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Aggreko raises concerns over National Grid’s winter plans
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Aggreko is emphasising the importance of diversifying on-site energy models to ensure resilience in the immediate and foreseeable future, following news that the National Grid will ask factories to voluntarily reduce electricity usage this winter to combat grid strain.

The Grid has urged heavy industry to sign up to an expanded version of the demand flexibility service previously targeted at households to lower demand and ease the pressure on the UK’s power infrastructure.

According to Chris Rason, Managing Director of Aggreko Energy Services, this latest announcement shows the importance of decentralised energy technologies in ensuring the manufacturing sector can continue operations unimpeded.

“This request from the National Grid is a troubling one – especially for manufacturers,” he said. “Energy scarcity is rapidly supplanting fluctuating power prices as industry’s chief concern. This is unsurprising – insufficient grid supply is an existential threat to day-to-day operations, and requests to cut back or shift energy usage to outside peak times are definitely worrying for manufacturers.

“The disruption that may ensue because of this will hold back the sector at a time when UK manufacturers are often at their busiest. More flexible approaches to powering factories, including on-site power generation, must be explored if British businesses are to remain competitive at home and abroad.”

Anticipated disruption to grid supplies is a key talking point in Aggreko’s latest report, The Race to Resilience. It identifies steps high energy users can take to safeguard power provision in the immediate future, and how other tools and services may help facility stakeholders to best guarantee long-term energy security. The report also explores how plants can reduce carbon emissions and transmission losses while boosting resilience against external events such as National Grid shortages.

“The expansion of the demand flexibility service is not enough in isolation where grid disruption is concerned,” Rason concluded. “Energy-intensive facilities should not wait for these infrastructure problems to get worse. While prohibitive up-front costs and supply chain disruption may make it more difficult for organisations to secure permanent installations, short- to medium-term hired power may provide a potential way forward.

“On-site energy generation technology continues to develop rapidly, and multiple options are now available to boost resilience. These solutions, including battery storage, combined heat and power installations, gas-powered generators and microgrids, are covered in greater detail in  Race to Resilience, our latest report. I would advise stakeholders download a copy and see what can be done to combat growing grid strain issues.”

Grid instability ‘jeopardising energy security for data centers’
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A new report has mapped out temporary opportunities for facility stakeholders in major European data centre markets to maintain site resilience in a challenging climate.

Titled Uptime on the Line, the new two-part whitepaper from Aggreko interviewed 700 data centre professionals consulting for large businesses in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. It sought insight on topics including the state of current grid infrastructure, power outages, local energy prices and supply chain delays, and how these are affecting facility construction and operations.

The report’s findings also map out how the sector’s soaring energy consumption rate is affecting its ability to put in place long-term strategies alongside short-term solutions to counteract further uncertainty and incoming stricter regulations. According to Billy Durie, Global Sector Head – Data Centres at Aggreko, the respondents’ views demonstrate how there are tactical opportunities to help manage energy and temperature control in today’s facilities.

“Data centre demand is constantly increasing, yet utility provision needed to service this new development pipeline is currently under strain,” said Durie. “Keeping new and existing facilities online during this continued expansion are therefore priorities of global importance, so it is vital conversations occur on the best way to deliver power and temperature control to sites.

“Resilience is being tested by events outside the sector’s control, including volatile energy pricing, extreme weather conditions, high consumption rates and a degraded supply chain. As this report demonstrates, old certainties such as being able to keep server halls online more than 99% of the time are now in jeopardy, meaning operators will need to explore new approaches to mitigate risks.”

With these concerns in mind, the report identifies tactical short-term solutions and more strategic, long-term options to address common obstacles for data centre professionals. This includes insufficient grid power, outages from ageing equipment, adopting demand side response schemes and fluctuating heat and power requirements.

“Today’s pressures are so significant that businesses could begin to lose sight of the longer-term view, especially in a sector dominated by short-term deadlines,” Durie concluded. “However, equipment is available today that can help lower dependency on the grid while addressing other key issues such as decarbonisation. Yet integrating decentralised energy plans poses unique issues that require expert supplier assistance to simplify and navigate.

“On-site generation, implemented with hired equipment strategies explored in this latest report, can therefore present huge opportunities for data centres, which are synonymous with high energy consumption rates. Identifying the correct equipment approach will be key to weathering growing macro issues around energy and temperature control provision, so it is crucial data centre stakeholders work closely with equipment experts to do so.”