Optimal - Energy - Management - of - Data - Center - Micro-Grid - Considering - Computing - Workloads - Shift
Optimal - Energy - Management - of - Data - Center - Micro-Grid - Considering - Computing - Workloads - Shift
ABSTRACT Data centers have been experiencing increasingly significant challenges in electricity con-
sumption and carbon emissions with the fast-development of artificial intelligence (AI). In the context of
carbon neutrality, the integration of data centers with renewable green energy has become a prevailing
trend. To effectively integrate renewable energy, it is imperative to thoroughly explore the data center’s
operation flexibility. Delay-tolerant computational workloads have been considered as one of the most
promising flexible resources for power regulation within data center micro-grids (DCMs). This paper first
analyzes the working characteristics of three kinds of typical delay-tolerant computing workloads, i.e. short-
running deferrable workloads, long-running continuous workload, long-running interruptible workload, and
then clarifies the time-shifting mechanisms for each. Next, the corresponding time-shifting models of the
delay-tolerant workloads are established. Finally, considering the time attributes of workloads and system
settings, the day-ahead optimization scheduling framework of DCM incorporating the time-shifting models
of multiple workloads are formulated, with the aim of minimizing the operation cost of DCM and renewable
power curtailment. Application of the power management scheme in a data center case study confirms its
effectiveness in improving the operational economy of data center and increasing green energy utilization.
INDEX TERMS Data center micro-grid, renewable energy, delay-tolerant workloads, time shift.
prominent trend [5], [6]. The policy of ‘Channels computing In existing studies, scholars have studied utilizing the spa-
resources from the east to the west’ proposed in 2021 by tial adjustability of computing workloads to promote renew-
China could promote the layout of data centers in the west- able energy consumption. Chen et al. [12] simplified the
ern regions where own abundant renewable wind and solar topology of computing power networks from an energy per-
energy sources, and thereby increase the penetration of green spective. They regarded the computing power loads of geo-
energy [7]. To effectively incorporate the intermittent renew- graphically dispersed data centers as concise electricity load
able energy, it is essential to extensively investigate the oper- nodes and computing power flow as virtual electricity power
ation flexibility of data centers [8]. Fig.1 presents a structural flow to describe the spatial coupling of computing power
overview of a green data center micro-grid (DCM). The IT loads, and then employed price leverage to guide the spa-
equipment offers computing resource for the interactive and tial shift of power loads among interconnected data centers,
batch processing workloads, while the refrigeration system aiming to boost renewable energy consumption and enhance
provides cooling resources to extract the heat generated by the grid resilience. Yang et al. [13] proposed a spatial migration
IT equipment. The power infrastructure connects the wind, mechanism of workloads based on the spatiotemporal dis-
photovoltaic (PV) power system, along with the main-grid on tribution complementarity of renewable energy in multiple
the supply side, and the IT equipment, refrigeration system on regions around the world, and conducted simulations using
the power demand side. Google’s interconnected multiple data centers to minimize
carbon emissions. The literature, exemplified by the afore-
mentioned research primarily focuses on the spatial transfer-
ence of workloads among multiple data centers, which pays
little attention to temporal shift of workloads within single
data centers.
Studies regarding the temporal transferability modeling of
time-shiftable delay-tolerant workloads within a single data
center have been conducted. Cupelli et al. [14] considered the
delay-tolerant workloads’ arrival, queuing, execution process
and simulated their power consumption. Through collabora-
tive regulation with cooling units and energy storage devices,
the energy costs in data centers was reduced. Wang et al. [15]
also modelled the delay-tolerant workloads considering their
FIGURE 1. Structure overview of a data center micro-grid. arrival time, execution time, and deadline of different tasks.
The operation scheduling optimization model of an integrated
The computing workloads within data centers are energy system with the computing task transfer is proposed
considered having significant spatiotemporal adjustable char- to minimize the operating costs of data center and maximize
acteristics. According to the length of response delay, the the user satisfaction level of computing tasks. Cao et al. [16]
computing workloads can be categorized into delay-sensitive collected real workload data from Alibaba data center clusters
and delay-tolerant types [9]. Delay-sensitive workloads and considered a kind of delay-tolerant workload that cannot
mainly refer to ‘online tasks’, or ‘interactive workloads’. be manually interrupted during execution. They formulated
Common delay-sensitive tasks include online transactions, the time shift model of the delay-tolerant workload with
web browsing, and video live streaming, etc. This type of consideration of relative time parameters. The model was
workloads cannot be postponed in the time dimension, but embedded into a power scheduling model of a renewable
can be transferred to other geographical locations for pro- data center energy system, aiming to minimize the opera-
cessing in the spatial dimension using high-speed fiber optic tion cost of the system and start-up/down cost of fossil-fuel
technology. By adjusting the workloads’ processing location, generators.
the computing and electricity demand within data centers Research represented by the above studies have demon-
can be changed accordingly, allowing for flexible regulation strated the flexible regulation potential of delay-tolerant
of the power [10]. Delay-tolerant workloads mainly refer to workloads within data centers. However, existing literature
‘offline tasks’ or ‘batch processing workloads’, which are only conducted plain modelling of delay-tolerant workloads
executed based on a batch input through a computer program with simple time shift patterns, and hasn’t comprehensively
without human intervention. Its maximum response time investigated multiple working characteristics and time-shift
can reach several minutes to days. Delay-tolerant workloads mechanisms of different delay-tolerant workloads. The
mainly include image processing, AI training and inference, research of complete time-shift modeling of delay-tolerant
scientific research simulation, and large-scale data analysis, workloads with various migration mechanisms, as well as
etc. Within the response deadline, by dynamically adjusting thorough investigation of embedding these models into data
the start time of execution and the computing amount during center power dispatching models is lack, which hinders the
each time period, the power consumption of workloads could cognition and further utilization of the flexible resources of
be controlled [11]. computing workloads in data centers.
In light of the deficiencies, our research aims to provide computing tasks, when combined, can effectively help to mit-
a power scheduling framework for data center micro-grid igate fluctuations in renewable energy. Analysis also shows
(DCM) that incorporates the time-shift models of various that long-running workloads generally occupy a small portion
delay-tolerant workloads. To this aim, this work first sort of computing workloads but consume a significant amount
out several types of delay-tolerant batch processing work- of processor resources [20]. These energy-intensive long-
loads with different working characteristics and time-shift running workloads therefore present a notable potential for
mechanisms. Then, the key time shift parameters are iden- power regulation.
tified and the shift process models are established for each
kind of delay-tolerant workload. Last, the day-ahead power 1) SHORT-RUNNING DEFERRABLE WORKLOADS
scheduling optimization model of a renewable DCM incorpo- Some workloads like scheduled data backups, log clean-
rating the power regulation models of computing workloads ing, and email sending only require brief execution time,
is constructed, with the aim of maximizing operation econ- but don’t need to execute immediately, which is catego-
omy and utilization level of renewable energy. To verify the rized as ‘short-running deferrable workload’. The differ-
effectiveness of model and assess the benefits of workloads ence between short-running deferrable workload and interac-
shift, the proposed power management model of DCM is tive workload is that the former doesn’t ask for immediate
applied in a data center case and implemented under various response, and can be delayed by a few minutes to several
scenarios. hours. Users may convert some interactive workloads to
The remainder of this paper is structured as fol- short-running deferrable workloads by changing the response
lows: Section II analyzes the working features of various deadline.
delay-tolerant workloads and establishes the time shift mod- The short-running deferrable workload has the character-
els for them. This section also describes the relation between istics of short duration and large quantity. A large number
computing power and electricity power, with which the of short-running workloads assemble together forming the
time shift models can convert to power regulation models. short-running workloads cluster, which could provide power
Section III provides the details of day-ahead power schedul- regulation potential. Thus, we take the short-running work-
ing optimization model of DCM considering workloads shift. loads cluster as the research objective rather than a single
Section IV reports the results after power scheduling opti- short-running workload. The time shifting mechanism for
mization and analyzes the benefits of workloads shift. Finally, short-running deferrable workloads is to shift these work-
Section V summarizes the paper and provides concluding loads, either wholly or partially, from their original time
remarks. periods to subsequent time periods.
In this paper, the day-ahead scheduling period is set to be ‘column k, row k’ to ‘column k, row 0’, and from ‘column k,
24h, and the scheduling time step and scheduling periods row 1’ to ‘column k, row H − 0 + k’, are filled with the value
per scheduling day is recorded as 1t and 0. dA1 , dA2 , dAk of 1, while the elements at the remaining positions are filled
are the values of computing power demand of short-running with value of 0. Set the maximum deferrable time periods H
workloads at original status at time point of 1, 2, and k. to be 11, the VAmat can be specifically written as Eq. (7). VAmat
shift
DA is a variable with a dimension of 1∗ 0. dA∗ 1 , d 2 , d t are
A∗ A∗ changes as the parameter H varies. One can construct the
the values of computing power demand of the short-running matrix VAmat according to the concrete value of parameter H.
workloads after shifting at the time period of 1, 2, and t.
... ... ...
The time shifting pattern for short-running workloads is 1 0 1 1
shifting all or part of the tasks from the original time periods 1 1 ... ... ... 1 1
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
to next several time periods. The key parameter for the time
... ... ...
shift modelling of short-running workloads is the time shift 1 1 1 1
... ... ...
matrix variable of the inflow and outflow amount of comput- 1 1 0 1
VAmat ... ... ...
ing power demand at each time point. 1
= 1 0 0
(7)
Use ut,k
A to represent the amount of computing power
0 1 ... ... ... 0 0
... ... ...
demand of short-running workloads that is transferred from 0 0 0 0
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
the original time point k to another time point of t. The time
... ... ...
shift matrix variable of the inflow and outflow amount of 0 0 1 0
computing power demand UA with a dimension of 0 ∗ 0 is 0 0 ... ... ... 1 1
formed, which is expressed as:
1,1 1,2 1,k 1,0−1 1,0
M is a constant value, equal to the peak computing power
uA uA ... uA . . . uA uA
2,1 demand dAmax of the short-running workloads. Eq. (6) indi-
uA u2,2 ... u2,k . . . u2,0−1 u2,0
A A A A cates that the transferred computing power demand from the
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
t,1 original time point to the new time period should be less than
ut,2 ···... ut,k ... ut,0−1 ut,0 dAmax and greater than 0.
uA A A A A
ut+1,1 ut+1,2 ... ut+1,k . . . ut+1,0−1 ut+1,0 To prevent invalid shifting, a penalty cost function Cdata
A A A A A
is established, as shown in Eq. (8). WAmat is the penalty cost
UA = ut+2,1 ut+2,2 ... ut+2,k . . . ut+2,0−1 t+2,0
(3)
a u
At+3,1 A A A
coefficient matrix with a dimension of 0 ∗ 0, as expressed by
ut+3,2 . . . · · · ut+3,k . . . ut+3,0−1 ut+3,0
u
A A A A A Eq. (9).
ut+4,1 t+4,2
uA . . . uA t+4,k t+4,0−1 t+4,0
. . . uA uA
A
... ... ... ... ... ... ... 0 X
0
0−1,1
X UA . ∗ W mat
u0−1,2 u0−1,k . . . u0−1,0−1 u0−1,0 cpu ∗ 1t
∗ Pmax
A
... Cdata = (8)
uA A A A A Dmax
u0,1 u0,2 0,k 0,0−1 0,0 cpu
A A ... uA . . . uA uA t=1 k=1
... ... ...
0 0 0.05 0.05
UA should satisfies the following constraints: 0.05 0 ... ... ... 0.05 0.05
0 ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
X
Dori
A = UA (4)
0.05 0.05 ... ... ... 0.05
0.05
... ... ...
t=1
0.05 0.05 0 0.05
0 T
WAmat ... ... ...
shift
X 0.05
= 0.05 0 0 (9)
DA =[ UA ] (5) ... ... ...
0 0.05 0 0
... ... ...
k=1 0 0 0 0
0 ≤ UA ≤ VAmat ∗ M ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
(6)
... ... ...
0 0 0 0
Eq. (4) states that the sum of elements in all the rows of
matrix UA equals to the original computing power demand 0 0 ... ... ... 0.05 0
In Eq.(9), Dmaxcpu represents the maximum computing power of 1. UBindex represents the time period in which the start node
of the CPU chip, which is 1600 GFLOPS in this paper, is positioned, as expressed by Eq.(13). In Eq. (14), te and tl
as indicated in Table 1. Pmaxcpu represents the maximum power are the earliest start time point and the latest start time point
consumption of the CPU used in this study, which is 0.15kW, of the long-running continuous workload.
as indicated in Table 1. Setting the unit penalty cost coeffi- The relationship between the computing power demand
cient for the transfer amount of computing power demand time series vector variable of the long-running continuous
shift
at all possible time points to be 0.05 /kWh, when k = workload after shift DB and the time-shift vector of the start
1, 2, . . . , 0 − H , the elements in positions of WAmat from the node of workload UB is expressed as:
‘column k, row k + 1’ to ‘column k, row k + H ’; and when shift
k = 0 − H + 1, 0 − H + 2, . . . , 0 − 1, elements from DB = UB ∗ MBmat (15)
the ‘column k, row k +1’ to ‘column k, row 0’ and from shift
where the dimension of DB is 0 ∗ 0;MBmat is a constructed
‘column k, row 1,’ to ‘column k, row H − (0 − k)’; and when
auxiliary constant matrix, with a dimension of 0 ∗ 0, which is
k = 0, elements from the ‘column k, row 1’ to ‘column k,
constructed based on Dmat mat
B . MB is expressed as Eq.(16):
row H ’ are filled with 0.05; while the other elements are set to
be 0, as expressed in Eq. (9). One can adjust the matrix VAmat ... ...
1 2 K
dB dB dB 0 0 0
according to concrete parameter value of the unit penalty cost 0 dB1 ... dBK −1 dBK ... 0 0
coefficient.
0
0 ... ... ···... ... 0 0
0 0 ... ... ... ... 0 0
C. LONG-RUNNING CONTINUOUS WORKLOAD SHIFT MBmat = ...
(16)
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
MODELING
0 0 ... ... ... ... 0 0
Use Dmat
B to denote the sequence of the long-running con-
0 0 ... dB1 dB2 . . . dBK 0
tinuous workload. Dmat
B is expressed as Eq. (10), which is a
constant vector. 0 0 ... 0 dB1 . . . dBK −1 dBK
B = [dB , dB , . . . dB , . . . , dB ]
1 2
Dmat k K
(10) In MBmat , the elements from ‘column k, row k’ to ‘row k,
where K represents the processing time length of the column k + K -1’ (k = 1,2,. . . , 0+1-K ) are filled with the
long-running continuous workload, which is a constant value computing power demand values corresponding to the start
shorter than 0. dB1 represents the computing power demand node and subsequent nodes of the long-running continuous
value at the starting node of the long-running continu- workload, and the elements at the remaining positions are 0.
ous workload; dB2 , dBk , dBK represents the computing power
demand value at the 2nd , k th , K th time points following the D. LONG-RUNNING INTERRUPTIBLE WORKLOAD SHIFT
start node of the workload. MODELING
The mitigation pattern for the long-running continuous According to the time-shift characteristics of long-running
workload is to shift the overall workload over the time axis. interruptible workload, this study considers the long-running
Once the start time of the workload is determined, the com- interruptible workload as a holistic task formed by multiple
puting power demand for each subsequent time point can also subtasks in sequence. The duration of each subtask is consis-
be uniquely ascertained. Therefore, the pivotal parameter for tent with the scheduling time step 1t. The processing time
the time-shift modelling of long-running continuous work- length of the long-running interruptible workload is shorter
load is the time-shift vector variable of its start node. than 0. Use a constant value K to represent the processing
Use UB to represent whether the start node of the time length, and the long-running interruptible workload can
long-running continuous workload is located at a certain time be regarded as a holistic task formed by K subtasks. Using dC1 ,
point. UB is a variable vector with a dimension of 1∗ 0 which dC2 , ,. . . ,dCk ,and dCK to denote the computing power demand
is represented as Eq.(11), and has the following constraints of value of the 1st , 2nd , . . . , k th and K th subtask, the sequence
Eq.(12)-(14): h of the long-running interruptible workload Dmat C can be con-
UB = u1B , u2B , u3B . . . , utB , . . . , u0−1
i
0 structed as Eq. (17), which is a constant vector.
B , uB (11)
h i
0 Dmat = d 1
, d 2
, . . . , d k
, . . . , d K
(17)
X C C C C C
utB = 1 (12)
t=1 The mitigation pattern for the long-running interruptible
UBindex = [1, 2, 3, . . . , 0] ∗ UB
T
(13) workload is scheduling each subtask to a new time point
within a specified time frame, while maintaining the sequen-
te ≤ UBindex ≤ tl (14)
tial order unchanged among the subtasks. Once the exe-
In Eq. (11), when the element utB
is 1, it signifies that the cution time of each subtask is determined, the computing
start node of the workload is situated within the t time point. power demand for the workload after shift can be uniquely
Conversely, if utB is 0, it implies that the start node of the ascertained. Thus, the key parameter for the time-shift mod-
workload is not positioned within that time period. Eq. (12) elling of long-running interruptible workload is the time-shift
means that only one element in the vector can be the value matrix variable of its subtasks.
The day-ahead optimization scheduling is designed to min- demand are denoted as Dori
MG . The specific values of original
imize operational costs within the dispatching day, expressed computing power demand of various workloads are provided
as: in Fig. 2.
OBJ = minCexch + Ccur + Cdata (28) 2) REFRIGERATION CONSTRAINT
The optimization function comprises the net cost of elec- The relationship of the electricity power consumption of
tricity transactions with the main-grid Cexch ( ), penalties for refrigeration system Ptrefri and refrigeration power Qtrefri is:
wind and PV power curtailment Ccur , which are expressed Qtrefri
as Eq. (29) and (30). The penalty costs for the computing Ptrefri = (33)
ηrefri
workloads scheduling Cdata ( ) is given in Eq. (8).
X0 where ηrefri is the comprehensive refrigeration performance
Cexch = Kbuy Ptbuy 1t − Ksell Ptsell 1t (29) coefficient
t=1
X0 Ptrefri should meet the upper and lower limits constraints:
Ccur = Kcur Ptcur 1t (30) Pmin t max
(34)
t=1 refri ≤ Prefri ≤ Prefri
where Kbuy /Ksell is the unit electricity purchase/sale price In this research, Pmin max
refri is 0, Preri is 143kW. Detailed analy-
from/to the main grid, which is 0.8 /kWh and 0.4 /kWh, sis can be found in Section IV.
respectively; Ptbuy /Ptsell is the purchased/sold electricity The expression of Ptrefri is taken from [21] and [22], written
power during time period t; Ptcur is the curtailment power of as:
wind and PV in time period t; Kcur is the unit penalty price
Qtrefri = Ptheat
for renewable power curtailment. To promote the utilization
θint+1 − θint ∗ Cin ∗ (R1 + R2) + θint − θout t
of renewable power, we set a higher penalty coefficient,
which is 2 /kWh for the renewable power curtailment in − (35)
(R1 + R2)
the objective function.
By considering the system operation constraints and com- where Ptheat is the heat generation of the servers at time t,
bining the day-ahead forecasts of wind and PV power gen- where equals to Ptdata [23]; Cin is the equivalent heat capacity
eration and electricity consumption of computing work- of indoor air; R1 is the equivalent thermal resistance of indoor
loads, this model optimizes the time shift plan of various air and the inner side of the wall; R2 is the equivalent thermal
delay-tolerant workloads, refrigeration output plan, power resistance of the outer wall and outdoor air; θin is the indoor
exchange plan, wind and PV power utilization plan under the temperature which is set as a constant value of 25◦ ; θout is the
goal of minimizing the operating costs of DCM during the outdoor temperature, which are constant values and provided
scheduling day. in Appendix.
TABLE 1. Parameters for CPU, server, and rack, and computer room.
FIGURE 2. The original computing power load time series curves of the
delay-sensitive and delay-tolerant workloads.
In this formula, the average power generation utilization where the workloads don’t shift over time. In the simple
coefficient of renewable energy ηvre is assumed to be 0.5, and scheduling scenario, the power balance results of utilized
correspondingly Pmaxvre is calculated to be 1000kW. wind power Pwind# , utilized PV power PPV # , purchased
This study focuses on developing a scheduling method power Pbuy# , server power consumption Pdata# , refrigera-
considering the time-shiftable delay-tolerant workloads to tion electricity consumption Prefri# and sold power Psell#
facilitate the renewable power utilization, while the economic are illustrated in Fig. 4. As for the calculation method, for
analysis of allocating renewable energy is not the main con- each time period, Pdata# is calculated through Eq. (26), (27)
cern. This study set the wind and PV power capacity be and (31), and Prefri# is calculated through Eq. (33) and (35).
300 kW and 700 kW; 500kW and 500 kW; 700kW and And by combining the 24h-ahead forecasts of wind and PV
300kW, respectively, as the boundary conditions to test the power generation, i.e. Pwind,max and PPV ,max , and taking into
sensitivity of the model under different scenarios. account the system operation constraints of purchased/sold
power limits, power balance, etc., the daily operation plan
in this scenario is obtained. Fig. 4 indicates that in this
scenario, electricity sales mainly occur during the 31st -
61st time periods, while electricity purchases predominantly
occur during the 1st - 30th and 62nd - 96th time periods.
Considering the purchase and sale electricity prices, as well
as the penalties for wind and PV power curtailment, the daily
operating cost in this simple scheduling scenario amounts
to 4482.0. The planned utilized renewable wind and solar
power is 6802.9 MWh, while the planned curtailment of wind
and solar power is 1060.6 kWh.
In the day-ahead optimization scheduling scenario, where
the time-shiftable workloads are involved, the power bal-
ance results of utilized wind power Pwind , utilized PV power
PPV , purchased power Pbuy , server power consumption Pdata ,
refrigeration electricity consumption Prefri , and sold power
FIGURE 3. Normalized values of 24h-ahead forecasts of wind and PV
Psell for the scheduling day are presented in Fig. 5. Compar-
power generation. isons of renewable power curtailment and power exchange
between the day-ahead simple scheduling scenario and the
Wind and PV power generation data used in the study are optimization scheduling scenario are depicted in Fig. 6
sourced from a reliable database [28], as depicted in Fig. 3. and 7. The computing power demand time series of the
To align with the configured capacities of wind and PV power delay-tolerant workloads at the original state and after the
systems, the data is scaled to generate 24h-ahead forecasts of temporal shift are shown in Fig. 8 and 9, respectively. Upon
wind and PV power generation used in this study. observing Fig. 8 and 9, it is evident that after optimiza-
tion, long-running continuous workload B1 and B2, long-
B. RESULTS ANALYSIS running interruptible workload C1-C3 all moves to the 33rd -
The optimization algorithm is implemented using Gurobi 59th time periods, and short-running workloads A partially
solver on MATLAB R2024a. This section reports the oper- shift to these time periods. Consequently, the wind and PV
ation costs and renewable power curtailment results of DCM power curtailment during the 33rd - 59th periods is reduced,
after day-ahead scheduling optimization. The time sequences while the electricity purchases during the 1st - 30th periods
of workloads at original status and after shifting is also ana- and the 62nd - 96th periods decreases. The optimized oper-
lyzed and compared. In this part, results under a specific sce- ating cost plan is 3329.3 for the scheduling day, while
nario is first presented. Further, additional results are obtained the planned wind and PV power utilization and curtail-
under different scenarios by changing the renewable power ment is 7215.1 MWh and 648.3 kWh. Compared to simple
capacities, ratio of delay-tolerant workloads and interconnec- scheduling scenario, the planned operation cost decreases by
tion capacity to validate the effectiveness of the proposed 25.7%, and the renewable power curtailment is also down
model. by 412.3kWh (5.2% of the total daily renewable power gen-
eration). These comparison results prove that considering
1) SCHEDULING RESULTS AFTER OPTIMZITION SCHDULING workload time-shift for the day-ahead optimization schedul-
Results under a specific scenario, where the wind and ing is advantageous in increasing the economic benefits of
PV power capacities are 500kW & 500kW, the ratio of DCM operation and promoting the consumption of renewable
delay-tolerant workloads is 0.5, and the power sale limit is power.
100kW are reported and analyzed in detail. It’s worth noting that, the increased utilization of renewable
To quantitatively verify the effect of considering workloads energy in data centers holds important implications as it’s
time-shift, this paper set up a simple scheduling scenario beneficial to the reduction of carbon emissions, which is also
FIGURE 4. The power balance results in the day-ahead simple scheduling FIGURE 6. Comparison of renewable power curtailment in the day-ahead
scenario. simple scheduling scenario and the optimization scheduling scenario.
FIGURE 8. The computing power demand time series of delay-tolerant FIGURE 10. The computing power demand curve of short-running
workloads at the original state. workloads A at original state and after moving.
FIGURE 9. The computing power demand time series of delay-tolerant FIGURE 11. The computing power demand curve of long-running
workloads after temporal shift. continuous workload B1 at original state and after moving.
FIGURE 12. The computing power demand curve of long-running FIGURE 14. The computing power demand curve of long-running
continuous workload B2 at original state and after moving. interruptible workload C2 at original state and after moving.
FIGURE 13. The computing power demand curve of long-running FIGURE 15. The computing power demand curve of long-running
interruptible workload C1 at original state and after moving. interruptible workload C3 at original state and after moving.
(2) In the scenario without the penalty coefficient setting renewable power curtailment diminution of workloads’ tem-
for short-running workloads shift, there is still an inflow poral shift under different scenarios. By setting the capac-
and aggregation of short-running workloads in the 34th -55th ities of wind and PV power capacity be 300kW&700
time periods. But there are also some workloads transferring kW; 500kW&500 kW; 700kW&300kW, setting the ratio of
from the 62nd - 96th period to the 1st -30th time period. delay-tolerant workloads be 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7, and setting the
The mutual transfer of short-running workloads between interconnection capacity be 400kW, 200kW, 100kW, 50kW,
the 1st -30th and the 62nd -96th time periods is an invalid 0, a total of 45 scenarios are created. The various results of
time shift, since the unit price of power purchase in these renewable power curtailment and operation cost of day-ahead
two time frames is the same. Thus, the comparison indi- optimization scheduling and simple scheduling, as well as the
cates that setting the penalty coefficient for the time-shift benefits of workloads’ shift under different renewable power
model of short-running workloads can avoid invalid capacities, delay-tolerant workloads ratios, and interconnec-
movement. tion capacities, are reported in Table 3.
From Table 3, it’s observed that:
3) BENEFITS UNDER DIFFERENT SCENARIOS • When the renewable energy capacity and interconnec-
To validate the robustness of the proposed model, the study tion capacity remain constant, an increased proportion
also examines the effect on operation cost reduction and of delay-tolerant workloads results in more significant
TABLE 3. Results of operation cost and renewable energy curtailment and benefits of workloads shift under different scenarios.
benefits in reducing operational costs and curtailing • For every renewable power capacity, despite the change
renewable power by workloads shift as compared to of delay-tolerant workloads ratio and interconnection
simple scheduling. capacity, the workloads shift have reduction effect on
• When the renewable power capacity and the ratio of renewable power curtailment and operation cost.
delay-tolerant workloads are held constant, a lower • When the wind and PV power capacity is 300kW&
interconnection capacity isn’t positive or negative rela- 700kW; 500kW&500kW; 700kW&300kW, the reduc-
tive to the enhanced reduction effect on renewable power tion effect on renewable power curtailment and oper-
curtailment and operation costs. The greatest reduction ation costs can reach up to 500.6kWh and 22.3%;
effect is achieved at a certain intermediate value of 585.4 kWh and 30.9%; and 565.1kWh and 45.4%, when
interconnection capacity. the delay-tolerant workloads ratio and interconnection
APPENDIX
The data of a 24h time series of outdoor temperature is shown
in Fig. 17.
[10] W. Zhang and V. M. Zavala, ‘‘Remunerating space–time, load-shifting LUYAO LIU received the B.E. and Ph.D.
flexibility from data centers in electricity markets,’’ Appl. Energy, vol. 326, degrees from Shandong University, in 2016 and
Nov. 2022, Art. no. 119930. 2022, respectively. She is currently working as
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and C. Hyser, ‘‘Renewable and cooling aware workload manage- ing Group Guangdong Electric Power Design
ment for sustainable data centers,’’ in Proc. 12th ACM SIGMET- Institute Company Ltd., and as a Research
RICS/PERFORMANCE Joint Int. Conf. Meas. Model. Comput. Syst., Associate with Shenzhen International Gradu-
London, U.K., Jun. 2012, pp. 175–186.
ate School, Tsinghua University. Her research
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interests include load and renewable power fore-
data center load modeling for demand response considering the coupling
of multiple regulation methods,’’ IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 12, no. 3,
cast and integrated energy system coordinated
pp. 2060–2076, May 2021. optimization.
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scheduling of integrated energy system for data center based on computing the Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University,
load shifting,’’ Energy, vol. 267, Mar. 2023, Art. no. 126585. in 2016. He is currently an Assistant Professor and
[16] Y. Cao, M. Cheng, S. Zhang, H. Mao, P. Wang, C. Li, Y. Feng, and Z. Ding, a Principle Investigator with Shenzhen Interna-
‘‘Data-driven flexibility assessment for internet data center towards peri- tional Graduate School, Tsinghua University. His
odic batch workloads,’’ Appl. Energy, vol. 324, Oct. 2022, Art. no. 119665. research interests include power systems, energy
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scheduling to minimize power cost in cloud data centers using renewable
energy,’’ J. Parallel Distrib. Comput., vol. 159, pp. 51–64, Jan. 2022.
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at scale,’’ in Proc. ACM Symp. Cloud Comput., San Jose, CA, USA,
Nov. 2021, pp. 1–13. ZHIGANG CHEN is currently an Assistant Chief Engineer and a Senior
[21] J. Zhu, ‘‘Evaluation of adjustable load capacity of electric heating and Engineer with China Energy Engineering Group Guangdong Electric Power
research on cluster control strategy,’’ M.S. thesis, Dept. Electron. Eng., Design Institute Company Ltd. His research interests include electric power
Northeast Electric Power Univ., Changchun, China, 2019. systems and integrated energy systems.
[22] Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering. Topic a of the 15th CSEE
National College Students Electrical Mathematics Modelling Competition.
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tion models of servers in data centers,’’ Appl. Energy, vol. 265, May 2020,
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design of electronic information system room’ GB50174–2008,’’ Comput. QIE SUN received the Ph.D. degree from the Royal Institute of Technology,
Room Technol. Manag., vol. 5, pp. 6–9, Oct. 2010. in 2011. He is currently a Professor with the Institute for Advanced Science
[25] J. Zhu, S. Yang, and L. Yu, ‘‘Modeling and temperature control of real-time and Technology, Shandong University. His research interests include sustain-
consumption of renewable energy in data center refrigeration systems,’’
able energy systems and advanced energy storage.
Autom. Electr. Power Syst., vol. 46, no. 20, pp. 13–22, Oct. 2022.
[26] Second-Generation Intelligent Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor.
Accessed: Feb. 28, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://ark.intel.
com/content/www/cn/zh/ark/products/series/192283/2nd-generation-
intel-xeon-scalable-processors.html
[27] X. Ding, ‘‘Calculation analysis and optimization ideas for heat load and
air conditioning cooling capacity in professional data center computer
rooms,’’ UPS Appl., vol. 12, pp. 11–13, Dec. 2017.
[28] European Commission Science Hub. Accessed: Feb. 28, 2024. [Online]. RONALD WENNERSTEN is currently a Professor with the Institute
Available: https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/index_en for Advanced Science and Technology, Shandong University. His cur-
[29] Y. Wang, S. Zhou, Z. Yao, and X. Ou, ‘‘Life cycle modeling analysis of rent research interests include energy transition and energy technology
the interaction between carbon dioxide and air pollutant emissions of coal development.
power in China,’’ Electric Power, vol. 54, no. 8, pp. 128–135, 2021.