Lots of Room to Improve Data Centers' Energy Use, EPA Says

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OAKLAND, Calif. -- U.S. data centers stand to save billions of dollars in energy costs if equipment and operations were made more efficient, according to report sent to Congress Friday from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Congress asked the agency in late 2006 to study market trends in the growth and energy use of servers and data centers. It found that making just minor improvements could curb energy consumption by more than 20 percent in five years.

"There is significant potential for energy-efficiency improvements in data centers," the report said. "Although some improvements in energy efficiency are expected if current trends
continue, many technologies are either commercially available or will soon be available that could further improve the energy efficiency of microprocessors, servers, storage
devices, network equipment, and infrastructure systems."

The report said any action is impeded by barriers, such as a lack of standardized efficiency definition, fear of down time associated with a change in business operations, and the fact that IT managers hardly ever pay the bills directly.

Demand for data centers has been fueled by a several factors, including increases in electronics transactions, Internet communications and electronic medical and legal records. The government sector, too, needs more data centers for it digitalizes information, records and services.

The report estimates that the country's servers and data centers accounted for 1.5 percent of total electricity consumptions in 2006, costing about $4.5 billion. That's double the amount of energy consumed in 2000, and is expected to nearly double again in five years.

The volume server is responsible for nearly 70 percent of electricity consumed by IT equipment. Power and cooling infrastructure that supports IT equipment is responsible for half of the total energy consumption of data centers, the report said.

The agency explored three scenarios for the report: improved operation, best practices and state-of-the-art.

The improved operation scenario, where the existing stock was operated more efficiently with little or no capital improvement, could potentially save more than 20 percent electricity by 2011, relative to current trends. It eliminated unused servers, adopted energy-efficient servers to modest level and enabled power management on all applicable servers. It assumed a modest drop in the energy use of enterprise storage equipment and a 30 percent improvement in infrastructure energy efficiency from improved airflow management.

The best practice scenario, reflective of the practices and technologies used in today's most energy efficient facilities, could lower electricity use by as much as 45 percent by 2011. It went beyond the first scenario by modestly consolidating servers and storage while aggressively adopting energy efficient servers. Its infrastructure energy efficiency would see as much as a 70 percent boost by improved transformers, uninterruptible power supplies, efficiency chillers, fans, pumps and free cooling.

Under this scenario, electricity use from servers and data centers would fall below 2006 levels instead of doubling, as it is projected under current trends.

The state-of-the-art scenario , which only uses the best energy saving technologies and practices, could reduce electricity use by as much as 55 percent. Storage and servers would aggressively be consolidated while power management at the data center level of applications, servers and equipment would be enabled for networking and storage.

The report suggested programs to encourage energy efficiency in data centers, such as a standardizes product labeling program, commercial building technical assistance for facility designers, financial incentives, and government procurement programs.

Other recommendation include standardized performance measures to evaluate data centers and equipment, federal leadership to encourage data center efficiency, challenging the private sector, best practice guidance, research and development and public-private partnerships.

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