On June 15, the CEE Board of Directors approved a new Data Centers and Servers Initiative and a dedicated committee to pursue savings in this dynamic work area. With growing online transactions and national requirements for storing digital data, data centers and servers are already a significant energy end-use and are expected to represent over two percent of U.S. electricity consumption by 2011.

During the past six months, a CEE exploratory committee researched and identified energy-efficiency opportunities in data centers and servers. Their results indicate that opportunities in data centers, which can range from closet-sized rooms with one or two servers to football-sized facilities with hundreds or thousands of servers, are significant.

“Based on the committee’s results, the CEE Board felt that the time was right to establish a presence in this work area,” said CEE Commercial Program Manager Jason Erwin. “Efficiency program administrators are eager to identify, understand, and develop data center program opportunities. Meanwhile, the industry is clearly trying to address their space and power challenges.”

Operational enhancements alone, without significant capital improvements, can enable businesses to reduce energy consumption in their data centers by 10 percent or more. In addition, improving the performance and utilization of servers combined with enhanced cooling and facilities infrastructure can bolster savings even further.

One CEE member, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, established its “High Tech Program” last year and is offering various incentives to local businesses to reduce data center energy consumption. Several other CEE members and contributors on the exploratory committee may develop data center programs later this year.

CEE is working closely with ENERGY STAR and the high tech industry to develop voluntary server energy performance specifications and to explore other program strategies to mine the great energy savings potential in data centers. CEE will continue to work closely with ENERGY STAR on their server and data center initiatives, while monitoring industry developments.

A data centers and servers track will be featured at the CEE Industry Partner’s Meeting on September 25 and 26 in St. Louis, Mo. For more information or to participate in the new Data Centers and Servers Committee, please contact Jason Erwin.

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