Huawei Smart IDC Energy Saving Catalyst Project Wins the 2021 TM Forum Sustainability Impact Award
LONDON - Recently, the project “Smart IDC–Intelligent Energy Saving for Data Centers” co-incubated by Huawei, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile won TM Forum’s Catalyst Team Award for Sustainability Impact. TM Forum’s Catalyst Awards celebrate the most revolutionary successes in advancing the telecoms industry, proof-of-concepts for industry standards, impact on global sustainability goals and noteworthy contributions to the acceleration of digital transformation throughout the industry, according to the official website of Huawei.
"Congratulations on the achievements of the Smart IDC project." Adriano Poloni, the managing director of the TM Forum Review Team commented, "The Smart IDC project effectively uses technologies such as AI, big data, and digital twin. The project proposes an impactful yet feasible solution for energy saving, carbon emission reduction, and efficient utilization of water resources. This solution has been piloted in multiple carriers and data provided has verified the strong results. A comparison of effects from different stakeholders shows that the project meets expectations."
The impact of global carbon neutrality is driving the development of new ‘green’ considerations in the data center construction process. In this project, Huawei’s Global Technical Service Dept and General Development Dept, together with the AI R&D Center of China Telecom Research Institute and the Network AI Expert Team of China Unicom Intelligent Network Innovation Center, completed the cloud-edge-end Smart IDC energy-saving solution by combining simulation, AI, big data, and the experience of many experts in the data center integration service field of Huawei. The AI energy-saving solution is applicable to mainstream large-scale data centers, such as IDCs of different cooling systems (air-cooled system, water-cooled system, and indirect evaporative cooling system). The BestDC@NAIE Digital Service Platform of Smart IDC project has been deployed and verified in data center energy-saving projects in China Telecom Guangxi and China Unicom Shanghai.
"I am pleased that we won the 2021 Sustainability Impact Award with Huawei, an important partner of China Telecom. " said Dr. Zeng Yu, head of the Smart IDC Energy Saving Team at the AI R&D Center of China Telecom Research Institute. "With the rapid development of the digital economy, China Telecom is constantly improving energy efficiency. It is of great significance to actively utilize AI, big data, and simulation capabilities to improve the operating efficiency of traditional equipment rooms and achieve green and sustainable development of data centers. We are grateful to TM Forum for choosing us as the recipient of this important award."
Gao Jingting, senior product manager of the Network AI Center of China Unicom Intelligent Network Innovation Center, stressed, " It is very meaningful to work with Huawei to explore the energy saving solutions of data centers in the context of achieving carbon neutrality. The Network AI Center has been dedicated to building a one-stop AI platform to enable our market department and network department to improve operational efficiency and reduce operation costs. Energy saving in data centers is the successful application of AI in specific scenarios. We are very grateful to TM Forum for its recognition of us. It also strengthens our determination to increase investment in AI and energy saving."
"China Mobile has deployed energy saving and emission reduction as a strategic task. " said Guo Zhibin, the project manager of the Information Technology Center of China Mobile. "As the construction and maintenance department of IT infrastructure, the Information Technology Center is dedicated to promoting research on infrastructure energy saving. The Smart IDC Catalyst project has shown us the research achievements of the industry in this regard. The experience of working with the project team is very helpful to us in further research on energy saving in data centers."
The results of the energy saving pilot programs show that the energy saving solutions based on simulation, AI, and expert experience can help medium and large IDCs save power by 10 to 15%. The development and economic benefits of this solution are impactful, especially when implemented at scale. Take a data center with 1000 cabinets of 5 kW/rack as an example. Assume that the actual operating load rate is 40%, the operating PUE is 1.57, and the electricity price is $0.093/kWh. If the load rate remains unchanged, the Smart IDC energy saving solution is expected to save 2.8 million kWh of electricity each year and the electricity cost is about $270,000, reducing 2,600 tons of carbon emission, which is equivalent to planting 110,000 trees.
Over the years, the Catalyst Team Award has been revolutionary in advancing the telecommunication industry, proof of concept for industry standards, impacting global sustainability goals, and accelerating digital transformation across the industry. Based on the concept of improving the digitalization of global data centers, Huawei provides practical technical paths based on carrier grade services, integration, and operation capabilities. Huawei is devoted to accelerating the green & energy-saving transformation of data centers, promoting sustainable development of society, and benefitting the public.
