LS Electric said on Apr. 1 that, in cooperation with its subsidiary LS Sauter, it has completed building and verifying an artificial intelligence (AI)-based intelligent HVAC control system for a data center in the Seoul metropolitan area.
In the system built this time, AI collects and analyzes in real time the server load and heat distribution data inside the data center, and automatically optimally controls the HVAC equipment by taking into account the data center's structure, facility configuration, and operating patterns.
LS Electric said the technology can cut total power consumption by 24.6% by reducing unnecessary fan (FAN) and chilled water use. Based on a single 4.2-megawatt (MW) server room, it can save about 50 million won in annual electricity bills.
Even in abnormal situations that can occur during data center operations, such as local overheating (hot spots) or cooling imbalances, AI automatically adjusts airflow and chilled water operating conditions to prevent major accidents such as fires.
Recently, with the introduction of high-performance GPU equipment at AI data centers, power consumption and heat generation have increased significantly. As a result, the importance of cooling technologies that manage heat efficiently has come to the fore, and optimal control of HVAC functions is required.
The AI-based HVAC optimization technology is loaded onto LS Electric's data center operations platform "Beyond X CUBE." LS Sauter has completed filing a patent application for the technology.
A LS Electric official said, "As AI data centers expand, the importance of a solution that integrates not only power infrastructure but also cooling systems is growing," adding, "By working with LS Sauter, we have secured a data center-specific integrated power and cooling solution, and we plan to speed up the expansion of our data center infrastructure business."