Large enterprise data centers and colocation providers are not the only ones focused on ways to increase energy and space efficiencies within their power and cooling infrastructure. In the education market, data centers that support universities are implementing green initiatives to tackle some of the toughest pain points in their mission critical facilities while at the same reducing carbon emissions and operating costs on campus.

The University of Texas at Austin recently completed its new university data center (UDC) to meet the growing IT and business needs of the school’s academic and administrative units. The $32 million mission critical facility was built with a strong focus on the use of extremely efficient power and cooling technologies.

The UDC chose to deploy Active Power’s (NASDAQ: ACPW) highly efficient and reliable UPS (uninterruptible power supply) systems. The four Active Power CleanSource 900 kVA UPS systems installed provide nearly three megawatts of critical backup power to the facility. The UPS systems provides constant power conditioning, but also offers bridge power to the onsite generators in the instance of a longer term outage. Active Power’s flywheel UPS technology will also help reduce electricity costs, increase uptime and save on premium data center floor space.

“Our UPS systems are much more energy efficient, requires less space and eliminates the need for battery replacement and disposal compared to conventional battery UPS technology,” said Jim Clishem, president and CEO, Active Power. “The heat output is also lower which reduces the need for additional cooling.”

DPR Construction served as the contractor for the project and helped specify Active Power’s UPS equipment. Entech Power Systems served as the manufacturer’s representative for Active Power on the project.

“Energy efficiency in the data center is more achievable now than ever before,” continued Clishem. “But, deploying green, energy efficient systems has to make economic sense. At up to 98 percent efficient, our system allows the university to save on energy consumption and operational expenses. This effectively reduces total cost of ownership over time while improving overall system reliability.”