面向绿色数据中心的储能系统:体系结构和管理方法

Energy Storage System in Green Data Centers:Architecture and Management

如今的数据中心严重受限于其功耗预算和碳排放配额.面对与日俱增的能耗开支和节能减排压力,学术界和工业界不约而同地开始关注非传统的绿色数据中心设计.最近,能源存储设备(energy storage system,ESS)逐渐成为数据中心中一种新兴的关键使能元件,它能够极大提升数据中心的能效和可持续性.一方面,ESS使得数据中心可以通过削减由不规则负载带来的短暂峰值功耗来降低运营成本;另一方面,它还能够方便新能源在数据中心中的融合,从而极大降低对环境的不良影响.介绍ESS在新型数据中心设计中的系统结构,并重点分析了ESS在管理功耗尖峰和供电波动两大方面发挥的重要作用.对比多项前沿研究并探讨ESS的关键设计点如成本、能效、可靠性等,同时分析了ESS未来发展所面临的其他机遇和挑战.

Modern data centers are heavily constrained by their power budget and carbon footprint. Faced with a growing concern about the skyrocketing IT energy expenditure and the looming environmental crisis, academia and industry alike are now focusing more attention than ever on non-conventional data center power provisioning and management strategies. Recently, energy storage system （ESS） has emerged as a key enabler that allows modern data centers to greatly improve energy efficiency and system sustainability. It can help reduce data center operating expenditure （OpEx） through limiting the temporary power demand spikes caused by irregular workloads. On the other hand, it also facilitates the integration of clean and renewable energy sources （i.e. solar energy and wind energy） into the energy portfolio of green data centers. Given the growth in scale and importance of energy storage system in future data center design, this study aims to give a fairly comprehensive view of its architecture design and power management strategies. This paper surveys existing research works in two primary ESS application scenarios： power demand shaving and power supply smoothing. We compare a variety of state-of-the-art proposals and discuss major design considerations （e.g. cost, efficiency, and reliability） of ESS. We conclude today and tomorrow by discussing the opportunity and challenges created by energy storage systems in data centers.