备用电源凸显其重要性Backup comes to the fore译 者 说极端气候、能源危机、双碳目标，都可能让市电变得更不稳定。
柴油发电机依然是数据中心正常运行的定海神针吗？由于电力紧张和长期能源供应问题的困扰，未来几个月内,数据中心可能发现自己会更多地使用柴油机备用电源。
With electric power grids stressed, and long-term energy supplies in question, data centers may find themselves making more use of diesel backup power in the coming month.2022年9月2日，荷兰弗莱沃兰的一座变电站起火,第二座变电站迅速起火，当地电网随之关断。
正如大家所料，当地数据中心切换到了备用发电机。
但是，由于移动通信网络在同一时间发生的中断影响了发电机的控制，A2B Internet的发电机出现了问题。
这一问题使备用电源的可靠性成为人们关注的焦点。
而这样的事件绝非偶然。
On September 2, 2022, an electrical substation in Flevoland, the Netherlands, caught fire. A second substation swiftly ignited, and the local grid shut down.Local data centers switched to their backup generators, as one would expect. But there were problems with the generators at A2B Internet. A simultaneous outage in the mobile network impacted their controls. The issue brought the reliability of backup power to the fore. And this was not by any means an isolated incident.由于多种因素影响，在不久的将来，世界各地的数据中心可能会更频繁地启动柴油发电机。
而这本身可能也会成为一个问题。
There are multiple factors that mean data centers round the world could be switching on their diesel generators more often in the near future. And that might be a problem in itself.电网面临压力Power grids under stress今年1月，哈萨克斯坦的一条输电线发生故障，导致整个国家以及邻近的乌兹别克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦的大部分地区电力中断。
今年3月，台湾新大电厂发生故障，导致台湾南部停电，影响了全岛互联网连接。
In January, a power line failed in Kazakhstan disconnecting the whole country, as well as much of neighboring former Soviet States Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In March, a malfunction at the Hsinta Power Plant in Taiwan caused blackouts in the south of the country, hitting Internet connectivity to the whole nation.由于各种原因，类似中断可能会更频繁地出现。
由于俄乌冲突，欧洲国家今年冬天很可能会出现天然气短缺而导致停电。
These outages may be coming our way more frequently, for a variety of reasons. European nations will very likely be experiencing a shortage of natural gas this winter due to the war in Ukraine, which could lead to electricity blackouts.甚至在战争引发能源危机之前，多个国家和大都市地区就已经预测到满足电力需求会发生困难。
例如，爱尔兰的EirGrid警告称，由于电力需求增加，2021年将出现“轮流停电”。
在伦敦和弗吉尼亚州北部，限电的原因是因为数据中心的审批速度快于新电力装机容量以及能源分配基础设施的投入。
And even before the war provoked an energy crisis, multiple nations and metro areas have been predicting a difficulty in serving demand for electricity. Ireland’s EirGrid, for instance, warned of “rolling blackouts” in 2021, due to increasing demand for electricity. In London and Northern Virginia, this is because data centers have been approved faster than new electricity capacity can be commissioned, along with the infrastructure to distribute that energy.另一方面，规划者警告说，试图达到净零目标也会给电网带来额外的压力，因为存在双重影响:向净零目标推进会增加对电网的需求，同时会使供应变得不稳定。
In other cases, planners are warning that attempts to reach net-zero targets will create extra strain on the grid, because of a double effect: moving to net zero will increase demands on the grid, while destabilizing supplies.当各国努力转向电动汽车和居住办公场所电采暖，电网承载了新的需求。
与此同时，各国正试图将电力供应转向本国电网，以及风能和太阳能等可再生能源。
这些能源变化不定，不像煤炭或天然气等基本负荷能源那么容易管理。
New demands will be placed on the network as countries attempt to shift to electric cars and electric heating in homes and offices. And at the same time, nations are trying to shift the power supply to their grid, over to renewable sources such as wind and solar, which are variable and can’t be managed as easily as a baseload source such as coal or gas.随着全球变暖的影响开始显现，洪水和野火等自然灾害可能会更加频繁。
2022年8月，巴基斯坦的特大洪水使那里的互联网中断了很长一段时间，此前的许多灾难意味着数据中心网络连接被切断。
As the effects of global warming begin to be felt, it’s likely that natural disasters such as floods and wildfires will be more frequent. In August 2022, huge floods in Pakistan took down the Internet there for an extended period, and plenty of earlier disasters meant data centers were taken off the grid.今年3月，澳大利亚新南威尔士州因洪水而停电，与此同时，田纳西州的野火切断了许多居民和企业的联系。
今年2月，德克萨斯州的一场巨大风暴造成了电力中断，而该州维护不善的电网加剧了这一状况，导致许多数据中心陷入困境。
In March this year, Australia’s New South Wales experienced outages due to flooding, while at the same time, wildfires in Tennessee cut off many residents and businesses. In February, a giant storm in Texas created outages that were exacerbated by that State’s poorly-maintained electrical grid, leaving a lot of data centers struggling.电网面临的一系列风险中又增加了一个新的因素：人们早就预计到恶意攻击可能导致部分电网瘫痪。
关键设备通常会提供互联网远程管理的接口，而这些接口可能是脆弱的。
2016年，也就是这场俄乌冲突的前几年，据信黑客破坏了乌克兰的一部分电网。
12月23日，伊万诺-弗兰科夫斯克的一半居民断电数小时。
To add one more factor to the cocktail of risks facing the grid, it has long been expected that malicious attacks could bring down sections of the electricity network. Critical equipment is often provided with interfaces for remote management across the Internet - and these interfaces can be vulnerable. In 2016, years before the current war, it’s believed that hackers brought down a section of Ukraine’s power grid. On 23 December, half the residents of Ivano-Frankivsk, were left without electricity for several hours.备份的新角色New role for backup在这种背景下，有迹象表明，数据中心运营商正在以不同的方式对待他们的备份系统——至少在发达国家是这样，迄今为止，这些国家电网是可靠的。
Against this background, there are signs that data center operators are treating their backup systems differently - at least in the developed world, where grid reliability has been a given till now.在美国和欧洲，柴油发电机和电池室一直存在，以应对非常罕见的紧急情况，如电力故障或不稳定。
它们大多被视为一种预防策略。
现在，数据中心运营商意识到，这些备份系统可能会更频繁地被使用，也许会接近发展中国家初期设施的经验。
In the US and Europe, diesel generators and battery rooms have always been there to cater for very rare emergencies when the electrical power fails or falters. They’re mostly seen as an insurance policy. Now, data center operators are realizing that those backup systems may be called upon more often, perhaps approaching the experience of pioneering facilities in developing nations.在非洲，电网不太可靠的问题一直存在，柴油发电机经常被启动作为备用电源。
但据尼日利亚MainOne公司首席执行官Funke Opeke说，这种情况正在发生改变。
Opeke今年表示:“我们建造了专门的线路从变电站获取电力，这使得电网可用性达到96%甚至更高。
”他还补充说，其他非洲国家电网的可靠性可能更低。
“我们在加纳做到了95%，在科特迪瓦我们做得更好。
”In Africa, it’s long been a fact of life that the grid is less reliable, and diesel generators are frequently fired up for backup. But that is changing, according to Funke Opeke, CEO of MainOne, in Nigeria. “We build dedicated lines to take power from a substation, and that results in 96 percent or higher power availability from the grid,” Opeke said it this year, adding that the reliability of grids in other African countries may be less. “We get 95 percent in Ghana, and in Cote d’Ivoire we do better than that.”俄乌冲突爆发以来，我们一直在做应急计划，我们从来没有期望运行超过几个小时，最坏的情况下或者是一天，我们已经做好了运行柴油机长达一周的准备。
We’ve been doing contingency planning since the war in Ukraine broke out, We don’t ever expect to have to run for more than a few hours, or at worst case a day, on diesel but we’re prepared to run for up to a week.非洲可能正在走出一个电网不可靠的时代，而欧洲可能正在进入另一个时代。
随着冬季停电的临近，数据中心运营商正在购买额外的柴油供应，以防他们不得不长时间使用自己的发电机。
While Africa may be emerging from an era of unreliable grids, Europe may be entering one. As winter blackouts approach, data center operators are buying up extra supplies of diesel fuel, in case they have to shift to their own generators for extended periods.Equinix EMEA高级副总裁Gary Aitkenhead今年早些时候向英国《金融时报》表示:“俄乌冲突爆发以来，我们一直在做应急计划，我们从来没有期望运行超过几个小时，最坏的情况下或者是一天，我们已经做好了运行柴油机长达一周的准备。
”“We’ve been doing contingency planning since the war in Ukraine broke out,” Gary Aitkenhead, Equinix’s SVP of Europe, Middle East, and Africa operation told the Financial Times earlier this year. “We don’t ever expect to have to run for more than a few hours, or at worst case a day, on diesel but we’re prepared to run for up to a week.”Digital Realty还在欧洲各地的站点储存了更多的柴油。
就在各国填满天然气储备的同时，数据中心将更多的柴油注入储油罐，将其容量从原来的60%增加到90%以上。
Digital Realty is also storing more diesel at its sites across Europe.Just as nations are filling their gas reserves, data centers are pumping more diesel into tanks that have previously been kept at 60 percent capacity, filling them up to more than 90 percent.这是一个好的方法吗?Is it a good approach?这样做是有问题的。
数据中心燃烧更多的柴油将意味着更多的排放，使运营商自己定下的净零目标无法实现。
这样做本身也更不可靠。
一旦柴油机启动，而电网中断，那么数据中心就少了一个可用的电力
