Techno-Economic Comparison of Data Center Cooling Using Magnetic Bearing Chillers and Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage

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Abstract
Data centers are large and rapidly growing electricity consumers, and cooling systems account for a substantial share of their energy demand. A key contribution of this study is a climate-sensitive, hourly techno-economic comparison of three data-center cooling configurations under consistent operating assumptions: a conventional water-cooled centrifugal chiller baseline, a magnetic bearing chiller (MBC) system, and an MBC system integrated with aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES). The comparison is performed for Phoenix, Arizona, and Fairbanks, Alaska, which represent substantially different cooling climates in the U.S. Hourly simulations use identical information technology (IT) load profiles, identical aggregate installed chiller capacity represented by two 4058 kW chiller units, common water-side economizer controls, and site-specific weather and electricity tariffs. Results show that the MBC system reduces annual cooling-system electricity consumption from 1169.4 to 957.4 MWh in Phoenix (18.1%) and from 361.6 to 319.4 MWh in Fairbanks (11.7%). Peak cooling-system electrical demand decreases by 119.4 kW in Phoenix and 71.6 kW in Fairbanks. Relative to the centrifugal baseline, the MBC case gives a 5.8-year simple payback in Phoenix but is not economically attractive in Fairbanks under the assumed tariff. The MBC-only case gives the lowest annual cooling electricity use in both climates. The MBC + ATES case is treated only as a screening-level, discharge-assisted cold-storage scenario rather than a full techno-economic assessment of seasonal ATES, and no site-specific hydrogeological feasibility assessment is performed. Under the assumed O&M cost structure, MBC + ATES gives a higher discounted value of savings than MBC-only, but this economic result is not caused by additional cooling-electricity savings relative to MBC-only. The MBC + ATES case also has a longer payback period because of its higher capital cost. These results show that the value of advanced cooling configurations depends on climate, free-cooling availability, electricity pricing, storage assumptions, and economic assumptions within the modeling framework considered in this study.
Funding Information
  • Illinois Water Resources Center (104b)

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