2007 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry

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Informal Sessions Description

Additional Informal Sessions may be organized on-site during the Summer Study.

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Energy Efficiency in Data Centers—Issues, Innovation, and Programs

Aimee T. McKane and Bill Tschudi, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

• Data centers consume 10 to 100 times more energy per square foot than a typical office building. This makes these facilities more closely resemble heavy industrial facilities than commercial office buildings.
• Data centers, servers, and their supply chain are one of the fastest growing sector of the economy. This growth is having an impact on electrical supply and distribution systems. In 2006, data centers used about 58.7 billion kWh (about 1.2% of total U.S. electricity use). At current rate, power requirements could double in 5 years.
• Energy is a major operating cost for data centers; and the availability and reliability of power further complicates system design and efficiency. The growth in new facilities makes this area particularly attractive for introducing energy efficient best practices.
• During the past year, a number of initiatives have emerged to address these energy saving opportunities through efforts by industry, utilities, and Federal and state governments. These emerging efforts seek to address (1) reducing energy costs for existing and prospective facilities, (2) mitigating the impact of data center development on electrical infrastructure and (3) encouraging the development of distributed energy to enhance reliability. Improved coordination would be useful.

View supporting figure (pdf)

Why attend this session?

• Learn what the DOE, EPA, CEC, PG&E, NYSERDA and others are doing to encourage greater data center energy efficiency.
• Engage in a dialogue about how industry and utility groups, and states can engage to promote greater data center energy efficiency.
• Be part of the solution for this fast-growing industry
  

For more information, contact:

Aimee T. McKane
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
e-mail: atmckane@lbl.gov

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