A versatile modeling approach to monitoring and reduction of energy consumption of telecommunication cooling systems

The paper presents and discusses the versatility of a first principle based model aimed at performing extensive energy scenario analyses for single telecommunication (TLC) equipment rooms. Such a modeling approach is currently under implementation on an intranet platform specifically developed to perform real-time monitoring and diagnosis, as well as offline optimization analyses based on real data acquired on the field. Specifically in this work, a model of room thermal dynamics previously developed by the authors was upgraded, in such a way as to enable its extension to any TLC room, thus also being versatile for application in different room typology and in all possible climatic locations as well. Through the model, specific energy management strategies were tested and extensively analyzed by exploring a large number of control parameters ranges. The model was also coupled to a sub-model enabling the simulation of air handling unit operated in cold ventilation, thus allowing assessing the effect of including such a low-cost operating mode, whose main features are detailed in a specific section. The performed simulations not only clearly indicate the high accuracy granted by the model in all analyzed rooms, but also demonstrate the great potential offered by well-constructed model-based optimization analyses to single out the best control parameters to be applied on a given TLC room.