The Skanska/Inertech partnership is said to offer a solution capable of delivering a 1.07 annualized power usage effectiveness (PUE). According to the companies, it has the lowest energy use of any system, including adiabatic assisted air cooled systems, and also uses significantly less water than traditional systems.

Jakob Carnemark, senior vice president of Skanska’s Mission Critical Team, said, “This is a global data center game changer. The system presents a new class of efficiency and significant improvement over any existing approach to cooling high density loads, with a coefficient of performance up to 75 times higher than traditional systems.”

Earl Keisling, CEO of Inertech, said, “Our worst case mechanical PUE on the hottest day of the year is better than the best achievable mechanical PUE of a traditional plant in free cooling on the coldest day of the year. We have combined the reliability that is expected from mission critical plants with proven new patent pending technology that requires less maintenance or operator oversight, removing the risks associated with these activities.”

The companies said the new system incorporates a unique approach to heat transfer at the rack coupled with advanced control technology enabling the dynamic correlation between the IT load and external environment. The heart of the system is the e-Optitrax unit which can cool up to 340kw, equating to 90 tons of cooling in a full 2N configuration.

The Skanska/Inertech system is said to eliminate chiller plants and associated maintenance; automatically adjust to dynamic IT loads; allow an increase in density over time without increasing the footprint; and enable users to transition seamlessly in and out of free cooling, allowing significantly more run-time hours in free cooling.

“The data center industry needs innovative solutions that don’t introduce new risks,” said Carnemark. “Our clients require efficient alternatives with a system approach that can be deployed in any environment globally.”

For more information about Skanska, visit www.skanska.com. For more information about Inertech, visit www.inertechllc.com.

Publication date: 08/29/2011