• Sustainable Buildings & Campuses
• Operations & Maintenance
• Greenhouse Gases
• Water Efficiency
• Data Center Energy Efficiency
  • Energy Consumption Trends
  • Federal Partnership for Green Data Centers
  • Resources
• Industrial Facilities
• Sustainable Federal Fleets
• Laboratories for the 21st Century

Resources on Data Center Energy Efficiency

FEMP compiled the following resources to help Federal agencies increase data center energy efficiency. The resources are organized by:

• Best Practices
• Power Supplies
• Servers and Storage
• Cooling Systems
• Metrics and Benchmarking

Best Practices

The following resources outline data center energy efficiency best practices surrounding design and operations:

• FEMP Best Practices Guide for Energy-Efficient Data Center Design: Best practices for energy-efficient data center design spanning systems, environmental conditions, air management, cooling and electrical systems, on-site generation, and heat recovery.

• Quick Start Guide to Increase Data Center Energy Efficiency: Quick guide providing useful first steps towards increasing data center efficiency.

• Reducing Data Center Loads for a Large-Scale, Low-Energy Office Building: Report detailing the design, implementation strategies, and continuous performance monitoring of the National Renewable Energy laboratory (NREL) Research Support Facility data center.

• NREL Research Support Facility Data Center Case Study: Abbreviated case study outlining the design and implementation of NREL's Research Support Facility data center.

• Retro-Commissioning Increases Data Center Efficiency at Low Cost: Success story detailing a retro-commissioning project at the Department of Energy (DOE) Savannah River Site to increase data center energy efficiency.

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Data Center Energy Management: Information and resources focused on data center energy management for both the public and private sector.

• High Performance Data Centers: Design Guidelines Sourcebook: Resource providing viable alternatives to inefficient building and data center inefficiencies.

• LBNL Best Practices Summary: Summary of best practices in high performance buildings for high-tech industries. Resources span heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); power systems; IT equipment; and cross-cutting and miscellaneous issues.

• Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office: DOE work with U.S. computer data centers to reduce energy consumption.

• DOE Leadership in Green IT: Highlights of key accomplishments in green IT and data centers at 17 DOE laboratories.

• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Data Center Video: Video tour of the NREL data center within the laboratory's Research Support Facility (RSF).

Back to top

Power Supplies

The following resources outline data center power supply technologies and best practices to improve energy efficiency:

• Efficiency of Power Supplies in the Active Mode: Information intended to spark a global dialogue on energy-efficient power supplies, especially surrounding power consumption in the active or "on" mode of product operation.

• 80 PLUS® Energy-Efficient Technology Solutions: Forum to unite electric utilities, the computer industry and consumers to bring energy-efficient technology and solutions to the market.

• Quantitative Efficiency Analysis of Power Distribution Configurations for Data Center: Green Grid study of the end-to-end efficiency of eight simplified, non-redundant data center power distribution configuration.

• High Performance Buildings: Data Centers Uninterruptible Power Supplies: Investigates uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) used in data centers and other high-tech facilities to guard against service interruptions from electrical outages.

Back to Top

Servers and Storage

The following resources outline server and storage technologies and best practices to improve energy efficiency:

• ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements for Computer Servers, Version 1.0: Product specifications for ENERGY STAR qualified computer servers.

• ENERGY STAR Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives: Initiatives to assist data centers in assessing site energy efficiency.

• ENERGY STAR Enterprise Servers for Consumers: Overview of ENERGY STAR requirements and specifications for enterprise servers.

• Energy-Efficient Data Center Storage: PROCESSOR article from February 2008 covering energy efficiency and electricity savings through data storage and management.

Back to Top

Cooling Systems

The following resources outline cooling system technologies and best practices to improve energy efficiency:

• DOE Energy 101 Video: Efficient Data Centers: Short video offering an introduction to data center energy efficiency as part of DOE's Energy 101 series.

• Improving Data Center Efficiency with Rack or Row Cooling Devices: Overview of a comparison demonstration on server cooling, which became known as "Chill-Off 2."

• Data Center Airflow Management Retrofit: Increased energy savings for cooling can be realized by optimizing airflow pathways within the data center.

• Wireless Sensors Improve Data Center Energy Efficiency: Wireless sensor network technology can deliver energy savings for cooling by gathering and using information to efficiently manage the data center.

• Data Center Rack Cooling with Rear-Door Heat Exchanger: Technology case study outlining data center rack cooling with rear-door heat exchangers.

• Lessons Learned from Benchmarking 22 Data Centers: Data center best practices gleaned during a 2006 ACEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings.

• High-Density Server Cooling: Engineered Systems article from August 2005 covering high-density server cooling.

• Throwing Water at the Heat Problem: PROCESSOR article from September 2005 on reducing data center server temperatures through liquid cooling.

Back to Top

Data Center Metrics and Benchmarking

The following resources outline data center metrics and benchmarking best practices to improve energy efficiency:

• NSIDC Data Center–Energy Reduction Strategies: Effort significantly reduces the energy use of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

• High Performance Computing (HPC) Data Center Metering Protocol: Methods for measurement in HPC data centers and document system strategies used to increase energy efficiency.

• Green Grid Data Center Power Efficiency Metrics: PUE and DCiE: Green Grid metrics to measure productivity and energy efficiency for all power-consuming systems in the data center.

• Green Grid Library and Tools: Definitions and tools to simplify and streamline data center operational and energy efficiency.

• DC Pro Software Tool: Saving Energy in Data Centers: Tool to identify and evaluate data center energy efficiency opportunities.

• Self-Benchmarking Guide for Data Center Infrastructure: Guide describing energy efficiency metrics and benchmarks used to identify and track opportunities to reduce data center energy use in HVAC and electrical systems.

• Self-Benchmarking Guide for High-Tech Buildings - Data Centers: LBNL guide describing energy efficiency metrics and benchmarks used to track performance and identify potential energy efficiency opportunities in data centers.

• Self-Benchmarking Guide for Data Center Energy Performance Version 1.0: Guide to performing a comprehensive measurement, or benchmarking, of facility data center energy use.

• Green Grid Free Cooling Estimated Savings: Calculator to determine free-cooling estimated savings.

• LBNL Data Center Energy Benchmarking Case Studies: Series of anonymous site reports summarizing data center energy benchmarking results and efficiency improvement opportunities.

• Energy Efficiency for Network Equipment; Two Steps beyond Greenwashing: Measurement-based approach for defining network efficiency with respect to power consumption.

Back to Top