The need for data center energy management is nothing new, as it extends back to the beginnings of the internet and has kept growing. Lately, the growth curve has taken a sharp turn up with new AI platforms creating the need for increasing equipment density. The result? Heat, and lots of it. The scale of cooling systems has grown enormously, and they must operate 24/7/365.

Cooling is a big deal for these data centers because it’s the largest single operating expense, and there is major risk associated with it because a failure can damage highly expensive equipment. Older air-cooled systems are now replaced with water-cooled systems to increase capacity, but they also add complexity.

Tri-T Energy Solutions specializes in these cooling systems and other complex projects, and the company works extensively with Emerson to supply instrumentation. The right flow meters make a big difference for these systems, as described in an article about that very topic at automation.com; Overcome Critical Cooling Challenges With Non-Intrusive Instrumentation.

Monitoring these systems requires instrumentation, but even the newest projects are often under instrumented, and/or they use commercial grade equipment for this mission critical industrial operation.

Before the recent AI surge, greenfield data center project standards were often dictated by adherence to restrictive construction budgets that only allowed purchasing commercial-grade sensors. However, these inferior components inevitably degraded quickly, with mechanical elements wearing out and calibration drifting. The corners cut with less reliable hardware quickly escalated operational expenditures over a system’s lifecycle as maintenance teams struggled with inaccurate data, frequent replacements, and unplanned downtime.

The article goes into greater detail, including an actual case report, and it proves that industrial grade equipment from Emerson, using triple-redundant flow and temperature measurement, makes a big difference for cooling loops. And here’s the best part: the instrumentation is non-intrusive, so no process penetrations are needed.

One of the defining advantages of clamp-on sensors is the ability to add them to any pipe at any time without a shutdown. The installation procedure is the same on any pipe size, for example from a 3-inch sub-distribution line to a 24-inch main header: clamp, couple, and measure. This makes it easy to add measurement points to existing loops wherever desired, or to validate existing instruments in a process.

Our preferred solution for these types of applications is now Emerson’s Flexim FLUXUS F731TE BTU clamp-on instrument. It provides flow, temperature, and thermal energy measurements from a single device. It can even be equipped with two measurement channels to measure two pipes simultaneously and allow complete monitoring and accurate measurements.

When it comes to critical chilled water supply, condenser loops and backup fuel systems, data center operators and specifiers should seek out leading instrumentation suppliers that understand the stakes of the industry, comparable to many large process plants. By investing in high-performance and reliable instrumentation, facilities can secure the operational stability and efficiency required to meet the HPC demands, which only promise to increase over time.

For more information, visit Emerson’s Flow Measurement pages and the Flexim Product Pages at Emerson.com.  You can also connect and interact with other engineers at the Emerson Exchange 365 community.