Turning the red dot, green: Helping data centres get better at staying cool

Singapore is home to 60% of Asia Pacific’s data centres, making it the biggest data centre market in Southeast Asia and sixth in the world¹. Amid the rapid growth of digital apps, e-commerce, connected solutions, and AI tools, the booming data consumption and the demand for data centres rapidly grow within the region. The island nation plays a critical role in advancing Southeast Asia’s growing tech markets and in turn, keeping the digital economy humming.

However, this comes at a cost. Despite its prime geographical location for serving the needs of a data-hungry global economy, Singapore’s tropical climate poses a serious challenge to data centre operators. Data centres pose a greater need to keep energy-hungry server rooms cool, which is no mean feat in a climate with limited natural cooling. Extra energy is required to dehumidify air and protect IT equipment from moisture. As a result, the data centre industry utilises about 7% of Singapore’s total power consumption, a figure which is set to increase to 12% by the year 2030².

Developing a sustainable, energy-efficient data centre sector is essential to combat the burgeoning cost of its carbon footprint. Against this backdrop, IMDA-accredited company Red Dot Analytics (RDA) and other industry partners such as Iron Mountain, are working together to tackle these challenges and position Singapore as a leader in green data centres.

Keeping cool in the tropics

Data centres typically operate at indoor environments of 20-24oC and 60% relative humidity (RH). The use of conventional mechanical cooling methods such as free cooling – an approach to lowering the air temperature by using naturally cool air or water instead of mechanical refrigeration – has proven to be challenging under tropical climates with temperature highs of 31-33oC and RH of 84-100%. Cooling can account up to 30%-50% of a facility’s total energy consumption, compared to 15%-30% in temperate climates.

In most of these industrial facilities, centralised cooling is left to run at fixed speed. This is the case even when the building’s load drops, for example on a chilly day outside, where a mere one to two-degree tweak in the settings can result in significant energy and cost savings. With limited data and uncertainty in identifying when, how, and by how much to adjust these conditions, many of these facilities are overcooled. This is why operators are looking towards innovative green software solutions from companies like RDA for more efficient operations.

RDA is a deep-tech spin-off from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), offering its pioneering technology, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital twin solution, to help companies evaluate the energy usage and efficiency of its data centre operations, and then propose and implement energy-efficient solutions.

The research team behind RDA’s technology, led by Professor Wen, Chief Scientist and co-founder, had been developing digital twin and AI solutions since 2011. RDA’s creation can be traced back to Prof. Wen’s earlier research in multimedia communications systems, which he says demanded large server farms and threw computing’s enormous energy footprint into stark relief. In fact, RDA’s technology had already been tested on a few pilot projects and won highly prestigious awards including the Data Centre Dynamics Award 2015 and ASEAN ICT Award Gold Medal 2016.

In 2019, rising concerns about data centres’ environmental impact led to a moratorium on new projects, which was later lifted with capacity limits and a precondition that operators work with local technology providers on energy efficiency. This moratorium prompted the team to bring the technology to market, to help drive the balance of sustainability and business needs for the data centre industry. RDA’s moment had arrived, but not without obstacles.

Opening doors with IMDA Accreditation

As a young tech company with a unique offering, along with roots in a premier institute of higher learning, RDA had already established an ongoing collaboration with IMDA through regular participation in various industry forums and exhibitions. When the opportunity came to join the IMDA Accreditation programme, it was a natural next step, one that jump-started the company’s growth trajectory.

The IMDA Accreditation programme helps promising Singapore-based ICM product companies by building credibility and cultivating an innovative technopreneur ecosystem. The programme assesses companies through a comprehensive process and provides them opportunities for projects with government and large enterprise buyers. For these buyers, the accreditation serves as an independent third-party evaluation of these companies’ product core functionalities and their ability to deliver.

IMDA prompted RDA to evaluate its product and business model and enhance its organisational structure, which quickly increased customers’ trust. The programme also gave exposure to potential clients and partners through industry networking events. “The accreditation established our credentials and positioned us as a qualified contender for government and large enterprise buyers”, said Wen, who is also the President’s Chair in Computer Science and Engineering at NTU. “This has been crucial in opening doors and building trust with potential clients in the data centre sector”, he added.

This led to a deal with Iron Mountain, one of world's largest data centre operators with more than 25 facilities globally, six of which are in Asia. RDA deployed its advanced AI system, DCverse, to recommend optimal setpoints to enhance cooling efficiency in the company’s Singapore facility. By capitalising on real-time data collection, machine learning algorithms, and predictive analytics to provide optimised control policy recommendations, the innovative system helps achieve an ideal balance between cooling needs and energy usage.

Since implementation, the results have been exceptional. In 2023, the solution enabled the data centre to yield energy savings of 204,600 kWh, which is enough to power 544 HDB households in a month³. With great success from the roll-out, Iron Mountain is now looking to expand deployment of DCverse to more than 20 data centres globally, starting with India.

Advancing green data centres and beyond

To continue the sustainable growth of data centres in Singapore, IMDA launched the Green Data Centre Roadmap last year, aiming to unlock 300MW of additional data centre capacity, and an additional 200 MW for green energy deployments in the future.

For an industry projected to reach over US$624bn worldwide by 2029, this makes digital solutions like RDA’s which deliver energy and operational efficiencies, an even more attractive proposition⁴. The company has ambitious plans for its growth, leveraging Singapore's position as a regional hub.

“Beyond credibility, the IMDA Accreditation programme has facilitated stronger government connections and access to specialised resources. This has eased potential collaborations, partnerships, and funding opportunities, which have accelerated our growth and development,” said Wen.

RDA’s clients can now leverage its technology to build a digital twin, simulate operations, and generate a carbon footprint report to facilitate a data centre’s Green Mark certification, all before breaking ground. The company is also collaborating with another IMDA-accredited company, ESG platform STACS to connect data centre operators to sustainable finance opportunities for both brownfield and greenfield projects. “We want to keep diversifying and delivering value to our customers,” says Prof. Wen.

RDA remains focused on research and development, enhancing its AI capabilities and adding new features focused on sustainability and carbon footprint reduction, in addition to integration with IoT and edge computing technologies. Beyond its expertise in managing tropical climate challenges, it is keen to explore temperate climates with adapted solutions and new strategic partnerships with cloud providers, hardware manufacturers, or energy companies. RDA also has plans to adapt its solutions for other sectors such as healthcare, transportation, and financial services.

“While our initial focus has been on Singapore, the track record we've built through IMDA Accreditation is proving invaluable as we look to expand our solutions globally, particularly in rapidly developing urban areas. We want to be a catalyst for AI innovation in critical infrastructure management and provide scalable solutions across multiple sectors,” said Wen.

With a boost from the IMDA Accreditation programme, RDA gained access to exciting opportunities with industry players and are making all the right moves to turn our data centres green. Explore how your business can benefit from being accredited and unleash your potential to evoke change in Singapore and beyond.