The Green Grid Data Center Power Efficiency Metrics: PUE and DCiE

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Metrics & Measurements

23 October, 2007

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Editors:
Christian Belady, Microsoft

Contributors:
Andy Rawson, AMD
John Pflueger, Dell
Tahir Cader, Spraycool

The Green Grid is an association of IT professionals seeking to dramatically raise the energy efficiency of data centers through a series of short-term and long-term proposals. This is an update to the very first white paper published by the Green Grid in February 2007 called "Green Grid Metrics: Describing Data Center Power Efficiency" to refine the nomenclature and intent of that paper. In that paper, The Green Grid proposed the use of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and its reciprocal, Data Center Efficiency (DCE) metrics, which enable data center operators to quickly estimate the energy efficiency of their data centers, compare the results against other data centers, and determine if any energy efficiency improvements need to be made. Since then, PUE has received broad adoption in the industry but DCE has had limited success due to the misconception of what data center efficiency really means. As a result, this paper reaffirms the use of PUE but redefines its reciprocal as data center infrastructure efficiency (DCiE). This refinement will avoid much of the confusion around DCE and will now be called DCiE.

Cambridge Elean Data Campus a Vision of the Future

At Cambridge we are building 700,000 sq ft ( 65,000 sq M) and utilising existing technology, Elean reduces the energy footprint from 65 MG to 34MG (52%), actual utility bills by 27% guaranteed for 25 years. The project will be exempt from CRC Taxing, this further increases the energy costs. This is achieved by on site Combined Heat & Power, and all base chilled water generated by Absorption Cooling. Through this unique model the site PUE will be below 1. Energy Cost savings across the site will exceed £1.4B, over 25 years which makes no allowance for proposed CRC Levy. See eleandata.com for technical information

Posted at 01:54 AM on October 21, 2009 by ALEX J Arthur CEO BNB Developments Ltd

Reusing sound energy in a data center

I would like to know if there are ways in which we can reuse the sound energy in data centers. May be use a transducer or nanotechnology to convert the sound energy into electrical energy?

Posted at 06:43 AM on September 09, 2009 by Jyothi

PUEs for Enterprise Data Centers

Thank you for your question relating to PUE values for Enterprise Data Centers. Assuming that the sites reporting these values are following the reporting and usage guidelines recommended by The Green Grid (see associated white paper on The Green Grid website), values as low as 1.2 are achieved through a number of ways: 1. Free air-cooling, also implemented as air-side economization. 2. Water-side economization. 3. Highly efficient power distribution path, e.g., highly efficient UPSs. In general, being able to cool without the benefit of a chiller seems to have one of the largest impacts on driving PUE down. Of course, there are a number of other practices that can be implemented, including water-cooling. The latest EPA data for PUE shows an average PUE of 2.04. Unfortunately, I have not seen a breakdown of the data center Tier levels for the data reported by the EPA.

Posted at 04:04 PM on August 28, 2009 by Tahir Cader, HP, member of The Green Grid.

what is best efficiency

I was reading another site where it indicates that some of the top enterprise class data centers may have a PUE as low as 1.2. Is that a realistic number? If so, are these data centers using some new type of water cooling technology that is more energy efficicient? The EPA predicts that data center power usage may double between 2006 and 2011. That EPA report is a couple of years old. Does it still hold or are we more efficient than that now. thanks,

Posted at 03:02 PM on August 28, 2009 by Joyce Johnson

Additional info on power efficiency

Thank you for your question relating to cooling efficiency in the data center. The white paper refers to a metric called PUE (or DCiE). The metric is defined as: PUE = Total Facility Power / IT Power Many data centers are coming in with PUEs around 2.04 (the latest EPA data). This means that for every 1W consumed at the IT equipment, e.g., a server, 1.04W additional power are consumed to deliver power to and cool that piece of IT equipment. It gets a little more complicated to separate the power distribution losses from the cooling system power consumption, but this example gives the general idea of what is involved. Of the additional 1.04W, most of this power will go to running the cooling system.

Posted at 11:59 AM on August 21, 2009 by Tahir Cader, HP, member of The Green Grid

additional info on power efficiency

Just for my benefit, it would be interesting to see how much energy is expended to cool a data center. For instance, if the actual work from a server requires 1W of power, how many additional watts are needed to remove the heat dissipated from that particular server? thank you

Posted at 09:49 AM on August 20, 2009 by Joyce Johnson

Becoming a Member

Thank you for your interest in joining The Green Grid. This is an exciting time to get involved in The Green Grid and support our efforts to improve energy efficiency in data centers. Please visit the Become a Member tab to learn more on how to join. We have also sent you a follow-up email for more information. Again, thank you for your interest in engaging with The Green Grid. We look forward to working with you and are happy to answer any questions you may have about The Green Grid’s initiatives and membership in the organization.

Posted at 02:09 PM on July 27, 2009 by The Green Grid Administration

information

hello i am hamed salehi i live in asia i need to know how can i join as a grid member and how much do i earn? www.hamedsalehii206@gmail.com please answer me as soon as possible

Posted at 08:04 AM on July 14, 2009 by hamed salehi

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