GLACIATION pilots data centre optimisation in enhancing grid efficiency

The Horizon Europe supported GLACIATION project is investigating how optimising data centre operations can enhance grid efficiency and resilience as one of its four pilots.

The GLACIATION (Green responsibLe privACy preservIng dAta operaTIONs) project, now entering its closing stages, is focussed on optimising the locations of data storage and analytics to improve the costs, efficiencies and energy consumptions of such data operations.

Launched in October 2022 and due to end in September 2025, GLACIATION is developing a novel distributed knowledge graph that stretches across the edge-core-cloud architecture.

Big data requires the collection of large amounts of data, which must flow seamlessly between edges and clouds across a range of work locations and environments to extract insights with analytics.

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By minimising data transfers by keeping data closer to its source whenever possible and optimising when and where the analytics are performed should both minimise the power consumption and maximise the use of green energies – which is where GLACIATION comes in, developing the tools for interoperability with the cloud, energy saving and data privacy.

With the energy sector a main beneficiary of improved data management, one of the project’s four pilots is focussed on the sector, with the other three covering aspects of public service, manufacturing and enterprise data analytics.

Smart IoT for enhanced grid efficiency and resilience

The energy data analytics pilot, being undertaken by Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), is aimed to validate the GLACIATION solutions by highlighting the project's impact on the efficiency and resilience of the grid.

Current challenges cited by IPTO in managing data operations across its network include the need to balance centralised and decentralised data processing, ensuring data sovereignty, and optimising energy use and costs.

With smart IoT devices installed in the network to bridge the gap between OT and IT, the pilot is focussed on leveraging AI and machine learning to optimise data operations in new data centres located in Attica, Cyclades and Crete.

By leveraging the GLACIATION platform, IPTO will distribute data traffic and computational loads in alignment with green energy production, improving the utilisation of these data centres within smart substations.

By leveraging AI and machine learning to route the data and delegate control to peripheral systems, data privacy and protection also should be ensured.

With IPTO on the path of grid modernisation, the pilot also is expected to support the adoption of smart substations and improvement in grid management.

The GLACIATION project is being coordinated by Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Among outcomes to date are advancing and boosting energy efficiency through multi-tier data storage management and trade off service integration in data centres and collaborative computation for privacy-preserving analytics on distributed data.