36Kr Interviews Mr. Alick Wan, Chairman of EPG: Building a Green Data Center Like LEGO
08-13
Recently, Mr. Alick Wan, chairman of EPG, was interviewed by 36Kr (a well-known Chinese technology media). The following is a reprint of the original text:
In the year of the outbreak of large AI models and the surge of demand for computing power, the data center industry ushered in a golden period of development.
New problems arise. Data centers have always been big energy consumers. It has been a new industry proposition on how to make this "power-swallowing beast" realize low energy consumption and be environmentally friendly. A company called "EPG" offers a new solution: to build a green data center like "Lego".
In the 27th edition of "Talking about Carbon," we interviewed Mr. Alick Wan, Chairman of EPG, and talked to him about the past and present of the data center industry, the key to building a green data center, and how to implement ESG as a B2B company.
Colorful rectangles with eight rounded bumps on the surface, which players can flexibly assemble to create a variety of shapes, are a popular building block toy for many people.
Imagine if these blocks were replaced by containerized modules, like Lego, to build a data center. A company called EPG is using this approach to build green data centers. "In the past, data centers were like buildings. All the mechanical and electrical equipment was housed inside." Alick Wan, chairman of EPG Integration Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., said, "This type of construction has lasted for decades."
Around 2008, large-scale data centers began to appear in China, when Alick Wan had already been in the power industry for more than a decade. It’s only a matter of course to transfer the company’s mission from power security to the data center: The data center is a key infrastructure for national security and people's livelihood, and the energy system is an essential part of it. The high development speed of the data center and its significant economic value can drive the company's revenue up. Therefore, Alick Wan decided to lead EPG into the data center business in 2008.
Alick Wan, Chairman of EPG Integration Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
In the following decades, China has entered the golden age of mobile internet, with technological developments such as big data and cloud computing advancing rapidly. As an infrastructure provider for IT, the data facility center industry has ushered in a golden period of development. Alick Wan feels this very keenly. What impresses him most is the doubling order intake and turnover.
As market demand surges, data centers are getting bigger and bigger. Alick Wan remembers that the first data center was small, with only 500 racks. Later, the number was increased to 3000, and that remained standard. After that, several data centers (about 5 to 10) joined together to form a cluster in an industrial park, which contained tens of thousands of racks.
Growing data centers also face growing pains: higher energy and water consumption, which not only increases the cost of data centers but also has more negative impacts on the environment. New technologies are urgently needed to reduce not only PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), but also WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness).
Alick Wan has recognized this green trend and the market demand behind it. He offers a range of green data center construction solutions: Microgrid technology is applied to provide a more stable and diversified combination of renewable energy sources; cold plates (as an internal loop) and dry coolers (as an external loop) are used to cool powerful AI servers without consuming tons of water.
The design of data centers has also changed significantly with the trend toward sustainability and standardization. The fully prefabricated modular data center solution is not like "building", but "Lego". The modules of data center equipment are pre-integrated in standardized housings such as containers in the factory, then the containers are shipped and assembled on site like "building blocks". Those function modules include IT, power, standby power, and chilling water modules. Each module is integrated, correlatedly controlled, and equipped with ELV (extra low voltage), HVAC(heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), lighting, and fire protection systems.
In technical jargon, this construction method is referred to as "prefabricated modular construction", with the advantages of which lie in fast delivery, customization, and adaptability. The entire project delivery cycle can be considerably shortened by prefabrication, from 24-36 months to 9-12 months today, which significantly reduces construction time and labor costs.
Three years ago, EPG went overseas to explore the Southeast Asian market. The region’s huge population base and growing economy have made it an ideal location for data centers for many international companies. extensive and intensive IT infrastructure is being developed in the region. At present, overseas business has become the main focus of EPG's strategic development.
Recently, Alick Wan, Chairman of EPG, was interviewed by 36Kr. In this interview, he talked about the milestones in the data center industry, the key to building a green data center, and how to run ESG as a B2B company. Here is the transcript of the interview:
The Upgrade of Data Center Construction: From Building to “Lego”
36Kr: How did EPG get into the data center business?
Alick Wan: I founded my company in 1996, which initially focused on standby power solutions, and had been doing so for more than 10 years. In 2008, the company started to enter the data center business. The history of building data centers in China is not very long. It was not until the 2000s that the concept of data centers, a place for centralized data processing, emerged.
We did this quite naturally. The power supply system is an essential part of a data center and accounts for about 15% of the total construction cost, which was a perfect fit with our earlier power supply business. What’s more, the commercial value of data centers is also an important point. The value of a single order is much higher than that of the former power engineering business.
For a long time, data centers in China were built like buildings, that is, a building was constructed first, and then the electrical and mechanical equipment and cabinets were placed inside. Having been in the data center industry for quite some time, our observations and understanding of data centers have become deeper and deeper. We noticed that the data center industry in the U.S. basically uses modular construction, which can shorten the construction cycle and also reduce construction costs.
We saw the prefabricated modular construction and design ideas at a very early stage and wanted to implement it around 2013, but the conditions were not very mature at that time. After we had made possible preparations in terms of technical and personnel reserves, we started working on corresponding products and solutions around 2020.
36Kr: What is a prefabricated modular data center?
Alick Wan: Prefabricated solutions are mainly divided into three steps: Product prefabrication, system prefabrication, and engineering prefabrication. In product prefabrication, the equipment is assembled into independent modules. In system prefabrication, modules are integrated using BIM and CFD (computer-aided design software based on three-dimensional graphics). Engineering prefabrication involves the complete integration of the individual systems for testing and commissioning.
These modules and systems can then be shipped in containers to any location in the world and assembled on site in the shortest possible time, just like “Lego bricks.” This is the complete construction process of prefabricated modular data centers.
EPG offers two types of prefabricated data center solutions: fully prefabricated data centers, and modular edge data centers. Fully prefabricated data centers are more suitable for medium and large projects, while modular edge data centers are mainly used in areas with low data capacity but high user experience requirements and low data latency, such as IoT and smart cities. They are also more suitable for island countries in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
36Kr: Since 2008, when EPG entered the data center business, the company has gone through the phases of rapid development of mobile internet, big data, and cloud computing. How has this affected the company's business?
Alick Wan: The most intuitive impact is that there are more orders, and the order volume is growing rapidly. In terms of the development of the industry, the mobile internet boomed ten years ago, followed by the rise of big data and cloud computing, so the market demand for data centers exploded. Data centers used to be very small, with about 500 racks, and then developed into standard data centers with 3,000 racks. After that, several data centers (about 5-10) merged into a cluster in an industry park, with tens of thousands of racks in it.
36Kr: What changes happened to customer demand for data center business during this period?
Alick Wan: One of the changes is the higher capacity of a single rack. In the earliest times, the capacity of a single rack was only 2 kW; then the number increased to 20-30 kW due to the need for hot data (high-frequency access and real-time processing in data) and technological advances. This brings about a series of challenges for the architecture and power supply of data centers.
Nowadays, customers can be divided into two kinds: Cloud service providers and third-party service providers. Cloud service providers use and build data centers mainly by themselves, such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Third-party service providers operate data centers for others, such as GDS. When planning to construct a data center, cloud service providers primarily care about the project delivery cycle, sustainability, and the application of new technologies. While for third-party service providers, apart from those indicators mentioned above, construction costs also rank highly in their consideration.
Customers put forward their requirements at the early stage of technical solution planning. Green and energy-saving applications, including how to reduce PUE and WUE, are taken into consideration at that time. Nowadays, our relationship with our customers are more of a strategic partnership. We collaborate with each other, participate in discussions, and propose new solutions at the design stage. The prior consensus is to build a green data center. Other demands include the project delivery cycle and the total cost of the entire data center.
36 Carbon: What is the impact on data centers under the huge demand for computing power in this wave of AI?
Alick Wan: The impact is very huge. To begin with, there are definitely more orders to meet the demand for computing power.
What’s more, the data center needs to be denser in terms of IT and power supply architecture. The space needed for the auxiliary system is becoming larger, and the space for putting racks is getting smaller.
In addition, the power consumption of the data center is also greater. As the capacity of a single rack develops from 20 kW to 200 kW, the power demand will also show a 10-fold increase. New methods of cooling also need to be put forward.
What a Green Data Center Looks Like
36Kr: Applying renewable energy is key when it comes to building a green data center. What are the explorations and practices of EPG in this regard?
Alick Wan: We have done a lot of exploration in green energy. A green energy research team has been set up in the headquarters to study the application of energy storage as well as natural gas liquefaction refrigeration in data centers from both technical and market perspectives. The cooling capacity generated from liquefied natural gas is a huge amount, which exactly meets the demand for data center cooling, so we did a lot of research in this area.
The biggest exploration, and our next focus, is the application of microgrids, which effectively combine green energy with microgrid technology. A microgrid, also called a distributed power supply system, is a power grid dependent on the public grid. As a closed-loop power supply system, it can be deployed in a community or industrial development zone, as well as a data center.
What we are doing is integrating renewable energy into the microgrid software system, such as wind, solar, and hydrogen. When wind and solar resources are abundant, the energy can be used to produce hydrogen. When wind and solar resources are poor, hydrogen generator sets are automated to supply power for data center. Fuel cells are also adopted as a reliable complement to hydrogen generators.
As the microgrid becomes the main power source to supply power to the entire data center, with the public grid as the backup power source, the data center is absolutely green in terms of energy use.
Microgrid technology can provide a stable energy supply according to customer demand, while minimizing energy consumption, carbon emissions, and power costs in data centers at the same time.
36Kr: How can we promote microgrid technology to a mature state in China?
Alick Wan: Cost reduction is key when it comes to microgrid technology promotion. The promotion will be faster as long as the cost drops. Some responsible enterprises and a supportive government are also essential during the promotion process. Only when market demand is up can enterprises reduce their costs. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to promote it as the cost of technology is too high.
36Kr: How can data centers solve the problem of high water consumption and reduce their "water footprint"?
Alick Wan: Through technology. As the capacity of servers keeps growing, there is an increasingly high demand for cooling, and traditional cooling methods are difficult to meet the requirements (such as evaporative cooling, etc.).
Liquid cooling, including immersion liquid cooling and cold plate liquid cooling, is a technological breakthrough in reducing water consumption and optimizing WUE.
Cold plate liquid cooling is widely adopted in our data center. The cold plate is directly connected to the server chip, which can be assembled by the server manufacturer in the design stage. The advantage of this is that the cooling equipment is more compatible with the original servers.
36Kr: What is the most important thing in building a green and sustainable data center?
Alick Wan: Power distribution ranks top in the cost of data center construction. As a mature industry, we spare no effort in simplifying architecture, lowering costs, and optimizing utility. Dense power distribution modules are used to generate IT equipment.
Cooling, ranked as the second cost, is not considered difficult nowadays. As technology advances, the temperature range for data centers is expanding. For the earliest data centers, they were fully enclosed because the server could only resist temperatures ranging from 25 degrees to 28 degrees. Nowadays, the temperature range can be up to 70 degrees, which reduces the operating point of cooling, and multiple energy-saving measures can be applied.
As GPU servers for AI computing power require liquid cooling technology, both cold plate liquid cooling and immersion liquid cooling are winding up in rapid development. Through liquid cooling, the temperature of the primary loop increases, which also inspires the implementation of heat recovery, which continues to drive the development of green data centers.
ESG Undertakings
36Kr: As a B2B company providing data center solutions, how do you integrate ESG concepts into your business?
Alick Wan: The rapid development of EPG has always relied on the core values of the company. Financial returns are not our only goal. Once we see a market prospect, we will cut in and do it quickly so that we can be one step ahead of others.
For example, a lot of money and resources are invested in the R&D of prefabricated modular data centers because we believe in the rapid growth of the market. Our core competence is full-life-cycle service from R&D, manufacture, to delivery, which meets customer requirements at a faster speed and lower cost.
It has always been our goal to be a social enterprise. A successful company should not only care about making money but also about contributing to society and meeting the needs of the employees and their families behind them. Only if we socialize and publicize enterprises and upgrade their governance structures can enterprises be managed scientifically and professionally.
36 Carbon: What are the specific actions of EPG in terms of the environment, society, and corporate governance?
Alick Wan: In terms of environmental protection, we are going to make full use of photovoltaic for the manufacturing company. A series of environmental protection measures will be taken at the project site to minimize damage to the environment.
On the social front, we have organized a series of public welfare activities, such as delivering jackets to children in the high-cold region of Yunnan.
As for corporate governance, a set of systems are designed to ensure the safety of our employees and standardize suppliers.
An ESG team will soon be set up for top-level design.
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