efficiency – Netwise Blog

We are very excited to announce that our London Central (NLC) facility has once again exceeded expectations in terms of energy efficiency. NLC’s design PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) is an impressive 1.12, but the annualised real-world PUE for the last 12 months was a staggering 1.09 – an improvement over the already remarkable 1.11 achieved the year prior.

NLC is our facility in Bermondsey, London, which we opened in 2015

For those unfamiliar with the concept of PUE, it is a measure of how much energy a data centre uses for computing compared to how much energy it uses for supporting load, such as cooling, UPS losses, fire systems etc. The goal for data centres is to have the lowest possible PUE, as this indicates the highest level of energy efficiency.

Even just meeting our design PUE would be impressive for a London data centre, but to exceed this by such a significant margin is something we’re hugely proud of.

We have consistently demonstrated our commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency across all aspects of our operation. This latest achievement is a testament to our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices in the industry.

A real-world PUE of 1.09 ranks among the lowest PUEs reported by data centres worldwide, indicating that the facility is operating with a high level of energy efficiency and with minimal energy waste.

We believe that data centres have a significant role to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change, and we are proud to be leading the way in this effort. Our innovative approach to energy management, combined with our state-of-the-art technology and cutting-edge infrastructure, has enabled us to achieve these outstanding results.

Furthermore, the design PUE of our latest data centre, Netwise London East (NLE), is just 1.05. Reaching a facility’s design PUE target does require a high level of capacity utilisation, which takes time following launch (though helped by our modular design and deployment philosophy), however we couldn’t be more excited to see where our real-world figures lands at NLE in the coming months and years.

NLE opened in 2022, in Canning Town, and is on-track to be one of the most efficient data centres in the world

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our team and our customers for their continued support. We remain committed to driving innovation and sustainability in the data centre industry and look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible.

This summer, we’ve been hard at work taking the high-tech cooling system in Data Hall 1 to its final specification, ready for full capacity.

Our entire facility follows a modular build methodology, which includes our unique evaporative cooling system. Everything is installed in A+B resilient pairs, which includes the cooling stack design employed at our London Central data centre. These act as the lungs of our data centre, breathing cool air into the overhead plenum.

Until now, we’ve had lot’s of headroom on the existing two stacks, comprised of four wet box units. Last summer, we rolled out a fully-integrated AC system to supplement this evaporative units, both for added operational resilience, as well as further cooling capacity should it be required.

Each of our stacks have intelligently controlled intake fans and active damping

We’ve now added the final two stacks to the system in Data Hall 1, taking our cooling capacity to maximum load. This further improves resilience on the system as a whole, and also provides a great deal of additional cooling as we continue to welcome new customers into our world-class data centre.

Our unique, highly-efficient cooling stack design

Part of this additional capacity includes the tripling of available extraction outlets, which gives us greater control over the pressure differential between hot and cold aisles.

At full speed we are now able to move 208,000 cubic metres of four-times filtered, climate controlled air through Data Hall 1 per hour. That’s a lot of air, creating a flow of freshly tempered air which refreshes hall-wide every 45 seconds (on average).

Our extraction capabilities have been heavily bolstered

We now have nine high-powered extraction fans

Further to this, we’ve also installed a new probe matrix overhead, meaning we now have temperature and humidity mapping capabilities across the entire data hall floor. This both feeds into the control systems which manage the cooling system, as well as our own monitoring and management systems for greater insights into heat and flow control.

Later this year, we’ll also be adding in further granular monitoring on the circuits which feed our cooling systems, which will allow us to see our PUE as it dynamically adjusts in real-time.

The cooling system in Data Hall 1 is now at full capacity, which is fantastic news as our ever-growing roster of clients continue to deploy new systems in our facilities.

Learn more about our world-class London Central data centre.

Tag / efficiency

Sustainability in-focus: beating our design PUE figures for a second year running

Full speed ahead for Data Hall 1 cooling system