Sormeh McCullough, director of ESG at Digital Realty (Nasdaq: DLR), sat down for a video interview at Nareit’s REITworks: 2024 Sustainability & Social Responsibility Conference, held in McLean, Virginia from Sept. 10-12, where Digital Realty was awarded Nareit’s 2024 Sustainable Design Impact award.
Digital Realty’s development of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to improve energy efficiency and power usage effectiveness (PUE) across its portfolio earned the data center REIT its award, part of the inaugural Sustainability Impact Awards, at REITworks 2024.
Digital Realty’s Apollo AI solution was introduced in 2019, when it was tested at two European sites. Since then, deployment has expanded to 16 sites. The REIT plans to roughly triple the number of sites where it is deployed by the end of 2024, and recently announced expansion of the platform to its Australia portfolio.
McCullough highlighted that Apollo AI “identifies hard-to-find opportunities across our portfolio,” saving significant time and resources. “It’s actually getting smarter as it grows,” McCullough said, noting how Apollo learns from each new deployment.
Apollo uses machine learning to provide a comprehensive dashboard that lists optimization opportunities, prioritized by potential megawatt-hour savings, at each facility. The platform's self-learning capabilities aggregate findings, which are then audited and applied to newly onboarded facilities. This ensures that every new site contributes value to the platform, benefiting the entire portfolio.
Since its initial deployments, the Apollo AI platform has identified approximately 18 gigawatt hours of savings across the 16 sites, based on machine learning that harmonizes and optimizes the entire data center infrastructure. The platform can identify anomalies, such as clogged filters or leaky three-way valves, without human intervention, providing value and control to Digital Realty’s data center teams.
Based on implementation, the tool has proven to reduce operational risk and extend the lifetime of data center infrastructure as well as increased productivity of data center teams by guiding them to focus on measures with highest impact and least risk. The tool has also allowed for benchmarking of sites within the platform's universe without additional hardware investments.
In addition to Apollo AI, in 2023 Digital Realty implemented another AI tool tailored for sites that use evaporative cooling systems to detect water use anomalies and identify ways to reduce water consumption and associated energy use, extending the lifespan of the cooling equipment. The AI tool was deployed at four U.S. sites to identify additional water savings opportunities. These findings often have positive co-benefits such as energy savings and reduced system maintenance.
Beyond Apollo, Digital Realty has also rolled out additional AI tools that specifically address water efficiency in cooling systems, extending equipment life while conserving energy and resources. The company’s broader sustainability initiatives include renewable energy procurement and carbon footprint reduction through innovations like hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as a diesel alternative.