Intelligent Data Centres Issue 02 | Page 37

FEATURE Company (SADC), a Green IT Amsterdam participant, orchestrating the efforts. Other communities are also offering similar solutions, each of them leveraging on their unique geographical, technological and business characteristics. For example, at Stockholm Data Parks, a data centre is by default offered the opportunity to plug into the city’s district heating network (B2C). www.intelligentdatacentres.com Heat services are not however the only answer. Data centres actually have the potential to offer a diverse portfolio of energy related services by exploiting their IT operations and power and cooling infrastructure to also participate at emerging electricity, heat and energy flexibility markets. Following this line of thought, the next generation of data centres should, by design, utilise resources effectively, while ensuring seamless integration with their Smart City ecosystem: smart grids and heating networks. In this context, once again simply focusing on energy reduction and efficiency practices applied only within the boundaries of one’s data centre is no longer an option for those with the ambition to own and operate the green data centres of the future. Issue 02 37