Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has reduced cooling energy consumption by 2.3% while maintaining stable operation during a demonstration at the Fujitsu AKASHI Data Center operated by Fujitsu Limited. The project used the data center’s existing multi-vendor equipment and demonstrated an improvement in Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
MHI applied system-level control across shared cooling infrastructure and air handling units in a server room. The optimization technology, developed by MHI’s Research & Innovation Center, was deployed without interrupting data center services.
The project identified server-room temperature distribution as a bottleneck. Rebalancing airflow through the management of air conditioning units improved temperature distribution by 2°C (3.6°F), creating additional operating scope for optimizing other cooling systems.
MHI then adjusted the operating points of cooling towers, pumps, centrifugal chillers and other shared infrastructure based on simulations, while maintaining cooling water at an appropriate temperature. The measures reduced energy use across the cooling system by 2.3% and increased the centrifugal chillers’ coefficient of performance by more than 1.2 points.
The demonstration covered one of several server rooms. MHI projects that applying the approach across all server rooms would reduce cooling system energy consumption by 7.6% and improve the data center’s overall PUE.
“Operational data centers need to improve energy efficiency while utilizing existing equipment,” said Shoji Yamasaki, General Manager, Data Center & Energy Management Department at MHI. “This demonstration proves that system-level cooling optimization—especially in multi-vendor environments—can deliver tangible results under real operating conditions.”
