HYbrid COOLing & management for IT infrastructures

Project Information

HYCOOL-IT

Grant agreement ID: 101138623

DOI

10.3030/101138623

EC signature date 12 December 2023

Start date 1 December 2023

End date 30 November 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 2 999 566,13

Coordinated by

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HYCOOL-IT (HYbrid COOLing & management for IT infrastructures)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

HYCOOL-IT mission is to propose a standardised comprehensive set of processes, digital tools and advanced adsorption equipment to achieve a replicable cost-effective thermal management and energy optimisation of tertiary buildings with high energy demand IT Rooms. These include increased open knowledge regarding Digital Twin methodological and ICT solutions focused on the tertiary buildings, ready to be replicated in the most common specific use cases across EU. From the technical equipment point of view, the project also targets a best-of-class adsorption modular solution to recover and valorise excess heat. Following this, HYCOOL-IT faces three overarching goals:
• GO1: Unfold a new methodology and ICT tools based on Building Digital Twins Environments to:
- Optimised Planning evaluation, Design and Construction phases by the usage of SIMBots as Building Digital Twin libraries.
- Reduced gap between design and operation simulations by a Simulation Model Tracking System along components commissioning.
- Generate a dedicated Model Predictive Control based on the coupling of monitoring & simulation (Software in the Loop - SiL -)
Such methodology and ICT tools will be completely replicable in dedicated IT Rooms and, more in general, in buildings and will be able to communicate with both the Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) at Server Room Level and the Energy Management Systems (EMS) at the building level.
• GO2: Develop a cost-effective plug and play Hybrid System of Rack-integrated adsorption chillers for waste-heat powered server cooling.
• GO3: Generate strategies to effectively replicate both hardware and software solutions alone and as a coupled solution, with special focus on standardisation in relevant areas of influence (product design & certification in cooling equipment, procurement and commissioning, control equipment, buildings energy performance simulation and monitoring during O&M).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In WP1, Processes and Requirements and Use Cases screening related to the integration and optimisation of server rooms within the operational context of tertiary buildings have been extracted. The Bovisa Campus (Pilot project) Use Cases have been defined, including energy and data audit and case studies implementing energy conservation measures. Methodologies for SIMBots creation, monitoring and validation, consisting in a set of development guidelines, and for predicting and optimizing building performance using Software in the Loop, have been defined
In WP2, communication protocols and interoperability requirements necessary for seamless integration of Building Control Systems (BCS) in advanced IT server room environments have been analysed and defined. The ICT architecture of the Building Digital Twin Environment has been developed, including simulation tools, BIM representations of the server room and the cooling equipment, monitoring of real-time data, and using Software in the Loop -based Model Predicting Control algorithm. The architecture for the alpha testing of the software solutions has been also developed.
In WP3, a methodology to guide interventions in thermal management optimization of server rooms, including the definition of performance metrics, area of interventions, type of intervention, impact assessment on performance metrics, and monitoring requirements to verify and maintain energy performance during system operation through Digital Twin solutions, have been defined. Moreover, schematics for the integration of Server Rooms waste heat recovery in buildings and district heating networks have been produced, along with a simulation model for fast assessment of related energy, economic and financial benefits. A basic library of simulation components consisting of generic SIMBOTS for IT Server Room has been developed, along with the strategy to assess future scenarios using simulation models under the Building Digital Twin Environment.
In WP4, a numerical model of the innovative rack-integrated adsorption chiller was developed and implemented in the commercial software Dymola (Modelica). The proof-of-concept (PoC) of the rack-integrated adsorption chiller (RIAC) has been manufactured, and preliminary experimental activities have been carried out.
In WP5, the digital twin platform as a service has been deployed for the Bovisa Campus pilot site. The platform has connected existing devices for control and monitoring by using a VPN connection. Additionally, the design and bill of quantities for the renovation of the Campus server room have been completed, which includes waste heat recovery in the associated university building through a dedicated heat pump. Tender documentation has been prepared, and the tender has been awarded, allowing construction works to commence.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project will implement different technologies and solutions to achieve all HYCOOL-IT main overarching objectives. All of them have been organised in 3 Technical Development Pillars as well as a final 4th validation pillar for the proposed solutions as described hereunder:

1. Methodology for the creation and maintenance of IT Server Rooms DTs:
- Development of Methodology framework and related Use Cases KPI definitions: The development and validation of the methodology are expected to reduce the preparation time of adapting simulation models along the engineering project up to 20% which will lead towards a much more accurate prediction, with less than 20% gap with Monitoring during O&M, as well as generating a bidirectional communication in between the server room DCIM and the building BEM.

2. ICT Ecosystem and Orchestration:
- HYCOOL-IT federated ICT tool as a BDT Environment: The integration of Contextual and Dynaic real data (including historical datasets) within related thermal Simulation Models within the environment will raise the number of stakeholders reaching a Single Source of Truth leading to in field professionals time reduction as well as a steady Increment of simulation models numbers and accuracy during design phase until reaching a truly simulation model calibration.
- Simulation Model Tracking System (SMTS): SMTS module implemented as a tool of the PaaS BDTE
- SiL based Mode Predictive Control (MPC): MPC Service implementation as part of the PaaS BDTE

3. Technical Equipment:
- Rack-integrated Adsorption Heat Pump: Construction and testing of rack-integrated adsorption heat pump driven by server waste heat capable of lowering PUE below 1.1 and to generate air cooling in the server room.
- ICT server room monitoring and control optimization, including waste heat recovery for building space heating through BTDE solutions: Integration of waste heat into the heating system of university building(s) with the purpose to obtain a positive the share of reusable energy (ERF > 0.3).

4. Validation strategy:
- Validation in real building: Successful testing and validation of the innovative ICT tools for energy efficiency in pre-existing and renovated server room, PUE < 1.4 and associated reduction (as compared to PUE>1.5) in CO2 emissions.
- Deployment of digital twin solution and monitoring: Digital Twin of tertiary buildings, heat recovery system from server room, and server room IT and cooling equipment with reduced gap (below 10%) between simulations and monitoring data.

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