DOE to match RE power needs of data centers

As data center project-proponents have been firming up their investment plans in the Philippines, the Department of Energy (DOE) indicated that it will match up their electricity needs with the investors putting up renewable energy (RE) facilities in the country. “A number of investors presented their need for RE, that’s why we’re encouraging renewable energy sources; and we can pair them off with those who are providing green energy sources,” Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla said. He emphasized that one track on green energy sourcing that the data center investors can explore will be the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP), a power supply procurement mechanism that will put consumers at the head of the table when it comes to exercising their power of choice on their preferred suppliers, including their inclination for green energy sources. “Under the Green Energy Option Program, they can opt for renewable energy and this is something that is in line with the policy of the government,” the energy chief stressed. Lotilla noted the data center-RE pairing that is being advocated is in line with the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s stipulation that “climate change is front and center of our energy development planning.” Data centers, primarily the hyperscalers or large cloud service providers, are very energy-intensive ventures and they also need reliable power supply round-the-clock not just to power their server racks in processing vast amounts of data in their network, but also to cool down equipment and other information technology (IT) components. As estimated, the IT servers of data centers could consume as much as 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per square meter; and that is more than 10 times the typical consumption of residential end-users in developed countries. And given the energy intensity of these digitalized businesses, there is also increasing pressure for them to pare their carbon footprints, hence, one recourse for them is to opt for RE as a source of their energy supply. Currently, many data centers prefer solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in their rooftop or sites near their buildings to generate electricity supply that will satiate their electricity requirements; and during peak sunlight hours, the solar panels would be able to produce more energy than the data center requires and that excess could be fed back into the grid. And when the sun is out, a data center can draw its power from the grid. According to data center investors, part of the tight competition for capital is how well a country can provide for their energy needs, hence, this is seen as one of the deciding factors for them before they will inject investments in a particular market. Absent viable energy solutions that host-governments can present to them, they stated that such would be the ‘deal killer’; and that will also prompt them to move their investments to other markets with more stable, cleaner and affordable power supply. Based on data culled from Paris-headquartered International Energy Agency (IEA), the energy needs of data centers currently account for 1.0-percent of global electricity consumption; and that is projected to double by 2030.