All4Green

The goal of this project is to introduce collaboration between the electric utility and data centres in order to allow demand response services by the data centres which could avoid consumption peaks (thus decreasing stress on the grid) and better integrate non-manageable renewable energy sources.

All4Green brings together relevant stakeholders to create a ‘sustainable ICT ecosystem' for the datacentre sector. By enabling more collaboration between energy providers, data centres and their clients, based on their expected flexibilities in supply and demand, ICT resources can be allocated more efficiently to provide the requested services, while saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It turns out that this collaboration can result in a 10 to 20 % reduction of the overall data centre energy demand.

For this purpose smarter communication structures have been developed, in the form of plug-in systems consisting of agents using the negotation strategies developed in the R&D work packages of the All4Green project. Both data centres and energy providers are represented by agents in their negotations. This allows both parties to match supply and demand. Based on these negotations, the data centres adjust their job scheduling and migration and resource allocation across the federated date centres.

The systems have been tested in three scenario's. The pilot in Passau (Germany) was of particular importance, because it involved an actual energy provider and an actual data centre. As the project has come to a close, the research results are being disseminated and exploited. Acoording to market analysis, the area around London and the region of Paris are particularly appropriate regions for implementing the All4Green negotation platform.