Utility companies driving reduction

California’s utility companies, for example, prompted by DoE and the CA PUC, are driving to reduce the appetite and consumption of energy costs and workers with customers, partners, service companies, consultants, vendors and others to create and adopt products and technology that improve efficient use of electricity regardless of producing source (most is coal) and to provide rebates to companies and agencies that embrace the program.

Early adopter and innovator utilities such as PG&E are leading the way in energy efficiency benchmarks and rebates at the regional level. California electrical utility companies are offering both standardized and customized rebate programs to customers who develop and implement an energy reduction plan with the electrical utility company.


The Historical Trends Scenario line depicts data center energy consumption growth through 2011 if historical usage and technology trends continue, reaching just over 120 billion kilowatt hours of energy consumption.

As every IT pro knows data centers are being reinvented via virtualization, servers and other infrastructure with better performance per watt and the increasingly popularity of cloud computing. How to migrate or make an all out move from your legacy position to your next generation solution is not cut and dried. It’s a complex and emotional decision as well as functional in scope. It requires careful consideration of not only energy desires or mandates but myriad applications, users, security issues, confidence next generation equipment is ready for prime time, platforms and technologies are robust, have scalable features and functionality and meet the business model for the enterprise.

Our non-intrusive energy use benchmark process allows for a solid baseline of electricity peak load and modeling for evaluating cost effective solutions. The GEAR team works with customer companies and agencies and their energy utilities to identify and apply energy efficient solutions meeting four key requirements:

• 1. Data center energy efficiency
• 2. Data center effectiveness
• 3. Provide an energy focus to data centers
• 4. Adopt tools and processes others have favorably applied

As you can see from the chart below the data center and IT equipment in an enterprise use close to 20% of the total consumed power. Energy companies and customers are encouraged and incentivized by the DoE to reduce energy costs across the enterprise including in data centers.

An Energy Rebate Program, or Energy Credit Incentive Program, provides a cash rebate program for customers planning to install new, energy efficient information technology (IT) equipment or cooling systems. These programs push companies to construct more energy efficient data centers, or to consolidate compute, storage and networking resources via virtualization technologies.

An Energy Rebate Program is a simple way for customers to apply and qualify for various energy rebates offered by energy service companies, or utilities, in their respective coverage areas. To lower IT equipments carbon footprint, data center customers are looking at processes for protecting and respecting the environment through eco-friendly operations and data center design. This idea is being pushed by organizations such as The Green Grid, Climate Savers Computing Initiative and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Customer demand for energy rebates encourages the development of programs for IT vendors' computers, storage, networking or data center facilities. IT vendors are taking steps to provide more energy efficient IT systems and working with utilities to secure rebate savings for customers and their new installations.

In the past, data center designers and operators focused on data center reliability, not on energy efficiency. Data center power density is leading to power and cooling limitations, companies have significant interest in energy efficiency as a potential solution to data center issues. Customers are searching to justify their costs on annual electricity costs, cooling costs, and power costs. Utilizing energy efficient equipment and testing results of your data center enable companies to pin point where potential cost-cutting procedures can take place.

Origins for Energy Rebate Programs offered by utilities began with the Non-Residential New Construction (NRNC) program. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) targeted energy savings toward the IT industry (and other commercial businesses). Dozens of utilities are emulating the PG&E programs nationally, and many more utility companies plan to implement an energy rebate program. A basis for the program is the Standard Performance Contract (SPC). SPC offers non-residential customer for installing new, high efficiency equipment or systems. For the period from 2009-2011, PG&E has reserved, for example, $50 million in energy credit incentives for data centers alone.

The GEAR team works closely with the PG&E team. We are fully certified in PG&E energy efficiency benchmark processes and procedures and serve as your partner to achieve maximum rebate benefits as a result of implementing energy efficiency solutions.