IT equipment at telecom sites generates a lot of heat. To ensure functionality and avoid overheating, huge quantities of energy are used for cooling – sometimes unnecessarily. By fine-tuning cooling systems to meet real needs, ÅF expects to save TeliaSonera more than ten million kWh each year.
TeliaSonera has built up telecom sites and data centres all over Sweden to manage the communication system. These facilities provide safe storage for the hardware and it is necessary to keep the equipment from becoming overheated.
The total annual electricity consumption for TeliaSonera is in Sweden approximately 450 GWh. About 30 percent of this energy is used to cool the air in the equipment rooms. TeliaSonera commissioned ÅF to identify the potential of saving energy by adjusting the cooling systems.
By fine-tuning cooling systems ÅF reduced cooling in 300 facillities, which is expected to save 10 GWh every year. The savings of energy is equivalent to the household electricity annually used by about 5,000 apartments.