Ryu Jae-cheol, CEO of LG Electronics, has identified cooling technology for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers as a crucial factor for future infrastructure competitiveness. LG Electronics is expanding its business beyond supplying cooling and heating equipment to managing heat and optimizing energy use in data centers based on existing HVAC technology.
According to LG Electronics, Ryu emphasized in a column published on October 19 in Forbes' 'Forbes Technology Council' that the criteria for evaluating the efficiency of AI data centers are changing.
Previously, the power usage effectiveness (PUE), which indicates the proportion of total power consumed by IT equipment such as servers, was a key metric. However, in AI data centers, it is becoming increasingly important to reduce the power used for cooling to maximize the power available for actual computations.
"Efficiency relates to how much of the available power can be allocated to AI computations," Ryu stated. He noted that factors such as water scarcity and energy and environmental regulations in the areas where data centers are located must also be considered. This highlights the importance of technologies that can reliably cool server heat while reducing the power and water needed for cooling.
One of the alternatives proposed by LG Electronics is a cooling technology using refrigerants called 'free cooling.' This method utilizes sufficiently cold outside air to cool server heat, reducing the need to operate the compressor in cooling units, thereby lowering power consumption. LG Electronics is developing technology to enhance this effect by circulating refrigerants.
According to LG Electronics' internal simulations, refrigerant-based free cooling can reduce annual energy consumption by about 30% compared to water-based free cooling. This approach also minimizes the risk of pipes or equipment freezing and reduces the burden of managing the concentration of antifreeze glycol to prevent freezing. However, these results are based on internal simulations, and actual savings may vary depending on the climate, equipment configuration, and operating conditions of the data center.
The company is also pursuing technologies that recycle heat generated in data centers instead of releasing it. This involves recovering heat produced during the cooling process of servers using heat pumps for heating or hot water supply.
LG Electronics is exploring heat recovery solutions using heat pumps and hybrid absorption chillers. The strategy aims to enhance overall energy efficiency by reusing energy that was previously wasted during the cooling process.
The integration of cooling equipment into a single operational system is also becoming increasingly important. Data centers contain various equipment, including chillers that cool water, cooling distribution units (CDUs) that send chilled water to servers, and fan wall units (FWUs) that expel heated air outside. These devices need to operate in unison based on server workloads and temperature changes to minimize unnecessary energy consumption.
LG Electronics is expanding its heat management business for data centers based on a product lineup that includes chillers, CDUs, FWUs, heat pumps, and energy management solutions. The company is particularly focused on combining liquid cooling technology, large cooling systems, and integrated energy management technology to address the high heat generation in data centers densely populated with AI semiconductors.
Ryu emphasized that in a context where constraints on infrastructure resources such as power, water, and space are increasing, the key challenge is how to achieve high computational performance with the resources available in data centers. He stated that cooling technology is a means to reduce the power needed for cooling while increasing the power available for AI computations.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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