Designing Resilient and Islandable Data Centers with Renewable Energy
A weak power grid incurred daily load shedding events that forced high diesel generator runtimes and threatened to disrupt data center operations. The client wanted a microgrid control narrative that explained how a renewable energy microgrid could fully power a data center during frequent and lengthy grid outages.
HRE developed a microgrid control narrative supported with a dynamic stability modeling study to demonstrate the efficacy of using solar and storage as the primary power source for the data center during off-grid islanding mode. The crux of the work was determining if on-site renewables could be integrated into the data center’s existing backup power infrastructure, while maintaining some of the world’s most stringent power quality standards.
HRE uncovered key technical constraints that would need to be overcome by working with product OEMs. Ultimately, the client accepted HRE’s recommendations and moved forward with the next stage on this critical and first-of-a-kind project.
