Feds devise program to help datacenter operators cut energy waste, costs

As part of its larger effort to reduce the strain the datacenters put on the U.S. energy grid and the environment, the EPA has launched an initiative to develop an Energy Star rating for datacenter infrastructures.

First, however, the agency needs data. Lots of data. Thus, it’s calling on organizations to collect and share a year’s worth of stats on energy use and the operating characteristics of their datacenters. Those include both stand-alone facilities as well as those in offices and other types of buildings.

The EPA’s effort to develop an Energy Star rating for datacenters is part of a greater effort governmental effort called the National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program, comprising activities from the EPA and branches of the Department of Energy.

The purpose of the program is to assist datacenter operators in their efforts to reduce energy consumption — good for the bottom line and the environment — in their facilities with freely available tools and metrics.

This program represents a great opportunity for datacenter operators across the country that are struggling with high energy bills, which are expected to go nowhere but up if the industry doesn’t adopt better practices. According to the EPA, “if state-of-the-art technology were adopted, energy efficiency could be improved by as much as 70 percent. However, even saving a modest 10 percent of total energy use would amount to energy savings of 10.7 billion kilowatt-hours per year — an amount equivalent to the electricity consumed by 1 million U.S. households and valued at about $740 million.”

The following is an overview of the National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program, broken down into five elements, as outlined by the participating groups behind the effort:

1. Consensus energy efficiency metrics and benchmarking: DOE and EPA are working with industry to develop consistent measurement protocols and metrics to define energy performance in a datacenter facility.

2. Energy saving tools and training: DOE Save Energy Now and EPA Energy Star are developing tools to assist datacenter operators in characterizing their energy use and identifying opportunities for improvement. Two tools form the cornerstone of these efforts – the DOE Save Energy Now DC Pro tool suite and the EPA Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool (which will house EPA’s energy performance rating for data center infrastructure). The DC Pro and Portfolio Manager tools will be linked to facilitate the transfer of data for users.

3. Certification of data center energy efficiency experts: DOE Save Energy Now is developing a certification program for datacenter energy-efficiency experts. Save Energy Now Qualified Specialists will be able to assist datacenter operators in identifying and implementing energy-saving projects.

4. Equipment performance specification and labeling: EPA is developing an Energy Star specification for enterprise servers. In the future, EPA will consider opportunities to develop Energy Star specifications for additional IT equipment, possibly to include data storage and networking equipment.

5. Recognition of best-in-class datacenters: DOE Save Energy Now will recognize those datacenters that have demonstrated a defined level of energy savings using the DC Pro tool to validate energy saved similar to the recognition already offered to manufacturing plants. EPA Energy Star will provide the Energy Star label for those datacenters that achieve a high level of energy performance.

DOE Save Energy Now and FEMP will develop best-in-class guidelines with industry partners to initially guide the specification and design of newly constructed Federal data centers. DOE Save Energy Now will also explore with industry the development of a voluntary third-party certification process to validate energy intensity improvement and best-in-class performance for newly constructed or existing datacenters.

Organizations interested in participating in the EPA’s effort to develop the Energy Star rating for datacenters should submit an Expression of Interest form [DOC] by June 1, 2008. The EPA also has released a set of instructions [DOC] for collecting the data, as well as data collection form [XLS] with which to record the information. For more information, and to submit Expression of Interest forms, contact the EPA at ENERGYSTARdatacenters@icfi.com.

For more information about voluntary National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program, download this PDF, or visit the EPA Energy Star Web site.