Green gong goes to power utility's data centre

Beverley Head
Thursday, 25 March 2010 15:58

Business IT - Technology

Hong Kong based utility CLP Power this afternoon won Gartner's Green Data Centre Excellence gong, having sliced its IT power demand by 16 per cent,  and improved its power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating from 2.31 to 1.8 over the last two years.

PUE ratings measure data centre efficiency, with efficiency improving as the rating gets closer to 1. According to Andre Blumberg, group planning, control and IT operations manager for CLP, PUE was a good metric, although it had some drawbacks, and he did not believe it was possible to get much lower than 1.6.

Speaking at Gartner's infrastructure, operations and data centre management summit, currently being held in Sydney, Blumberg said that 'A utility is a dirty business,' but that the company had established a target to reduce its 2008 IT baseline CO2 emissions by 15 per cent within five years.

Acknowledging 'this may not seem like a stretch target,' Blumberg said that the growth trajectory of the company (3-5 per cent a year in Hong Kong, and 30 per cent in the region) made it a significant commitment.

CLP Power was up against a quirky, but highly pragmatic, green IT submission from Insurance Australia Group involving rainwater tanks. IAG Data Centre Facilities manager David Wait explained the organisation had installed rainwater tanks to supply the data centre with water, and that these had proved invaluable to spray-cool the air conditioning chillers on Black Saturday in February 2009 when temperatures on the roof of the data centre topped 50 degrees Celsius.

Wait explained that although the chillers were rated to 47 degrees C, the spray cooling meant the data centre continued to operate through the day. Having rainwater tanks also meant the centre would be supplied with water even if mains water lines had been cut.

A third submission from Reliance Australia outlined how server consolidation in the organisation's data centre had reduced the energy costs from $409,000 a year to $28,000; while storage consolidation had cut power costs from $209,000 to $105,000.