Energy Consumption Management

Minder Singh
January 3, 2009

Beyond the Cap and Trade Debate: The Advantages of Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

The idea of measuring, monitoring and ultimately conserving energy used to be the exclusive province of environmentalists and power companies. 

Today, however, you don’t have to be a vocal advocate of saving the Earth to appreciate the value of reducing your data center’s carbon footprint:

• Reducing the energy needed for temperature and humidity management could save your department thousands of dollars.
• Managing your energy usage more effectively can free up power for future data center growth.
• Reducing energy usage now will also position your company to better accommodate future government restrictions and conservation efforts.

Indeed, the increased demand for energy is becoming a primary concern in companies across the country and around the world. Since data center energy costs can be 100 times higher than those for typical buildings, the challenge, therefore, is managing the data center in such a way that it will use existing energy more efficiently. 

Learn More:

• The Green Grid
• Data Center Energy Management (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
• U.S. Green Building Council
• The Energy and Environmental Building Alliance
• Green Building Initiative
• ASHRAE

Carbon Trading 101

Many countries are embracing carbon trading. Japan, for example – as a result of the Kyoto Protocol for reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming – is practicing carbon trading. In the United States, companies are now trading “voluntary” allowances on the Chicago Climate Exchange.  And U.S. President Barack Obama stated his support for a “market-based cap on carbon pollution” in his first address to Congress. 

Carbon trading programs enable companies to buy credits to cover their carbon generation, while more energy-efficient companies have an opportunity to sell carbon credits.  In both cases there is a need to track the amount of carbon generated and to document changes.

Related Links:

• The Carbon Tax Center: Introduction to Cap and Trade 
• The Carbon Tax Center: Carbon Taxes vs. Cap and Trade
• The U.S. Congressional Budget Office: Evaluating Cap and Trade Programs 
• The Brookings Institute: The Complexities of Cap and Trade Policies

Raritan Is Here To Help

Our Power IQ™ energy management software can issue carbon usage and change reports for independent certification and the issuance of carbon credits. The analytics software collects device-level power data and calculates carbon produced to generate the energy consumed by the IT devices. It can generate reports at any level – including by data center, customer, department and rack.

“The need for understanding energy consumption at the individual equipment level is key for executing any energy or greenhouse gas emissions reduction program in a data center,” said James Cerwinski, Senior Product Manager at Raritan. “Detailed power information turned into useful insight is how Power IQ can help customers solve today’s energy-related data center issues. Our goal is to help customers reduce energy costs and their carbon footprint by providing them with a systematic, auditable approach.”

Stay Tuned

Over the next few months, Raritan will be using this space to bring you the latest thinking and insights on reducing energy usage, carbon trading and progress with the U.S. Cap and Trade debate. We’ll provide links to educational sites and articles that cover these important topics.

Latest Articles:
Businessweek: Obama’s Carbon Cap-and-Trade Plan Can Boost Growth
U.S. Carbon Report: Waxman-Markey “Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009”
Greener Computing: The Whys and Hows of Measuring Power in Your Data Center

 

Videos:

Raritan: Interview at Energy Asia, Part 1»

Raritan: Interview at Energy Asia, Part 2»

Data Center Power, Environmental Monitoring and Energy Reporting »

Power IQ Data Center Energy Management for APC PDUs »