Airedale by Modine launches Cooling System Optimizer in U.S., following surge in demand for intelligent controls systems that can manage increasingly complex chilled water systems.

Airedale by Modine has announced the U.S. launch of the Cooling System Optimizer in response to industry demand for sustainable, stable and secure cooling systems. First launched in Europe in 2022 and able to manage chilled water loops of up to 20MW and beyond, demand for the Optimizer has grown as data center providers adopt larger, more complex cooling systems.

The Optimizer is an intelligent controls layer that sits between product controls in chillers and CRAHs and below the site building management system (BMS). It is programmed to unify indoor and outdoor cooling equipment to proactively manage the three most important things in any data center cooling system: resilience, redundancy and energy use. Leveraging the benefits of primary ring chilled water cooling systems as well as remaining compatible with primary/secondary systems, the Optimizer is designed to manage dynamic variable flow systems to consistently deliver on critical SLAs, at the lowest possible energy input.

Equipment outages as a result of power issues, network storms and communication losses, are the scourge of many data centers. The Cooling System Optimizer has been developed with this in mind, with built-in ability to effectively manage equipment drop-outs in a much quicker and efficient way than a standard BMS. Residing in standard and proven PLC-based controllers, it is highly redundant and compatible with external ICT security networks.

In a recent factory acceptance test for a global data center provider, the Optimizer was simulated on a 10MW loop comprising 7 chillers and 24 fan walls, with the client’s own security network. The client was challenged to 'break' the system in the ways that are experienced on live sites. Despite their determined efforts, they were unable to disrupt the robust functionality of the system.

Delivery of Optimizer systems in the U.S. will be managed by a new, dedicated controls team based out of the North America Data Center headquarters in Rockbridge, VA. Backed by the global controls team in the UK, the U.S. team will work with product teams to deliver software solutions for data center providers. These solutions will eventually encompass all aspects of building management, remote monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Reece Thomas, Controls Director at Airedale said,

“The US is an incredibly important market for us and we are seeing increasing demand for more intelligent software. Airedale controls systems manage over 200MW of data centers across Europe and that is only set to grow, with the Optimizer proving extremely popular in larger data centers with variable flow cooling systems. With a dedicated US controls team, we can support our local and global customers with the high levels of service we are renowned for.”

Reece continued,

“The Optimizer has been incredibly well received in the industry, as many operators struggle to manage increasingly complex cooling systems with out-of-the-box BMS solutions. They are relieved to find a proven robust solution that is compatible with end-user ICT security systems, that takes on the responsibility of keeping cooling systems up and running while keeping energy bills down.”