Optimal Power Cost Management Using Stored Energy in Data Centers

TL;DR

This paper proposes an online control algorithm that leverages UPS units as energy storage to reduce data center electricity costs, operating effectively under uncertain workload and pricing conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Lyapunov optimization-based method for real-time energy cost reduction using UPS units in data centers, without needing prior statistical knowledge.

Findings

Algorithm reduces utility costs effectively.

Performance improves with increased storage capacity.

Operates without workload or price process knowledge.

Abstract

Since the electricity bill of a data center constitutes a significant portion of its overall operational costs, reducing this has become important. We investigate cost reduction opportunities that arise by the use of uninterrupted power supply (UPS) units as energy storage devices. This represents a deviation from the usual use of these devices as mere transitional fail-over mechanisms between utility and captive sources such as diesel generators. We consider the problem of opportunistically using these devices to reduce the time average electric utility bill in a data center. Using the technique of Lyapunov optimization, we develop an online control algorithm that can optimally exploit these devices to minimize the time average cost. This algorithm operates without any knowledge of the statistics of the workload or electricity cost processes, making it attractive in the presence of workload and pricing uncertainties. An interesting feature of our algorithm is that its deviation from optimality reduces as the storage capacity is increased. Our work opens up a new area in data center power management.