Ashrae Journal - November 2008 - (Page 14)

Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption By John Judge, Member ASHRAE; Jack Pouchet, Anand Ekbote, and Sachin Dixit R ising data center energy consumption and increasing energy costs have combined to elevate the importance of reducing data center energy Data Center Energy Consumption consumption as a strategy to reduce costs, manage capacity, and promote environmental responsibility. Within almost every organization, data center energy consumption has been driven by demand for greater computing capacity and increased IT centralization. The demand has been increasing by approximately 12% per year.1 While this was occurring, U.S. electricity prices have increased by 4.4% per year.2 The financial implications are significant. Estimates of annual power costs for U.S. data centers now range as high as $3.3 billion.1 The good news is that there is general agreement within the industry that improvements in data center efficiency are possible. A 2007 EPA report to the U.S. Congress concluded that best practices can reduce data center energy consumption by 50% by 2011.1 It included a list of Top 10 Energy Saving Best Practices as identified by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Other organizations have distributed similar information, and 14 ASHRAE Journal there is evidence that some of these best practices are being adopted. While progress has been made, what has been lacking is a holistic, systemlevel approach useful in guiding data center managers in prioritizing opportunities to reduce energy consumption. This has made it difficult for data center managers to prioritize efficiency efforts and tailor best practices to data center equipment and operating practices. ashrae.org The first step in prioritizing energy saving opportunities is to gain a solid understanding of data center energy consumption. A recent analysis3 modeled energy consumption for a typical 5,000 ft2 (465 m2 data center based on real-world technologies and operating parameters and analyzed how energy is used within the facility. Energy use was categorized as either demand side or supply side. The total energy consumption of the modeled data center was 1,127 kW. In this analysis, demand-side systems—which include processors, server power supplies, other server components, storage and communication equipment—account for 52% of total consumption. Supply-side systems include the UPS, power distribution, About the Authors John Judge is vice president engineering at Liebert Precision Cooling; Jack Pouchet is director of energy initiatives; Anand Ekbote is vice president at Liebert Monitoring; and Sachin Dixit is program manager at Liebert Products and Services at Emerson Network Power, Columbus, Ohio. November 2008 http://www.ashrae.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Ashrae Journal - November 2008

Ashrae Journal - November 2008 Contents Commentary Industry News Meetings and Shows Feature Articles Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption Building Sciences Feature Articles Sustainable Nature Center Emerging Technologies Special Products Washington Report Special Supplement: BACnet® Today BACnet® Goes Green Seeing the Light with BACnet® BACnet® on Campus BACnet® for Net Zero Analyzing BACnet® BACnet® at Xerox Campus BACnet® in Europe BACnet® for Green Library BACnet® at the University of Minnesota: Flexibility, Interoperability InfoCenter Product Showplace Classified Advertising Advertising Index

Ashrae Journal - November 2008

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