High-Performance Buildings for High-Tech Industries (original) (raw)

Data Centers

Links: Data Centers R&D Roadmap • Benchmarking • Best Practices Guidelines • Bibliography • Organizations • Self-paced Training • Self-benchmarking Protocol • DC Power Achitecture Demo

Data centers have exhibited steady energy demand growth, and electric utilities have received sizeable requests for electrical power for new facilities. Although the demand has subsided somewhat following the dot.com bust, there are many challenges to understanding this market and large opportunity for energy efficiency improvement.

Key Areas of Research Currently Under Way:

Investigate data center efficiency opportunities and perform energy benchmarking

• Develop self-benchmarking procedures
• Identify and promulgate current best practices

Perform high priority research directed at improving data center building systems

• Determine the range of current UPS efficiencies, highlight more efficient designs, and provide a means for comparing their total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Analyze the energy efficiency savings potential and conduct a demonstration of DC power architecture for data centers

Perform high priority activities directed at improving the efficiency of IT equipment in data centers

• Documenting existing efficiencies of server power supplies
• Field-testing achievable energy savings from more efficient power supplies in operating server installations
• Assess other power supply savings opportunities in data centers

Investigate how IT equipment energy consumption varies with computation loads (and a Summary) and develop a metric to quantify this.