Metering and Managing Energy Consumption in Data Centres

Rising prices, carbon regulation, and HEFCE targets are all making universities and colleges pay greater attention to their energy consumption and carbon emissions. As data centres are already around 8% of sector electricity consumption – and the proportion is rising – this means the area has to do more to improve energy efficiency. There are many cost-effective options now available to achieve this (see www.goodcampus.org for examples) but action is often blocked by difficulties in identifying the best improvement actions and/or by lack of financial incentives for IT departments to take action. Measuring and monitoring of energy consumption (through fixed or temporary physical sub-meters or digital meters within IT equipment) is central to solving both these problems. One key outcome from this can be the introduction of devolved energy budgeting, shared savings and other schemes which enable IT departments to benefit financially from improvement actions.

However, whilst simple in principle, metering and monitoring can be difficult in practice. The aim of this seminar is therefore to examine sector experience, and to share knowledge, with a view to answering questions such as:

• What are the key areas which need to be permanently metered?

• What are the best kinds of physical meter to use?

• How can virtual meters be set up?

• How can metered data be used to drive concrete improvement actions?

This workshop will explore these topics and provide an opportunity for estates, finance, and IT staff to acquire new information, and share experiences and thinking. It is a joint initiative of three JISC financed projects - Responsible Energy Costs, led by Forum for the Future, Greening Scientific Computing, led by HEEPI’s SusteIT project, and the LeedsMet Measuring Data Centre Energy Efficiency project.