Demand Response Scheme: Achieving Sustainability in Distributed Data Processing

The rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has driven the intelligent transformation of various industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare, etc., significantly enhancing their management capabilities and decision-making efficiency. Data analysis is crucial, serving as both the core technology of this transformation and a major driving force for advancing industry intelligence. However, the increasing volume of data has led to high energy consumption during data analysis, posing significant challenges to environmental and economic sustainability. Integrating renewable energy sources (RESs) is an effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to their low-carbon and renewable nature. Additionally, the spatiotemporal variability and complementarity of RES generation and grid electricity prices provide favorable conditions for distributed data processing. Therefore, a two-stage demand response scheme is proposed to reduce carbon emissions and electricity costs by prioritizing data processing in data centers (DCs) where RES is abundant or electricity prices are low, based on RES generation and electricity price signals. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme reduces 36.37% carbon emissions and 20.49% electricity costs compared to the benchmark algorithm, indicating its potential for both environmental and economic optimization.