Data center scale utility pool and control platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9869982-B1
Application number	US-201414517241-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 17, 2014
Priority date	Oct 17, 2014
Publication date	Jan 16, 2018
Grant date	Jan 16, 2018

Abstract

A system for providing cooled air to electronic equipment includes a cooling system arranged to provide cooling for computer systems in a data center that generate heat from electrical usage; one or more sensors for sensing an environmental condition near the data center; and a central control system programmed to allocate future compute demand for the data center as a function of the sensed environmental condition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for providing for conditioning of a computer data center, the method comprising:
identifying outdoor ambient conditions in an outdoor area around the computer data center;
determining, with a computer system, a level of susceptibility for air outside of the computer data center to accept heat generated by the computer data center; and
automatically adjusting, with the computer system, a level of power delivered to electronic equipment in the computer data center based on the determined level of susceptibility for the air outside of the computer data center to accept heat from the computer data center, wherein automatically adjusting the level of power delivered to the electronic equipment in the computer data center comprises:
identifying an expected demand for computing resources and determining that the expected demand can be met without exceeding a determined power allocation for the electronic equipment;
determining that an allocated level of power delivery to the electronic equipment will cause cooling setpoints to be exceeded for the computer data center; and
determining a time period for which the allocated level of power delivery to the electronic equipment will be allowed to exceed a cooling level of a cooling system for the computer data center.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the level of power delivered to the electronic equipment comprises allocating an amount of power available to the electronic equipment from a common power plane electrically coupled with data center facility equipment.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the level of power delivered to the electronic equipment comprises adjusting a number of computing operations that can be assigned to computer servers in the computer data center over a particular time period.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the adjustment is performed by a central system that controls assignment of tasks to all the computers in the computer data center.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the level of susceptibility for the air outside of the computer data to accept heat from the computer data center is determined by sensing wet bulb temperature and dry bulb temperature of the air outside of the computer data center.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein automatically adjusting the level of power delivered to electronic equipment in the computer data center comprises determining a predicted electric power level required by a cooling system for the data center to produce a determined cooling level as a function of the identified outdoor ambient conditions.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , where determining a level of susceptibility for the air outside of the computer data center to accept heat generated by the computer data center comprises identifying outdoor ambient conditions for a future period around the data center by accessing weather forecasting information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , further comprising determining a schedule for the electronic equipment use over a first period and a schedule for cooling equipment use over a second period that corresponds to the first period, wherein the schedule for the electronic equipment use is determined so as to offset heat loads generated by the electronic equipment over the first period.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the first period is the same as the second period.

10. A system for providing cooled air to electronic equipment, comprising:
a cooling system arranged to provide cooling for computer systems in a data center that generate heat from electrical usage;
one or more electronic sensors for sensing an outdoor environmental condition near the data center; and
a central computer control system programmed to allocate future compute demand for the data center as a function of the sensed outdoor environmental condition, the central computer control system further programmed to automatically adjust a level of power delivered to the computer systems in the data center by:
identifying an expected demand for computing resources and determining that the expected demand can be met without exceeding a determined power allocation for the computer systems;
determining that an allocated level of power delivery to the computer systems will cause cooling setpoints of the cooling system to be exceeded for the data center; and
determining a time period for which the allocated level of power delivery to the computer systems will be allowed to exceed a cooling level of the cooling system for the data center.

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a common power domain electrically coupled to the cooling system and the computer systems.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the common domain plane comprises a medium power domain.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the medium power domain is configured to provide power freely without interference by devices in the medium power domain.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the medium power domain is about 10 MW to about 100 MW in size, and serves about one half or more of the data center.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the sensed outdoor environmental condition comprises wet bulb temperature.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the central control system allocates future compute demand as a function of a determine level of susceptibility of an outdoor area around the data center to accept heat from the data center.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the control system allocates future compute demand by allocating future electrical usage in the data center, and further comprising electrical distribution devices that are programmed to receive information about electrical allocation from the central control system and to inform particular computer in the data center regarding their allocated compute demand.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the control system identifies a total level of allocable power and selects a level of allocation for information technology resources in the data center and cooling systems that provide cooling to the data center.

19. The system of claim 10 , wherein the central computer system is further programmed to cause the cooling system to match, in cooling provided, heat that is generated in the data center.

20. The system of claim 10 , wherein the central computer control system is programmed to identify a level of electric demand that will be required by the cooling system as a function of (a) expected computing work that will be performed by computers in the data center and (b) the sensed outdoor environmental condition.

21. A system for providing cooled air to electronic equipment, comprising:
a cooling system arranged to provide cooling for computer systems in a data center that generate heat from electrical usage;
one or more electronic sensors for sensing an outdoor environmental condition near the data center;
means for using information about the sensed outdoor environmental condition to allocate an amount of computer processing that information technology (IT) resources in the data center will take on; and
means for automatically adjusting the level of power delivered to the IT resources in the data center by:
identifying an expected demand for computing resources and determining that the expected demand can be met without exceeding a determined power allocation for

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Clidaras Jimmy
• Ramesh Anand
• Malone Christopher G

Classifications

• G05B15/02 Primary

  electric · CPC title

• G05D23/19

  characterised by the use of electric means {(G05D23/1393 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H05K7/20745

  within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. by air conditioning device · CPC title

• G06F1/206

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• G05D23/1917 Primary

  using digital means · CPC title