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ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), one of the fastest growing global data centre operators headquartered in Singapore, announced today that it is collaborating with ABB, a technology leader driving digital transformation across industries, to conduct an artificial intelligence (AI) energy optimisation pilot in Singapore. The objective of the pilot is to leverage AI and machine learning (ML) technology and advanced analytics to optimise energy use within a data centre and reduce a facility’s overall carbon footprint.

“STT GDC is excited to collaborate with ABB on this pilot as we transition our data centres to be net carbon-neutral by 2030,” said Daniel Pointon, Group Chief Technology Officer, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. “Our group’s AI roadmap will take a big leap forward with this pilot program and focus on optimising our data centre’s energy utilisation. During the review of the pilot results, we will also assess future AI-based applications such as predictive maintenance, capacity management, security analytics and other business processes in our considerations.”

The pilot will span two phases – an initial data exploration, modelling and validation phase, followed by deployment of AI control logic in a live data centre environment. The pilot aims to achieve at least 10 percent reduction in energy usage by the cooling systems, which contributes most to the consumption of electrical power in a data centre after our customer’s IT equipment. Optimising the cooling efficiency will in turn improve power usage effectiveness (PUE) and reduce the carbon footprint, with an estimated reduction of 1,100 tons of carbon in the atmosphere for every 10MW of IT load utilised, which is equivalent to saving approximately 18,000 trees.

Going further than previous AI research work constrained to white-space of data centres, STT GDC’s pilot is taking a holistic approach and developing AI neural-network models for the entire DC cooling plant including the upstream chiller and distribution systems. The AI project is also unlocking new opportunities for efficiency improvement at a granular level within the data centre. With the ability to glean AI-generated insights, leveraging cutting-edge ABB Ability™ Genix for industrial analytics and AI, STT GDC can effectively track and analyse the wealth of data generated by monitoring systems in the data centre, and better facilitate dynamic cooling optimisation to reap the desired outcomes.

“We look forward to supporting the STT GDC team in their efforts to drive digitalisation and energy efficiencies.” said Madhav Kalia, Global Head of Data Centre Automation at ABB. “At ABB, we have a strong track record of supporting data centre operators with our best-in-class technology solutions. We are committed to exploring the synergies between our offerings with STT GDC as it embarks on an ambitious plan.”

As one of the fastest growing operators, STT GDC is committed to pushing the boundaries in innovation and setting new benchmarks for the wider industry. The vast amounts of data that can be captured and harnessed in a live data centre environment makes for a strong base for AI applications which can also be applied to other facets including capacity planning, risk mitigation and predictive maintenance. This, and other research and development initiatives around alternative energy, water efficiency, construction technology and IT are being carried out by STT GDC’s research and development team based in Singapore.

“In view of growing data demands from end users and emerging business applications that require increasingly higher computing power, the resources that data centres consume have the potential to increase if not appropriately addressed.  As a long-term participant in the data centre industry, players like STT GDC must take the lead, maintain operational excellence, and fully align with national and international climate change agendas such as the recently announced Singapore Green Plan 2030. We remain committed to our principles for long-term value creation and goal of contributing towards a more sustainable global economy,” Pointon added.

This initiative by STT GDC comes in the wake of its pledge to achieve carbon-neutral data centre operations by 2030 with energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy being key to the Group’s sustainability ambitions. The AI project will be jointly developed by STT GDC and ABB. It will be an on-premise solution that will tightly integrate to the existing ABB Ability™ Data Centre Automation system on site, which provides comprehensive monitoring and control of the entire data centre infrastructure.

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