Hanwha Construction Division announced on the 12th that it has been selected as a project operator for a national energy-efficiency research program promoted by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning, and will proceed with the development and demonstration of technologies to enhance power and cooling efficiency for AI data centers.

Hanwha Construction Division explained that it will participate in developing technologies to efficiently manage data center power demand, based on its accumulated experience in data center design and construction. It will also develop and demonstrate high-efficiency modular uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems to improve power supply stability and direct liquid cooling technology to reduce heat generated from high-density AI servers.

This research project will be carried out by an industry-academia-research consortium including Hanwha Construction Division, EON, Hanyang University, and the Korea Electronics Technology Institute. The total cumulative project size for the three tasks is KRW 43.8 billion.

Under the data center demand response task, the consortium will demonstrate technologies that use AI to forecast server power consumption and cooling loads and to adjust power use efficiently. Hanwha Construction Division aims to reduce peak energy consumption by more than 10% by reviewing data center power systems, facility configurations, and operating conditions.

The company will also conduct demonstration of V2G (Vehicle to Grid) technology using its self-developed ceiling-mounted electric vehicle charging system “EV Air Station.” This technology supplies power stored in EV batteries back to the grid when needed, and the company plans to assess the potential for using EV charging infrastructure as a power resource at data centers and other facilities in the future.

In the high-efficiency modular UPS development task, the company will develop technologies that reduce power losses while allowing equipment maintenance without shutting down data center operations. The goal is to raise power conversion efficiency from the current level of around 90% to as high as 97.5%. Once development is complete, the technology is also expected to help reduce reliance on overseas equipment.

The company will also participate in research on direct liquid cooling technologies for high-density AI servers. Direct liquid cooling, which removes heat by bringing liquid into direct contact with heat-generating parts of servers, will seek in this project to reduce the electric power used for cooling by more than 90% compared with conventional air-cooling methods.

Hanwha Construction Division plans to apply the technologies and demonstration experience obtained through this research to future AI data center projects and to expand its business scope from its existing focus on design and construction to the fields of power operations and energy solutions.

To date, Hanwha Construction Division has carried out a total of 13 projects in the data center sector, including the hyperscale Changwon Defense AI Data Center, which can accommodate more than 100,000 servers, and the Ansan Kakao Data Center.

Kim Min-seok, Head of the Building Business Unit at Hanwha Construction Division, said, “This national project will serve as an opportunity to expand our data center business from design and construction into the energy field and to accelerate the introduction of bidirectional charging technology using ceiling-mounted EV chargers,” adding, “We will strengthen our capabilities in building next-generation data centers with enhanced energy efficiency and operational stability.”

Popular News