Redundant flexible datacenter workload scheduling

• US 10,452,127 B1
• Filed: 01/11/2019
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2019
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lancium LLC
• Original Assignee: Lancium LLC
• Inventors: McNamara, Michael T., Henson, David J., Cline, Jr., Raymond E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Serrao, Ranodhi
• Application Number:
  US16/245,532
• Time in Patent Office: 284 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3062 where the monitored property is the power consumption power management in a computing system G06F1/3203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4893 taking into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00 Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/24 of photovoltaic origin
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/16 The load or loads being an Information and Communication Technology [ICT] facility
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/388 Islanding, i.e. disconnection of local power supply from the network
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 : Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/76 : Power conversion electric or electronic aspects
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 : Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving

Abstract

Systems include one or more critical datacenter connected to behind-the-meter flexible datacenters. The critical datacenter is powered by grid power and not necessarily collocated with the flexible datacenters, which are powered “behind the meter.” When a computational operation to be performed at the critical datacenter is identified and determined that it can be performed more efficiently or advantageously at a flexible datacenter, the computational operation is instead obtained by the flexible datacenters for performance. The critical datacenter and flexible datacenters preferably share a dedicated communication pathway to enable high-bandwidth, low-latency, secure data transmissions. In some situations, a computational operation is supported by multiple datacenters in a redundant arrangement, such as multiple flexible datacenters.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first flexible datacenter comprising;

a first behind-the-meter power input system configured to receive power from a power generation system prior to the power undergoing step-up transformation for transmission to the grid,

a first power distribution system,

a first datacenter control system, and

a first plurality of computing systems powered by the first behind-the-meter power input system via the first power distribution system, wherein the first datacenter control system is configured to modulate power delivery to the first plurality of computing systems based on one or more monitored power system conditions or an operational directive;

a second flexible datacenter comprising;

a second behind-the-meter power input system,

a second power distribution system,

a second datacenter control system, and

a second plurality of computing systems powered by the second behind-the-meter power input system via the second power distribution system, wherein the second datacenter control system is configured to modulate power delivery to the second plurality of computing systems based on one or more monitored power system conditions or an operational directive; and

a routing control system configured to (i) identify a computational operation to be performed, (ii) determine whether to route at least a portion of the computational operation to the first flexible datacenter, and (iii) based on a determination to route at least the portion of the computational operation to the first flexible datacenter, cause a first portion of the computational operation to be sent to the first flexible datacenter and a second portion of the computational operation to be sent to the second flexible datacenter.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the routing control system and the first datacenter control system are a single control system.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the routing control system comprises a remote master control system.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the remote master control system is not collocated with the first flexible datacenter or the second flexible datacenter.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the remote master control system is not collocated with the first datacenter control system or the second datacenter control system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the routing control system and the first datacenter control system are a single control system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the computational operation and the second portion of the computational operation overlap.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a communication link connects the first flexible datacenter and the second flexible datacenter, and wherein the communication link includes a remote master control system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first flexible datacenter and the second flexible datacenter are not collocated.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein monitored power system conditions comprises one or more of excess local power generation at a local station level, excess local power generation that a grid cannot receive, local power generation subject to economic curtailment, local power generation subject to reliability curtailment, local power generation subject to power factor correction, low local power generation, start up local power generation situations, transient local power generation situations, or testing local power generation situations where there is an economic advantage to using local behind-the-meter power generation.

11. A system comprising

a plurality of flexible datacenters, each flexible datacenter comprising:

a behind-the-meter power input system configured to receive power from a power generation system prior to the power undergoing step-up transformation for transmission to the grid,

a power distribution system,

a datacenter control system, and

a plurality of computing systems powered by the behind-the-meter power input system, wherein the datacenter control system is configured to modulate power delivery to the plurality of computing systems based on one or more monitored power system conditions or an operational directive; and

a routing control system configured to (i) identify a computational operation to be performed, (ii) determine whether to route the computational operation to at least two flexible datacenters in the plurality of flexible datacenters, (iii) based on a determination to route the computational operation to at least two flexible datacenters in the plurality of flexible datacenters, determine a first flexible datacenter in the plurality of flexible datacenters to route a first portion of the computational operation to and a second flexible datacenter in the plurality of flexible datacenters to route a second portion of the computational operation to, and (iv) cause the first portion of the computational operation to be sent to the first flexible datacenter and the second portion of the computational operation to be sent to the second flexible datacenter with instructions that specify for the first flexible datacenter to complete the first portion of the computational operation prior to the second flexible datacenter initiating computation of the second portion of the computational operation.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the routing control system comprises a remote master control system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the remote master control system is not collocated with any of the plurality of flexible datacenters.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the routing control system and the datacenter control system are a single control system.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first portion of the computational operation and the second portion of the computational operation overlap.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first portion of the computational operation is an entirety of the computational operation and the second portion of the computational operation is the entirety of the computational operation.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the first portion of the computational operation and the second portion of the computational operation do not overlap.