EPA Sends Data Center Power Study to Congress

BDPrime writes "We've all been hearing ad nauseum about power and cooling issues in the data center. Now the EPA has issued a final report to Congress detailing the problem and what might be done to fix it. Most likely what will happen is the EPA will add servers and data centers into its Energy Star program. If you don't feel like reading the entire 133-page report, the 14-page executive summary is a little easier to get through."

Comments

Summery

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

If you don't feel like reading the entire 133-page report, the 14-page executive summary is a little easier to get through.

Still too long. Can anyone reduce it to a single phrase or word? Thanks in advance

wow

[thatskinnyguy]

n 2006, U.S. data centers consumed an estimated 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy, which accounted for about 1.5% of the total electricity consumed in the U.S. that year.

Is that it? Seems like small potatoes to me.

Re:wow

[jandrese]

1.5% of the total electricity used in the US per year is a huge number. It's like when politicians talk about something really expensive and they say "oh, it's only 1% of our GDP" to make it sound not so bad, except to people who know just how enormous the GDP of this country is.

More importantly, this could probably be reduced considerably without major disruptions or reduction in quality of service by just embracing higher efficiency components in our datacenter equipment (especially servers).

Re:wow

[Bacon Bits]

It's an estimated 11,000,000 servers in everything from 2 server closets to thousand server enterprise centers. These 11 million systems consume more power than all the TV sets in the US combined, and there are more TV sets in the US today than people.

Or lets do it this way. Hoover Dam at peak output produces 2 Gigawatts of power per hour. 11 million servers consume 61 billion KW hours annually. It takes Hoover Dam 30,000 hours (about 3.5 years) to produce that much power. So you need four Hoover Dams just to power all the data centers in the US.

Re:wow

[wcspxyx]

Can you please state that in units us Slashdotters can understand? Like how many Libraries of Congress would we have to burn to get that much energy?

Great scott!

[Bacon Bits]

Snipped from page 5:

These forecasts indicate that unless energy efficiency is improved beyond current trends, the federal government's electricity cost for servers and data centers could be nearly $740 million annually by 2011, with a peak load of approximately 1.2 GW.

Re:Great scott!

[nharmon]

That amount of power can be easily generated with one DeLorean. I'm going back to sleep...

Re:Great scott!

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

$740 million? That's like 4.2 days of the Iraq war!
($177M/day for Iraq http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nat ion/president/2004-08-26-iraq-war-clock_x.htm

That sounds like a big number, and is for most of us, but not for the Federal government. About 29 cents more in taxes off each paycheck (assuming 100 M taxpayers, and paychecks every 2 weeks).

There are much bigger fish to fry.

Also, there is only so much one can cut the energy use, and thus that cost down, and still get the business of the government done. And the improvements in efficiency will require hardware, software, and personnel which have their own costs. Eventually you will hit a point where there is no longer a return on investment to make it worthwhile.

Re:Grampa Simpson:

[Apocalypse111]

I have two buttons on my screen. One of these buttons will supply humorous moderations to your post. The other will release the hounds.

Plead your case.

cogeneration

[MonorailCat]

Move all the data centers to Minnesota or Canada and use them to heat people's houses.

Or better yet! DatacenterBurgerKing with CPU-broiled whoppers.

Re:cogeneration

[misleb]

Ya know, I always wondered why most places weren't more efficient about the cooling of their datacenters... particularly in the winter. Like it'll be 20 degrees F outside and they're STILL running A/C for the computers. WTF? Just vent a small amount of the outside air into the datacenter and you're done. Or better yet, just blow in the air from the offices and send them warm, data center heated air.

Another question, why do we vent the exhaust from our refrigerators into the house during the summer? Just seems like there's a lot you could do to save energy just by moving what would outerwise be waste heat to places where it can either be used or at least not cause a larger cooling problem.

Re:Mandatory Madonna reference

[Nezer]

Having any Govt investigate efficiency is about as practical as the Madonna Commission On Chastity and Modesty.

Which Madonna?

Simple Solution

[evilviper]

I've long been dumbfounded by the way datacenters charge. They seemingly all charge a hell of a lot for physical space, and then almost completely ignore power requirements. This seems incredibly strange, since datacenter operating costs are pretty much tied directly to power consumption (monthly electricity fees, UPSes, electrical generators, cooling, etc.), and only incidentally to physical space.

Further, the cost to handle each extra watt is multiplied thanks to cooling, power back-up, wiring, etc., while increasing the physical size of the building, constructing more datacenters, etc. is just a flat (linear) cost, and mostly just a one-time expenditure at that.

This strange arrangement is what has led us here. It's not the natural evolution of technology to cram as much power consumption into as tiny a box as possible. It's an artificial need, created by the idiotic distribution of fees common to datacenters.

If a few large datacenters declared their fees as a small $$$ value for each unit of space, and additionally a few dollars, per watt of power consumption, you'd see the problem naturally fix itself, through normal economic forces. As soon as watts are the defining factor, companies won't pay more for a cramped 1U server rather than an (inexpensive) 2U or 3U server. You will also see companies happy to pay more for lower-powered server hardware, as having them directly bear the energy cost will make buying efficient servers a significant savings to them.

Re:Simple Solution

[Nezer]

It probably would cost to much to bother reporting on...

Because when you run a multi-million dollar data center, you clearly can't afford install a few-hundred dollar device in each customer's rack especially if it's a major part of how you bill your customer.

Look, the power companies do exactly what the parent poster suggests. Imagine if power companies charged a flat rate each month based on the square footage of your house. There would no incentive (unless your a save-the-planet hippie type which isn't a bad thing) to turn up the setting on the air conditioner (or turn it off all together), keep incandescent lights running 24/7 along with the giant plasma TV. This is essentially how data centers operate today. There is no motivation to have energy efficient servers unless you're the one that owns the data center and pays the power bill. Today the best a data center owner can do is invest in more efficient cooling systems and that's about it.

Re:Simple Solution

[fm6]

If a few large datacenters declared their fees as a small $$ value for each unit of space, and additionally a few dollars, per watt of power consumption, you'd see the problem naturally fix itself, through normal economic forces

How on earth do you track individual power consumption? Putting a meter on each system is hardly practical. I suppose you get away with one on each rack, but many customers (the vast majority in the one data center I worked in) don't rent whole racks.

Congress will act

[MobyDisk]

No doubt our congress will act swiftly by moving daylight savings time to conserve power.

Guessing

[iknownuttin]

Like it'll be 20 degrees F outside and they're STILL running A/C for the computers.

Climate controlled. There's this element among building planners that think any outside air is bad(TM). That's why, even in small buildings where you don't have to worry about pressure differentials blowing windows out like you do in skyscrapers, you can't open a frick'n window in the Fall or Spring when the air smells wonderful and there's this perfect chill in the air the just stimulates the brain.

I'm drenched in sweat here in Hotlanta (it's 82F and 66% humidity and climbing to 94) and I really miss New England's Spring and Fall.

Federal Guidelines for Clock Speed Limits

[infonography]

55 Mhz that's the law, exceed it and your looking at a speeding ticket.