How Does Your Data Center Measure Up? Energy Efficiency Metrics and Benchmarks for Data Center Infrastructure Systems
Data centers are among the most energy intensive types of facilities, and they are growing dramatically in terms of size and intensity [EPA 2007]. As a result, in the last few years there has been increasing interest from stakeholders - ranging from data center managers to policy makers - to improve the energy efficiency of data centers, and there are several industry and government organizations that have developed tools, guidelines, and training programs. There are many opportunities to reduce energy use in data centers and benchmarking studies reveal a wide range of efficiency practices. Data center operators may not be aware of how efficient their facility may be relative to their peers, even for the same levels of service. Benchmarking is an effective way to compare one facility to another, and also to track the performance of a given facility over time. Toward that end, this article presents the key metrics that facility managers can use to assess, track, and manage the efficiency of the infrastructure systems in data centers, and thereby identify potential efficiency actions. Most of the benchmarking data presented in this article are drawn from the data center benchmarking database at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The database was developed from studies commissioned by the California Energy Commission, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Environmental Energy Technologies Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 961535
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-1960E; TRN: US200919%%270
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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