I’ve been part of a consortium lead by the US DOE and US EPA to develop recommendations in an effort to drive up the number of data centers that measure and report their efficiency. Today, the group published the first phase targeted at dedicated data centers. Here’s the text along with the document:
On January 13, 2010, eight leading organizations that set or use data center energy efficiency metrics, including the 7×24 Exchange, ASHRAE, The Green Grid, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, U.S. Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now and Federal Energy Management Programs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Program, U.S. Green Building Council, and Uptime Institute, met to discuss these metrics for data centers and formed a task force to further define these measurements. This task force, which has met regularly since the initial summit, has prepared the attached Recommendations for Measuring and Reporting Overall Data Center Efficiency. The goal of this document is to recommend a consistent and repeatable measurement strategy that allows data center operators to monitor and improve the energy efficiency of their facilities. A consistent measurement approach will facilitate communication of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), the recommended energy efficiency metric from the agreed upon guiding principles, among data center owners and operators. More information about the guiding principles from the January meeting can be found here.
The attached document addresses how to measure PUE in dedicated data centers. The task force will continue to meet to develop recommendations for how to measure PUE for data centers in larger mixed-use facilities.
We hope that these recommendations help you understand how to measure and publish overall data center infrastructure energy efficiency, and we welcome any questions by e-mail to ENERGYSTARdatacenters@icfi.com.
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