Overcooling is a hidden inefficiency that silently drives up energy costs and emissions in data centers. As AI workloads surge, data centers are under pressure to manage rising power demands while meeting sustainability goals.
In Singapore, data centers consume 7% of the nation’s electricity and contribute to 82% of ICT sector emissions. With over 70 facilities and a new Green Data Center Roadmap targeting 300MW of added capacity through greener energy, efficiency is no longer optional—it’s essential.
Yet many sites still rely on outdated cooling strategies, often running colder than necessary. This not only wastes energy but also undermines performance, especially as the global shift toward AI and cloud computing intensifies.
Optimising cooling isn’t just good engineering, it’s a strategic move. Government incentives, real-time monitoring tools like EkkoSense, and smarter airflow management can reduce energy use, cut costs, and support Singapore’s roadmap to a sustainable digital future.
What Causes Overcooling?
Overcooling happens when facilities deliver more cold air than necessary—often due to poor thermal visibility. Most data centers rely on traditional BMS systems that only monitor the temperature at the cooling unit level, not at the rack inlet where servers actually experience heat.
This incomplete data causes operators to default to conservative setpoints, leading to unnecessary energy expenditure. Worse, without granular, rack-level insight, it’s nearly impossible to identify thermal risks, inefficiencies, or stranded cooling capacity.
The True Cost of Overcooling
Wasted Energy
Cooling is responsible for up to 40% of total data center energy consumption. Overcooling can inflate this figure significantly. Based on industry benchmarks, fixing this issue could cut cooling energy usage by up to 30%.
Stranded Cooling Capacity
Overcooling masks underperforming airflow patterns and thermal blockages, preventing facilities from optimising cooling distribution or planning capacity accurately.
Increased Carbon Emissions
With sustainability and ESG metrics like PUE, CUE, CER, and WUE under the spotlight (e.g., EU CSRD and ISO/IEC 30134 standards), overcooling directly undermines reporting compliance.
Premature Equipment Wear and Risk
Excessive cooling stress wears down HVAC components faster and can contribute to airflow imbalances that increase hardware failure risk.
Solving Overcooling with AI-Powered Precision
The solution is real-time, high-resolution environmental visibility—not guesswork. This is exactly what EkkoSoft® Critical, now available through Data Clean Asia, delivers.
Introducing EkkoSoft Critical (via DCA)
EkkoSoft Critical is a SaaS platform that brings real-time 3D thermal visualisation, ML analytics, and intelligent automation into the heart of your data center. Backed by over 50 million data points, it delivers quantifiable optimisation benefits across your facility, including:
Up to 30% reduction in cooling energy costs
Release of stranded cooling capacity
Thermal and power risk mitigation
ROI in under 12 months
Built-in ESG and ISO/IEC 30134 reporting
Its intuitive digital twin interface gives operators an immersive view of real-time conditions—from room-level airflow to rack inlet temperatures—enabling them to “make the invisible visible.”
AI Tools That Drive Real Results
EkkoSoft Critical is more than just a monitoring tool. It’s a powerful optimisation engine, with modules including:
Cooling Advisor
The industry’s first fully embedded AI cooling advisory system. It guides operators step-by-step toward optimal thermal conditions—ensuring 100% ASHRAE rack thermal compliance and up to 30% energy savings.
Cooling Anomalies Detection
Detects abnormal performance before it triggers BMS alarms. Examples include broken fans, stuck valves, airflow blockages, and refrigeration faults—issues traditional tools often miss.
Capacity Planning
Provides real-time visibility and control over space, power, and cooling allocations, helping avoid overprovisioning and deferred capital costs.
Automated ESG Reporting
Embedded tools generate ISO-compliant reports on PUE, CUE, WUE, and more—in minutes, not days. Ideal for organisations navigating CSRD, EED, and similar sustainability mandates.
Why Partner with Data Clean Asia?
Data Clean Asia is more than a cleaning service—we’re Singapore’s trusted partner in data center reliability and optimisation. With decades of experience in cleanroom-grade maintenance for critical environments, we understand how performance and cleanliness intersect.
Now, through our partnership with EkkoSense, we bring the EkkoSoft Critical platform to data centers in Singapore—empowering your team to unlock energy savings, reduce risk, and drive ESG compliance with precision.
Eliminate overcooling.
Optimise thermal performance.
Meet tomorrow’s compliance demands, today.
Talk to Data Clean Asia today to learn how EkkoSoft Critical can transform your data center operations.
Visit datacleanasia.com to schedule a consultation or demo.
