Case Study: Sandia National Laboratories achieves 77% energy cost reduction and high-density supercomputing with Vertiv’s Liebert XDR cooling solution

Sandia National Laboratories - Customer Case Study

Sandia National Laboratories needed a more powerful, reliable and energy-efficient supercomputing platform to support critical national-security research but faced limited floor space, high water and cooling demand, and an aging “Thunderbird” system of 140 racks at 13 kW each. To meet high availability and high-density cooling requirements, Sandia selected Vertiv and its Liebert solutions—specifically the Liebert XDR rack door (deployed as Sun Cooling Doors) and Liebert XDP refrigerant pumping units.

Vertiv implemented passive, refrigerant-based Liebert XDR rack doors and Liebert XDP units to cool at the source, consolidating 140 racks into 36 racks running at 32 kW each and removing 90% of server heat before it left the rack. The Vertiv solution cut energy costs by about 77% and reduced overall energy and carbon footprint by more than 75%, saved 5.7 million gallons of water annually, lowered chiller plant consumption/costs by 37%, reduced required cooling from 518 to 328 tons, and enabled the Red Sky system to reach 433 teraflops—dramatically improving performance and throughput.

Sandia National Laboratories