EPA Suggestions to Improve Data Center Electrical Power Systems Energy Efficiency
As the price of energy increases, companies, in a bid to remain viable, are having to tighten their belts and search for ways to become more energy efficient. Many businesses are consequently turning their attention to their data centers, as these facilities are a major source of power consumption; owing to the fact that they house the majority of companies’ computing components. A recent report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mirrored businesses’ concerns regarding rising energy costs in relation to electrical power systems at data centers, however; the EPA has also pinpointed other issues stemming from such installations, including: growing strain placed on the existing power grid due to an increase in the demand for electrical power; and increased emissions, such as greenhouse gases from electricity generation.
Environmental institutes are consequently calling for data centers to rapidly become more energy efficient, with the EPA putting forward three separate strategies that centers can implement to improve their energy efficiency. These steps are known as ‘Improved Operation’, ‘Best Practice’ and ‘State-of-the-Art’. All three of these strategies comprise similar practices and work toward the same goal; however each method attacks the issue of data center energy inefficiency and the importance of efficient electrical power systems.
Improved Operation Electrical Power Systems
‘Improved operation’ is a simple strategy, which basically aims to get data centers moving in the right direction regarding energy conservation. This method basically focuses upon changes that require little or no immediate financial input, such as: enabling power management systems for hardware; eliminating unutilized equipment; rearranging the center floor plan to maximize cooling potential; and modestly adopting more energy efficient components. It is said that these measures are able to reduce data center energy consumption by up to 30 percent.
Best Practice Electrical Power Systems
The ‘Best Practice’ strategy in comparison incorporates all measures taken in ‘Improved Operation’; however this scheme also requires more extreme actions to be taken. ‘Best Practices’ requires the aggressive incorporation of ‘green servers’, as well as more energy efficient power supplies, transformers and cooling systems, and is said to cut cost by up to 70 percent. This strategy is however much more financially taxing to implement than ‘Improved Operation’, which tends to deter smaller businesses.
The final proposed method put forward by the EPA is ‘State-of-the-Art’, which is the most expensive of the three suggestions regarding implementation, as it requires the adoption of all measures associated with ‘Improved Operation’ and ‘Best Practice’. In addition ‘State-of-the-Art’ calls for the implementation of extensive power management operations and direct liquid cooling. Owing to these major changes, application of this scheme may only be possible during renovations of an existing facility, or during the construction of a new installation.
In conclusion, it can be noted that the three methods proposed by the EPA regarding the improvement of data center energy efficiency have the potential to greatly reduce centers’ energy consumption. In reality however, the actual measures put in place often depend on the individual data center, as different centers house specialized electrical power systems, components and are utilized for diverse purposes. The cost involved in implementing the latter two schemes may also cause companies to overlook them as possibilities.
