(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The Green Grid (www.thegreengrid.org), an organization of IT companies that work toward advancing energy efficiency in data centers, announced on Friday it has released new tools and reports to help business leaders and data center managers globally improve efficiency in their operations.
The announcement follows the launch of the Green Grid’s new online tool and maps, earlier this year, that lets North American data center managers figure out how much free cooling is available.
Representatives from The Green Grid, United States Environmental Protection Agency and United States Department of Energy, and executives from different industries, met on Friday at a forum hosted in New York by the NYSE Euronext at the New York Stock Exchange to discuss their challenges with data center energy management and the practical steps for improvement.
The Green Grid presented the results of a recently completed assessment of a mid-tier data center operated by the EPA, as well as recommendations for next steps that EPA can follow to improve efficiency.
“We applaud EPA’s leadership in opening up their operations to this level of examination, and we encourage other organizations to work with us to develop standards and explore ways they can improve their own operations,” says John Tuccillo, chairman of the board of The Green Grid. “If the EPA can deploy techniques that improve efficiency by 20 percent, they can save $15,000 per year in this one data center. IDC estimates that there are 75,000 similar-sized data centers across the United States, and if all of them could achieve that same level of savings, more than $1.1 billion in annual energy costs could be avoided in data centers across the country.”
The Green Grid continues to assist the Department of Energy in testing and validating the DC Pro tool, an online software tool provided by the US Department of Energy to help industries find out how energy is being consumed by their data center footprint and identify the best opportunities for savings.
The Green Grid and the US Department of Energy Save Energy Now program have partnered to enhance the Department of Energy’s DC Pro software tool suite.
The organizations are working on ensuring common energy metrics between The Green Grid tools, DC Pro and the ENERGY STAR portfolio manager tool, developing an IT energy assessment module and creating a complementary Certified Energy Practitioner program where data center energy professionals would perform energy assessments using DC Pro.
The Green Grid also introduced new free online tools and maps designed to help data center and facilities managers in Japan and 33 European countries determine how much free cooling is available for individual data centers.
These new tools offer real-world data to help lower energy consumption and related costs, potentially extending the life and improving the energy efficiency of data center facilities.
The Green Grid also introduced a new free online tool for data center managers to record their Power Usage Effectiveness scores.
These scores will be used to establish global consistency in reporting the split between energy flowing to IT equipment and facility operations.
