Partnership to provide innovative data center cooling solutions

Skanska USA announced today that it has formed a partnership with Inertech to provide highly efficient, innovative data center cooling solutions that will deliver substantial guaranteed savings.

The Skanska/Inertech partnership offers a solution which can deliver a 1.07 annualized PUE (power usage effectiveness) in places like New Jersey.  It has the lowest energy use of any system, including adiabatic assisted air cooled systems, and also uses significantly less water than traditional systems. 

According to Jakob Carnemark, Senior Vice President of Skanska’s Mission Critical Team, “This is a global data center game changer.  The system presents a new class of efficiency and significant improvement over any existing approach to cooling high density loads, with a coefficient of performance up to 75 times higher than traditional systems.”

Earl Keisling, CEO of Inertech stated:  “Our worst case mechanical  PUE on the hottest day of the year is better than the best achievable mechanical PUE of a traditional plant in free cooling on the coldest day of the year.  We have combined the reliability that is expected from mission critical plants with proven new patent pending technology that requires less maintenance or operator oversight, removing the risks associated with these activities.”

The new patent pending system incorporates a unique approach to heat transfer at the rack coupled with advanced control technology enabling the dynamic correlation between the IT load and external environment.  The heart of the system is the e-Optitrax unit which can cool up to 340kw, equating to 90 tons of cooling in a full 2N configuration.   

The system offers approaches to data center cooling that incorporate higher efficiencies without increasing risk or maintenance and operating costs.  It eliminates expensive chiller plants and the associated maintenance; automatically adjusts to dynamic IT loads; allows an increase in density over time without increasing the footprint; and enables users to  transition seamlessly in and out of free cooling, allowing significantly more run time hours in free cooling.

“The data center industry needs innovative solutions that don’t introduce new risks,” noted Mr. Carnemark.  “Our clients require efficient alternatives with a system approach that can be deployed in any environment globally.”

The new Inertech cooling system was reviewed by a renowned team of researchers and engineers from the University of Maryland headed by Dr. Reinhard Radermacher, Director of the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE), and an internationally recognized expert in thermal systems research and simulation.  "To minimize energy consumption, a well-designed approach to free cooling is a must,” he explained.  “Inertech has developed just such an integrated solution which combines state-of-the-art controls with the most efficient heat transfer technology”.

The new Inertech system is being installed in several Skanska data center projects now under construction.