ENERGY
ES OF EXCELLENCE
e focussing the attention of organisations on every aspect of their
nction. And nowhere is this more important than in the new generation
y Benzecry, Managing Director, Modus Group
trend is expected to continue. Research
firm Meta Group predicts wattage will
double over the next few years, and local
power requirements will pass 10,000
watts per square metre between 2008 and
2010.
The current best advice is to adopt
best practices in power and cooling to
deliver financial benefits and reduce the
squeeze on IT budgets. But much of this
will depend on when the datacentre was
designed. Industry sources suggest 87 per
cent of datacentres were built before
2001. The more recent the development,
the easier it will be to contain costs.
The critical step is analysing the
current operation versus the design
capacity of the datacentre. Care should be
taken in determining the operational
temperature spread between the supply
and return temperatures for the heat
transfer fluids. These temperatures should
be compared to the design temperature
spread. By conducting an analysis,
managers can determine how many watts
per square metre their datacentre can
handle compared to how many watts per
square metre it will have to handle once
high-power-density technologies are
“Energy is expensive.
added.
Many low-cost initiatives can be
Managing it need not be.”
undertaken now to produce energy
savings. IBM recently recommended operationally and environmentally to and providing savings to fuel
turning off CRAC (computer room operate a green datacentre. What does business growth and help reduce
air conditioning) units where no IT this mean? For the typical 2,500 square the budget squeeze.
equipment load requires cooling. This metre datacentre that spends £1.3 million Take advantage of innovative
costs under £500 to implement, has on power annually, energy costs can technologies in power and cooling
annual energy savings of 30kW be cut in half. That equals the reduction to improve operations. This
representing £13,000 and an immediate of emissions from taking 850 cars off involves more computing
return on investment (ROI). the road. performance per kilowatt; shifting
For under £500 the company There are three key initiatives the energy-to-cool/energy-to-
recommends adjusting the indoor managers can adopt to become energy operate ratio; and extending the
temperature and relative humidity control, efficient: life of IT equipment.
and controlling the CRAC function on Adopt best practices in power and Consider ways to reduce
supply air temperature. This has about a cooling to deliver financial environmental impact. This
year’s ROI, and offers annual energy benefits and reduce the squeeze involves meaningful energy
savings of 5kW representing £2,400. on IT budgets. This involves conservation; improved public
For under £2,500, increasing the CRAC reducing operational costs from image; and making a positive
air discharge temperature to mirror energy use in the physical contribution to the Green
CIBSE/ASHRAE recommendations infrastructure; establishing an movement (which creates a good
produces annual energy savings of 13kW energy efficiency metric compared place to work).
representing £5,750 with less than a to peers in the industry and for Energy is expensive. Managing it need
year’s ROI. year-to-year improvement not be. www.modusgroup.com
It makes sense financially, benchmarks in own operations;
SUSTAINABLE FM | APRIL 2008
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