Forecasting the effect of heat stress index and climate change on cloud data center energy consumption

Abstract: In this paper, we estimate the effect of heat stress index (a measure which takes into account rising temperatures as well as humidity) on data center energy consumption. We use forecasting models to predict future energy use by data centers, taking into account rising temperature scenarios. We compare those estimates with baseline forecasted energy consumption (without heat stress index or rising temperature correction) and present the result that there is a sizeable and significant difference in the two forecasts. We show that rising temperatures will cause a negative impact on data center energy consumption, increasing it by about 8 percent, and conclude that data center energy consumption analyses and forecasts must include the effects of heat stress index and rising temperatures and other climate change related effects.