Re: Electric Co-Gen plants

[Walter Petruska <wpetruska () USFCA EDU>]

USF has three forms of supplemental/emergency power generation:



1.)    We own and operate a CoGen plant on our main campus- which is capable
of providing about 60% of the energy use on that campus.  We 'can' sell
energy back into the grid on low-consumption time periods.  This CoGen runs
on natural gas.

2.)    We have substantial photo-electric generation systems, each new
building has solar panels built in. (LEED)

3.)    We have one portable emergency and one stationary prime generation
system which run on Diesel.



The prime system is collocated at our new IT staff and Data Center facility,
which is now just over three years old.  This was a specific choice to
purchase and build.



Why?  Between two smaller emergency generators and our Cogen, we have 65% of
our energy needs (during non-daylight hours) powered by Natural Gas.
University of San Francisco is just a couple of miles from the San Andreas
fault.  What was learned after the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes?  Cut the
supply of Natural Gas so that broken lines don't feed the spread of fire.



If, during a real emergency when we lose utility power we also lose Natural
Gas supply, this generation capacity would be worthless.



Thus, we've got a blended operation- an ability to supply limited
electricity to most buildings in a self-contained/renewable source (solar),
as well full IT operations capacity to run through the critical first 72
hours following a critical event using either/or Natural Gas or Diesel.



It was NOT an easy fight to get a new 600Kw Genset for our facility- yet
we've not experienced a single minute of downtime to our Data Center since
we opened over 3 years ago.  Compare that to the former system (supplied by
a CoGen and a Natural Gas genset) which gave us an average of two outages
per year, averaging 3 hours each.



Recognition of the benefits of this layered system can be seen by the
decision to move the university's Emergency Operations Center into the IT
facility- so that leadership can be assured of electricity, computing and
telecommunication resources during any crises.



From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Dallas Thornton
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 9:48 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Electric Co-Gen plants



It sounds like your campus is not architected in a way that makes CoGen
supplemental or redundant to street power. I've heard of other campuses that
were for some reason designed in the fashion, and they experienced similar
problems. (I can share offline if you are interested.)



I's suggest you build the business case for the addition centered around the
resulting costs due to loss of service availability, damage to the DC IT
hardware, cost of staff time to bring back services, and [likely] data
corruption due to systems going down in a bad way. There are many other
components you might be able to add based on your situation and the types of
compute loads you host in your datacenter. Do you host mission critical
systems, life-safety systems, clinical systems, payroll systems, etc.? This
is a business issue, and addressing it from the fiscal perspective is your
best chance of freeing up funds to make it happen.



By the way, I am not an advocate of generator and/or UPS for everything. It
has its place in the mission-critical and storage space, as does
street/cogen power for non-critical research compute loads. In an academic
environment, I don't know many institutions that can afford to have backup
power for everything and remain cost-competitive. It is a luxury, but one
that is at lease sparingly needed for critical loads. And, no, all faculty
projects are not considered critical loads. =)



Good luck!



Dallas







From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Ray Bruder
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 8:52 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Electric Co-Gen plants



Dallas,

            Here is my problem.

            Over 2 years ago we had a plan and budget to add an additional
UPS to our environment.  We had an aging 18kva (which will be decommissioned
within a month) and a 75kva that was approx 10 years old at the time.  We
added a 150kva with plans to put an additional 150kva unit in when it came
time to replace the 75kva.  A generator was in the budget large enough to
cover 2 150kva units and the AC cooling to the DC.  Near completion of the
project the generator fell out of the plan (but IT was not notified).   As a
result I have no backup power to the 150 or CRAC units.

            We were told the we would NEVER experience a power outage with
our cogen plant.  Since that time we have had 5 power outages, 2 that
resulted in complete drain of battery power to the 150kva unit and extensive
recovery time and work by the IT staff.  The generator falls under the
facilities guidelines.

            I am fighting to have a generator installed but running into a
brick wall since the director of facilities is the person responsible for
the purchase of the generator and also the same person responsible for the
design and running of the cogen plant.



            Any ideas?



From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Dallas Thornton
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 9:37 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Electric Co-Gen plants



Yes, we still have some local diesel generator capacity but to a much more
limited extent than we would were we only on street power. Depending on the
proximity of the cogen to your datacenter, the capacity of the cogen, and
the campus and datacenter electrical distribution design, abandoning the
diesel generators might be a viable option for you, assuming you are not
trying to alleviate downtime from all offsite causes (i.e. losing both grid
power and natural gas at the same time).



Dallas





Dallas Thornton | Division Director, Cyberinfrastructure Services |  San
Diego Supercomputer Center

University of California, San Diego | 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0505,  La Jolla,
CA, 92093

*:  <mailto:dallas () sdsc edu> dallas () sdsc edu | (: (858) 534-8364 | 7: (858)
225-3661









From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Ray Bruder
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:50 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Electric Co-Gen plants



Are there any other universities out there who have a co-gen plant.  If you
do, do you still have generators backing up your DC UPS units?



*****************************************

Ray Bruder

Manager, Computer Operations

Duquesne University

DUsmall

600 Forbes Ave

CTS, Rockwell Hall

Pittsburgh, PA 15282

(412)396-5775

bruder () duq edu

*****************************************