Energy-efficient operation of hybrid electricity-driven and natural-cooling air conditioning systems for internet data centers

Abstract This study proposes an energy-efficient cooling solution for data centers, replacing traditional vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) with dew point evaporative cooling (DPEC) and natural draft indirect cooling (NDIC) to reduce refrigeration energy consumption. A case study was conducted for an internet data center in Liaoning Province, China, where the cooling performance was evaluated based on electricity consumption, and coefficient of performance (COP). The optimal cooling operation mode was determined using COP as the primary evaluation metric, showing that DPEC and NDIC can fully replace the VCR process across a wide range of ambient temperatures. The best energy-saving performance was observed at an ambient temperature of -20 °C, where electricity consumption was reduced by 82.5 %. The least favorable energy-saving effect occurred at an ambient temperature of 17 °C, where savings amounted to 55.1 %.