Data center cooling using Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES)

Malpure, Apurva

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132585 Copy

Description

Title

Data center cooling using Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES)

Author(s)

Malpure, Apurva

Issue Date

2025-12-10

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Sreenivas, Ramavarapu

Committee Member(s)

Stumpf, Andrew

Department of Study

Industrial&Enterprise Sys Eng

Discipline

Industrial Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• ATES
• Data Center
• Techno economic model
• Financial model
• Cooling strategy

Abstract

Data centers have become critical infrastructure in the rapidly-expanding digital economy, supporting cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-performance computing. They are rapidly becoming major electricity consumers, and nearly 40% of their demand comes from cooling alone, underscoring the need for more energy-efficient and sustainable cooling methods. This thesis develops a comparative techno- economic framework to evaluate two advanced cooling strategies. Magnetic bearing chillers (MBC) and MBC + aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) against a conventional water-cooled centrifugal chiller plant with CRAH units for mid-sized data centers. Hourly cooling-energy and cost simulations were performed for the City of Phoenix, Arizona, and the City of Fairbanks, Alaska, under identical IT loads and setpoints. Performance was assessed through annual cooling energy, energy cost, peak electrical demand, cooling-only PUE′ (average and 95th percentile), and economic indicators including incremental NPV, IRR, and SPB, all evaluated relative to the baseline centrifugal-chiller + CRAH configuration. Results show that MBC reduce the energy needed for cooling annually, by up to 28% with peak electrical demand of approximately 34kW (7.2%) in the City of Phoenix, improving the average PUE′ from 1.20 - 1.14 and achieving a 2.2-year payback with an IRR of 47.9 %. The integration of ATES further lowers lifecycle costs, yielding an NPV of $1.5M and a 5.2-year payback, while maintaining similar energy performance. In the City of Fairbanks, absolute savings are smaller due to extensive free-cooling hours; however, the hybrid MBC + ATES configuration still delivers a 17% reduction in the cost of energy and long-term financial viability (IRR 10.2 %). For both cities, the cost of electricity comprises the majority of operating expenses (>95%), making tariff structure and climate the primary determinants of financial viability. Overall, based on the literature review, this study concludes that the MBC and ATES-integrated cooling approaches not only improve economic performance but also reduce Scope 2 emissions by lowering mechanical cooling demand, aligning with trends reported in prior work.

Graduation Semester

2025-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132585

Copyright and License Information

© 2025 Apurva Malpure

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