Power in Numbers: The Critical Role of Equipment Array Orchestration in Modern Data Centers

Artificial intelligence (AI) has turned thermal management from a background utility into a strategic lever. As densities climb and power headroom tightens, the cooling system becomes a performance multiplier for uptime and capacity. Owners want systems that bring calm to complexity, unlock efficiency and help enable their goals and desired outcomes. That shift reframes how we design, control and operate the entire cooling ecosystem – not just the chillers.

At Trane, that ecosystem view extends across the full data center lifecycle. With thousands of local qualified data center service technicians across North America and smart service options for proactive monitoring, predictive maintenance and continuous innovation, we help operators treat thermal management as an infrastructure design cornerstone from day one. Building with lifecycle performance in mind is how thermal management drives stronger energy savings, uptime and return.

At the equipment level, the challenge is choice. Many campuses have scaled from two or three rooftop chillers to dozens. Operators must decide which chiller to start,  when, at what speed, and in what combination − all while balancing restart resilience, energy usage and neighborhood noise. The old first-on, first-off playbook was written for small sites. Today’s scale demands a new approach.

Enter sequencing, then orchestration

Tracer® chiller plant control – the digital conductor that directs chiller staging – can execute more complex and nuanced staging decisions. Equipment array orchestration builds on the traditional playbook by coordinating groups of chillers to perform as an elegant collective – well beyond simply “next in line”. The payoff shows up where it matters most: uptime, restart resilience, energy efficiency, equipment longevity and quieter operation.

Commonly, data center cooling sequencing activates the fewest machines possible at 75-90% load. That logic can falter during power blips or transfer events. Start/stop latency of inactive equipment slows the system’s step response while IT load continues to produce heat. Should an outage occur, having more chillers and their associated pumps running at lower load prior to the outage reduces the need to activate idle equipment, for faster restoration to active heat rejection. Intuitively, it takes less time to restore chillers to 60% load than 80% load, which in turn reduces the demand on the thermal buffer system, bringing the system back to fully active thermal management sooner.

Taken to an extreme, overprovisioning active cooling capacity to very low loads drives units to run inefficiently and shortens service life. An orchestrated array strategy flips that equation by being more deliberate about spreading the load across more chillers in a large matrix.

Turning noise into music

As sites move closer to load centers – near power interconnects, water access, and major fiber routes – data centers are landing within earshot of neighborhoods. That proximity makes rooftop sound not just permit-critical, but neighbor-critical. Array orchestration helps manage it: coordinated sequencing threads capacity across non-adjacent chillers, keeps each at part load (typically quieter than full speed), and can be configured to favor units shielded from the property line or acoustically downwind of neighbors. The result is fewer tonal peaks and lower decibels at the fence line, even during hot days or test events, and the potential to reduce or eliminate bulky sound screens.

Smarter sensing, smarter performance

Relying on a couple of rooftop sensors makes sense for small facilities but not for campuses with dozens of units operating in tandem. By leveraging smarter and more granular monitoring and control systems, optimal performance can be achieved by implementing strategies that incorporate microclimate-based staging while also considering runtime to balance operations and minimize wear and tear.

From concept to practice

From concept to practice

At Trane, higher-level system orchestration isn’t theoretical – the technology is being integrated into our products. As an example, our new CRAH unit will natively support team control through Symbio® unit controls, allowing groups of handlers to coordinate airflow and coil performance within the chilled water system. To further optimize the thermal management system in the future, these teams of equipment could exchange real-time data to optimize energy use and uptime across the chilled water loop.

Where to start – together

Trane views thermal management with a wide lens, and we customize the strategy to our customers’ needs:

• Co-design the roadmap: Align operations, IT and facilities on load growth, utilities, permitting and noise objectives.
• Modernize the sequence of operation: Capture today’s staging logic, restart priorities and noise limits; set targets for recovery time, energy per workload and fence-line decibels.
• Add sensors before adding steel: Expand unit-level temperature and wind sensing, plus flow and temperature differential on critical loops.
• Implement an orchestrated array strategy: Run more chillers at part load, track restart speed, energy use and sound, then tune sequencing.
• Extend orchestration beyond chillers: Coordinate pumps, cooling towers and air handlers – starting with CRAH – and enable teaming on the CDU platform and Fan Coil Wall so air and liquid cooling move as one.

Viewed through this wider lens, thermal management stops being a utility and instead becomes a growth strategy. It's not a siloed approach to staging similar products on the roof; it’s an orchestrated array across the entire cooling system that acts as a performance multiplier. The payoff is stronger uptime, more electrical headroom for computing power, faster time to capacity and quieter sites.

For more information on Trane’s capabilities, offerings and services for data center applications, visit Data Center Cooling, Data Center Design | Trane Commercial HVAC.