for small
installations. Both looked like big wins. Both exhaust hot enough to run
a thermal transfer unit to take care of the chillers, although on
radically different scales, of course. Running full-time on natural gas,
they both amortize themselves in 18mos-24mos vis a vis the cost of utility
electricity. Obviously the AQMB paperwork for cogen is more of a hassle
than for backup, and that's where we sit right now.
-Bill