Facebook Cuts Back on Generators in Sweden

Data Center Knowledge (Oct 31 2011) Data Center Outages , Hydro

1. A dagram of the utility archotecture supporting the Facebook data center in lulea, Sweden, which will operate with fewer generators than Facebook's U.S. data centers. For most data centers, backup generators serve as the last line of defense against downtime during utility power outages. Some major data centers use more than 30 diesel generators to ensure a ready supply of on-site generation. Facebook is taking a different approach at its new data center in Sweden, reducing the number of backup generators by 70 percent. Facebook says the extraordinary reliability of the regional power grid serving the town of Lulea allows the company to use far fewer generators than in its U.S. facilities. Using fewer generators reduces the data center’s impact on the local environment in several ways. It allows Facebook to store less diesel fuel on site, and reduces emissions from generator testing, which is usually ... (Read Full Article)

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