Fairbanks Energy Services has helped the Zayo Group  reduce energy consumption and increase data center capacity with custom solutions in three of its zColo data centers in Atlanta, New York, and Dallas. The projects will save an estimated combined 5 million kilowatt hours annually.

In Atlanta, zColo called on Fairbanks Energy to ensure that its data center was Tier 3 compliant. To begin the process, Fairbanks Energy installed a building management system (BMS), integrating all of the power and cooling systems. Fairbanks Energy also split the open loop cooling system into a traditional system by installing heat exchangers, automated valves and new pumps, which enabled zColo to reclaim 1,200 tons of mechanical capacity. All of these changes were done live to the cooling system without any interruption or loss of redundancy.

Fairbanks Energy implemented dynamic airflow management in both the raised and slab floor environments, optimizing the hot aisle/cold aisle design with physical best practices to ensure air was being delivered to the racks with minimal mixing of hot and cold air streams. Temperature sensors were also installed, enabling the monitoring of the environment and control of CRAC units in real-time as the data center load and environmental conditions change. 

The energy efficiency impact of this site includes 4.4 million annual kilowatt hours of savings. In addition to the efficiency benefits, the data center was able to reclaim over 45% of stranded mechanical capacity and now has the ability to scale to over 150 watts per sq ft while being N+1 compliant.

At zColo’s landmark four floor data center at 60 Hudson in New York, Fairbanks Energy completed a comprehensive LED lighting retrofit that utilizes advanced controls and enables high and low trim light levels, as well as occupancy and daylight harvesting capabilities. The LED lighting retrofit and related controls will save zColo $40,000 annually and yield a utility incentive of $28,000. 

At zColo’s 14,000 sq ft data center in Dallas, Fairbanks Energy implemented an airflow management strategy and upgraded the existing Building Automation System.  As a result of the upgrades, a total of 8 CRAC units have been turned off, saving zColo’s Dallas data center more than 1.8 million kilowatt hours annually.

“Zayo continues to make progress in improving energy efficiency across our data center footprint,” said Jenny Gerson, Senior Director of Sustainability and Strategy at Zayo Group. “Fairbanks Energy has played an important role in helping us meet our energy savings and cost reduction goals in these three data centers. We look forward to continued collaboration on additional projects.”

“Fairbanks Energy Services is pleased to have been able to help zColo not only reduce its environmental impact, but also assist them with upgrading the operational integrity of the data center and providing them with more capacity,” said Adam Fairbanks, CEO of Fairbanks Energy Services. “The work we have done and continue to do for zColo is helping them meet their sustainability goals while reducing operating expenses and ensuring uptime, decreasing the likelihood of equipment failure.”