REDUX: Managing Renewable Energy in Data Centers Using Distributed UPS Systems

To environmental friendly and energy-efficient data centers, it is prudent to leverage on-site renewable sources like solar and wind. Data centers deploy distributed UPS systems to handle the intermittent nature of renewable energy. We propose a renewable-energy manager called REDUX, which offers a smart way of managing server energy consumption powered by a distributed UPS system and renewable energy. REDUX maintains a desirable balance between renewable-energy utilization and data center performance. REDUX makes judicious use of UPS devices to allocate energy resources when renewable energy generation is low or fluctuate condition. REDUX not only guarantees the stable operation of daily workload, but also reduces the energy cost of data centers by improving power resource utilization. Compared with existing strategies, REDUX demonstrates a prominent capability of mitigating average peak workload and boosting renewable-energy utilization.