Vodafone Romania has reached an energy saving in its main data centers of approximately 50MWh per month, the equivalent of the consumption of over 350 households in the same period of time. The performance was achieved as a result of the installation, seven months ago, of advanced cooling technologies, through the multi-annual investment program designed to increase the company’s energy efficiency and reduce the impact on the environment, say Vodafone officials.

The investment program was launched in 2019 and is already showing significant results.

“We are committed to using 100% green energy to carry out our operations and to reduce our Carbon footprint to zero by 2040. The fact that we have reduced energy consumption in our main data centers by 350 MWh in just seven months is an important milestone for us after a series of innovations successfully introduced in the main mobile sites,” says Cătălin Buliga, director of Technology, Vodafone Romania.

Data centers are high-power consumption units mainly due to the cooling systems needed to ensure the optimum operating temperature of electronic equipment. Thus, cooling systems generate between 40 and 50% of the total energy consumption of a data center. To reduce this consumption, Vodafone Romania has adopted and combined a series of technologies, including Phase Change Material (PCM), Dynamic Thermal Management, with intelligent sensors controlled by Artificial Intelligence, and Chilled Water systems. These technologies have been implemented in Vodafone’s data centers in Bucharest, Cluj and Brasov, generating an energy saving of 350 MWh in just seven months.

Also as part of its mission to protect the planet, Vodafone Romania has started installing photovoltaic panels in its units to generate green energy. The most recent project of this kind was implemented in January of this year in its center in Constanța, with a capacity of 22 kWh and generating an energy saving estimated at 15% within a year, respectively 100% during a day of summer.

To replace conventional fuel generators used as back-up solutions for power outages, Vodafone successfully experimented in 2020 with the use of a hydrogen-based generator in one of its locations. Initially used exclusively in space projects, the solution was thus adapted for telecommunications, being a first in Europe.

Vodafone is also considering the use of wind farms.