EQUINIX - $1M COOLING REBATE

CMS CHILLERS AND AND CRAH RETROFITS ACHIEVED ~750KW REDUCTION IN PEAK LOAD AND EARNED EQUINIX A $1M POWER REBATE

Equinix announced on their blog this week that they received a $1M rebate for efficiency improvements made to their cooling systems.

Last year they presented Southern California Edison with a plan to spend $4.2M on energy-saving initiatives in their LA3 data center. They made the following improvements to the data center cooling system:

  • Upgrade chillers
  • Retrofit existing air handling units on data center floor
  • Implement an air management / containment system to minimize cold air bypass

CMS designed and manufactured the replacement chillers and also developed the kit to retrofit the air handlers on the data center floor. By our estimates, the CMS upgrades saved ~750kW of peak load.

Benefits:

The obvious benefit to this reduction in peak load is the lowering of ongoing operational expense (kWh). What may not be as obvious is that Equinix now has an additional 750kW of salable capacity. That's 750 kW of additional inventory acquired without having to increase generator capacity.

In round numbers, that comes out to an additional $3.6M ARR. (This is my analysis. It is not confirmed by Equinix)

Equinix