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Three UK – the connectivity company that has 9.9 million customers, a network that covers 99% of the UK population, and handles some 28% of the UK’s mobile data traffic – is part of the CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd group of companies which has mobile operations in 11 countries. The company employs more than 4,800 people across its offices in Glasgow and Reading, as well as its 297 retail stores.
Setting a carbon reduction strategy to reduce emissions
Three is committed to building a better-connected world to enable a more
sustainable and inclusive future. This includes taking action on
climate change and involves measuring carbon emissions and setting a
carbon reduction strategy to reduce them. The company also operates its
own sustainability group – the Green Team – operating as an employee
forum with champions across all its business areas and locations. Green
Team members help to shape green initiatives and establish best
practices.
Three recognises that its critical data center facilities are an important part of this initiative, and is consistently working to optimise energy performance and reduce footprint. Three already operates a renewable energy policy across Great Britain, and is now focused on unlocking further ways of optimising its data center performance to help achieve additional energy and efficiency improvements.
Working to mitigate data center energy costs
The last year has seen energy and efficiency improvements come under
increased focus for Three, particularly with electricity costs rising
dramatically. In order to help mitigate data center energy costs, Three
required its data centre operations teams to secure a 5% energy
consumption reduction across its legacy data center facilities.
These facilities were all over 20 years’ old, and were already part of a
programme of business transformation. However, the Three team also
needed to make sure that the sites were able to run as cost-efficiently
as possible. Before identifying the best way to achieve this target,
Three’s data center operations team established a number of key
objectives for the project. These included working to secure a 5%
reduction in energy consumption across the four legacy data centers;
helping to mitigate energy prices increases, improving operational
insights at a much more granular level in order to help identify and
reduce potential operational deficiencies and risks; and also applying
any insights gained to help accelerate the sun-setting of its legacy
data centers.
Optimizing data center performance with EkkoSense
Following discussions with its master partner CBRE, Three identified
that improving cooling efficiency was one of the most effective ways to
help optimize its data center energy performance and secure
environmental improvements. CBRE recommended that Three engage with data
center performance optimization specialist EkkoSense, and worked
closely with the Three team to enable the deployment of EkkoSense’s
AI-powered EkkoSoft Critical 3D monitoring, visualization and analytics
platform.
According to Three’s Data Centre Operations and Service Readiness
Manager, Shamim Mohamed: “operating temperature is clearly a key
consideration for our data centers to make sure that our IT equipment
isn’t overheating – but it’s also an area where there’s the potential
for energy wastage if it isn’t optimized effectively. Having discussed
the issue with the EkkoSense team, we were confident that the company’s
distinctive mix of monitoring hardware, 3D real-time visualization
software, and artificial intelligence could give us the insight we
needed to secure improvements across our key project objectives.”
“Before beginning the optimization phase, the EkkoSense team conducted a
comprehensive physical survey across our four legacy sites,” added
Shamim. “EkkoSense’s Internet of Things-enabled sensors were easy to
deploy, and quickly gave us the granular insights we needed to take the
project forward. This initial survey suggested that we could initially
unlock a combined 196-kW cooling energy saving – equating to an annual
energy saving of 1,716,960 kWh.”
Moving quickly to secure cooling energy savings
The deployment of EkkoSense’s Internet of Things-enabled sensors enables
Three’s team to see how its legacy data center sites are performing in
real-time. Attaching thermal sensors on all racks and cooling systems
allows the capture of accurate and continuous thermal data to feed into
the EkkoSense software. Unique EkkoAir Wireless cooling duty sensors
also provide real-time tracking of cooling duty loads in kWc for any
CRAC/AHU unit.
With the EkkoSense real-time optimization software now collecting
thousands of data points every five minutes, the depth of temperature
and humidity information collected contributes directly to the
effectiveness of EkkoSoft Critical’s machine learning algorithms. This
allows Three‘s operations team not just to see how their four legacy
data centers are performing, but also to identify energy optimization
opportunities in terms of cooling energy usage and overall energy
savings.
“After EkkoSense’s thorough physical survey of our four sites we were
confident that our 196-kW cooling energy saving was achievable,” said
Shamim Mohamed. “We were also looking forward to seeing how EkkoSense’s
ability to present all its complex machine learning data in a
comprehensive 3D view could make it much easier for our operations team
to visualize our thermal performance across the legacy data centers.”
Securing quantifiable cooling efficiency improvements for Three
Three’s data center operations team wanted the EkkoSense project to move
forward at pace so that potential cooling energy savings could be
secured before its electricity costs rose. “We set a 10-week timeframe
for the project, and were pleased that EkkoSense was able to deliver the
initial optimization phase within six weeks. However, we were also keen
to see how we could take advantage of EkkoSoft Critical’s optimisation
capabilities going forward, with our sites continuing to be monitored
and analyzed by the EkkoSense system to identify further energy
savings,” explained Shamim.
With EkkoSoft Critical software fully deployed, the optimization project
has performed above and beyond the Three data center team’s initial
goals, resulting in the following performance improvements:
In addition to these benefits, EkkoSoft Critical has proved itself a valuable tool in supporting the Three operations team as it works to accelerate the sun-setting of its legacy data center sites. According to Shamim: “having a much more granular insight into our cooling and thermal performance will give us much greater control over how we manage our four legacy sites over the next few years. The increased visibility that EkkoSoft Critical’s 3D visualization and analytics platform provides means we can be much smarter about where any adjustments or investments need to be made.”
Moving towards continuous energy efficiency optimization with Cooling Advisor
For Shamim Mohamed it was essential that the EkkoSense optimization
project wasn’t just a one-off exercise. “The EkkoSense software also
features Cooling Advisor - a powerful
AI-driven embedded cooling advisory tool that can provide our operations
team with clear recommendations into the next best actions we need to
undertake to ensure we keep our optimization on track,” he explained.
“As part of our project with EkkoSense we have committed to training so
we can onboard users, and we expect the software also to be valuable for
our CBRE partners. We could also train our Finance and ESG colleagues,
so they all have full visibility of our energy-saving progress.”
Next steps
The Three data center operations team’s success in delivering against
its 5% corporate energy savings target with this project has also gained
significant interest from the broader Three business. The EkkoSense
software-based approach to optimization has already been demonstrated to
the company’s Technology Services team, with the focus on showing how
it’s possible to secure significant improvements in the energy
consumption of legacy environments.
Like their data center colleagues across the industry, operations teams
are under continuous pressure to deliver energy savings to help meet
corporate efficiency targets. By pursuing a software-enabled, AI-powered
approach to performance optimization, data center teams can gather the
real-time performance insights they need to ensure optimum performance -
while also securing quantifiable energy savings from their operations.
That’s what Three, EkkoSense and CBRE have achieved at Three’s four UK
legacy facilities, helping to not only optimize cooling and thermal
performance but also to provide the real-time operational visibility
needed to secure further energy savings going forward.
That’s what Three, EkkoSense and CBRE have achieved at Three’s four UK
legacy facilities, helping to not only optimize cooling and thermal
performance but also to provide the real-time operational visibility
needed to secure further energy savings going forward.
EkkoSense Deliverables
EkkoSoft Critical AI-enabled SaaS visualization and analytics software
Cooling Advisor embedded advisory tool
Performance Optimization Managed Service
EkkoSensor wireless sensors
EkkoAir wireless cooling duty sensors
Benefits Achieved
Rapid thermal optimization of Three’s legacy data center sites
Identified exactly where specific cooling optimization actions were needed
Helping Three’s data center team to uncover areas of thermal risk that weren’t being picked up by BMS systems
Cooling Advisor platform in place to help unlock further cooling capacity
ROI
Initial cooling energy savings of 200 kW against 196 kW projection
12.5% data center cooling energy reduction in under ten weeks
Helped Three’s data center team to meet corporate demand for 5% total energy savings across its legacy sites