Federal Government Initiatives to Reduce Data Center Energy Use Sustainable Computing from the Desktop to the Datacenter

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Federal Government Initiatives to Reduce Data
Center Energy Use Sustainable Computing from
the Desktop to the Datacenter

• Andrew Fanara
• United States Environmental Protection Agency
• Climate Protection Partnership Division
• ENERGY STAR Product Specification Development
• fanara.andrew_at_epa.gov

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Broad Themes We Are Paying Attention to

• Awareness of energy issues and concern for
  environment and climate change growing among
  individuals and business globally
• Green economy on our door step -- but lacking a
  stable foundation
• Energy demand associated with our growing digital
  economy becoming better understood
• Opportunity for tech to improve the energy
  productivity of many economic sectors
  (transportation, manufacturing, products,
  buildings, lifestyles)
• US (and growing array of other governments) see
  efficiency, vs.. supply alone, as a key component
  national energy strategy
• Datacenter efficiency a prime global opportunity

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World Primary Energy DemandBy Major Fuel

• Fossil fuels account for 80 of world energy
  demand and will account for 83 of the increase
  in overall demand from 2004 -- 2030

From the World Energy Outlook 2006, International
Energy Agency
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Charting Energy Consumption A Pattern of
Growing Energy Demand
2004 Energy Consumption 100 quads
2004 Energy Expenditures 910 billion
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Commercial Sector Energy Consumption
(quadrillion Btu)
Source February 2007 Monthly Energy Review, EIA
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Electric Power Sector Energy Use (quadrillion
Btu)
Source February 2007 Monthly Energy Review, EIA
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Rising Utility Rates2005 Average by Region
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The Energy Straightjacket

• Deliverability limitations in all markets for all
  fuels
• Oil market restrained by refining capacity
• Coal market restrained by rail mining capacity
• Electricity constrained by available fuel
  transmission, rising construction cost
• high demand taxes grid infrastructure
• Renewables limited by equipment manufacturing
• Fuel switching limited by tight markets

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Energy Efficiency Still the Cheapest Resource
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Contributing Factors in CO2 Reductions 2004-2030
Source Noé van Hulst, IEA
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Energy-Efficient Investments Could be an Even
Bigger Business

• ACEEE estimates that, with additional policies
  and incentives, the rate of decline in energy
  intensity could grow from a projected rate of
  1.8 to 2.5 per annum through 2030.
• If we were to achieve the higher rate of
  improvement in intensity, annual investments in
  energy-efficiency technologies could double to
  400 billion or more annually.
• Increased efficiency would reduce projected
  energy consumption by 30 at an average payback
  of 5 years (perhaps less).
• Source ACEEE, American Council for an Energy
  Efficient Economy

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• Increased media attention reflects resurgence in
  commitment to environmentalism

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Climate Concerns Gaining Momentum
NY Times, February 6, 2007
CNN, April 29, 2007
BBC News, October 31, 2006
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What are the Risk to Business?

• Energy Supply, Security Climate Change
• Physical risk to property from extreme weather
• Financial risk to the health and competitiveness
  of firms
• Reputational risk due to poor public and
  investor community perception
• There is a growing demand for energy management
  strategies designed to mitigate that will provide
  a competitive advantage

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Where do INFORMATION FACTORIES Fit In?

• Data centers are energy intensive facilities
• Server racks now designed to carry 25 kW load
• Surging demand for data storage
• Typical facility 1MW, can be gt 20 MW
• Nationally 1.5 of US Electricity consumption in
  2006
• Could double in next 5 years
• Critical national and global infrastructure
• Few options to go off the grid or diversify
  supply
• Good candidates for efficiency investments by
  utilities to reduce peak loads
• DC operators want help with their energy
  challenges!

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Where do INFORMATION FACTORIES Fit In?

• Significant data center building boom,
• Power and cooling constraints in existing
  facilities
• Growing demand for compute cycles
• Growing computing performance
• Commoditized hardware
• Declining cost of computing

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Where Data Center Power Goes
Source EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc., New
York
Other than a common power source they are not
connected.
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Power, Space Cooling

• Over the next five years, power failures and
  limits on power availability will halt data
  center operations at more than 90 of all
  companies
• (AFCOM Data Center Institutes Five Bold
  Predictions, 2006)
• By 2008, 50 of current data centers will have
  insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet
  the demands of high-density equipment
• (Gartner press release, 2006)
• Survey of 100 data center operators 40 reported
  running out of space, power, cooling capacity
  without sufficient notice
• (Aperture Research Institute)

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The Rising Cost of Ownership

• From 2000 2006, computing performance increased
  25x but energy efficiency only 8x
• Amount of power consumed per 1,000 of server
  spending has increased 4x
• Cost of electricity and supporting infrastructure
  now surpasses capital cost of IT equipment
• Perverse incentives -- IT and facilities costs
  separate

Source The Uptime Institute, 2007
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Industry Action Climate Savers

• Global non-profit consortium of industry,
  business, universities, conservation groups,
  governments, consumers
• Goals
• Accelerate production/distribution of energy
  efficient computers
• Increase use of power management tools
• Desired Results
• Reduce the computing industrys carbon footprint
• Lower TCO for computer users
• Make high efficiency the norm for the industry
• Web site www.climatesaverscomputing.org.

Source Bill Weihl, Google, Digital Power Forum
2007
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Source Bill Weihl, Google, Digital Power Forum
2007
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Industry Action Green Grid

• Global consortium dedicated to developing and
  promoting energy efficiency for data centers by
• Defining meaningful, user-centric models and
  metrics
• Developing standards, measurement methods, best
  practices and technologies to improve performance
  against the defined metrics
• Promoting the adoption of energy efficient
  standards, processes, measurements and
  technologies

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Green Grid Initiatives

• Create shared definitions, benchmarks and metrics
  to enable real-time measurement monitoring and
  control of data center efficiency and
  productivity
• Create baseline 'state-of-the-industry'
  documentation including benchmark architectures
  and a repository of data center efficiency
  knowledge
• Create a comprehensive technology roadmap for
  future data center design to maximize efficient
  and productive operations
• Assess new and alternate data center technologies
  
• Monitor progress on all fronts/provide periodic
  updates

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Whats the Governments Role?

• Federal agencies (EPA DOE) can be catalyst
• Stimulate competition on energy efficiency
• Foster discussions between key stakeholders
• Provide key recommendations (EPA Report to
  Congress)
• Encourage development of standardized test
  procedures and metrics to measure energy
  consumption and make it more transparent
• Promote initiatives globally
• Canada, EU, UK, China, India, Australia are
  showing interest

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Public Law 109-431 EPA Report

• Purpose assess energy impacts on and from
  datacenters, identify energy efficiency
  opportunities, and recommend strategies to drive
  the market for efficiency
• Goals
• Inform Congress other policy makers of
  important market trends, forecasts, opportunities
• Identify and recommend potential short and long
  term efficiency opportunities and match them with
  the right policies
• Identify areas for additional strategic research
  outside the scope of the report

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EPA Report Findings

• Trends in Data Center Energy Use
• Sector consumed about 61 billion KWh in 2006
• Equates to 1.5 total U.S. electricity
  consumption and 4.5 billion
• Federal sector 6 billion kWh and 450 million
• Projected to increase to 100 billion kWh in 2011
• Equates to 2.5 of total U.S. electricity
  consumption and 7.4 billion

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Comparison of Projected Electricity UseAll
Scenarios 2007 - 2011
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Electricity Use by End-Use2000 to 2006
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Report Findings cont.

• Identified Key Barriers to Energy Efficiency
• Lack of efficiency definitions for equipment and
  data centers
• Service output difficult to measure, varies among
  applications
• Need for metrics and more data How do we account
  for computing performance?
• Split incentives
• Disconnect between IT and facilities managers
• Risk aversion
• Fear of change and potential downtime energy
  efficiency perceived as a change with uncertain
  value and risk

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Report Recommendations

• Standardized performance measurements for IT
  equipment and data centers
• Development of benchmark/metric for data centers
• ENERGY STAR label for servers, considering
  storage and network equipment
• Leadership by federal government
• Publicly report energy performance of datacenters
  
• Conduct energy efficiency assessments in all
  datacenters in 2-3 years
• Architect of the Capital, implement
  server-related recommendations in Greening of the
  Capital report

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Recommendations cont.

• Private Sector Challenge
• CEOs conduct DOE Save Energy Now energy
  efficiency assessments, implement measures, and
  report performance
• Information on Best Practices
• Raise awareness and reduce perceived risk of
  energy efficiency improvements in datacenter
• Government partner with private industry case
  studies, best practices
• Research and Development
• Develop technologies and practices for datacenter
  energy efficiency (e.g., hardware, software,
  power conversion)

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ENERGY STAR for Servers

• Server energy demand drives DC power cooling
  needs
• Goal Create protocol to measure server energy
  efficiency to allow fair competition
• Technical specification would have several key
  elements
• Definitions of product categories eligible for
  ENERGY STAR
• Test procedure to measure energy efficiency
  computing performance
• Energy efficiency performance levels
• Tier 1 may include power supply efficiency and
  other criteria but would be phased out in the
  longer term
• Tier 2, would be holistic system efficiency metric

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ENERGY STAR for Servers

• Power Supply Efficiency -- A Possible Tier 1
• Why higher efficiency for server power supplies?
• Common hardware denominator
• Lower HVAC costs gtgt 1 to 1.5 kWh HVAC savings for
  every kWh saved at the plug
• More computing space increase computational
  density
• Reduce CO2 emissions 1kWh 1.6 lbs of CO2
• Test Procedure developed by Electric Power
  Research Institute (EPRI)
• Testing and verifying power supply efficiency and
  reliability performance
• Developing recommendations for 80 Plus program

Source Brian Fortenbery, EPRI, Digital Power
Forum 2007
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Data on Single Voltage Power Supplies for Servers
Results of 30 different Single and Multiple
Output Server PSUs tested at 230VAC
Source Brian Fortenbery, EPRI, Digital Power
Forum 2007
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Observations on PS Data

• Data shows a large spread of efficiencies at
  different load points
• Efficiency drops off rapidly below 20 load, but
  many Server PS operate below 20 - especially in
  redundant configurations
• 10 test condition included in test procedure
• Single Voltage server supplies generally have
  higher efficiency than multi-voltage PC supplies
• Operates at higher voltage for increased
  efficiency
• Eliminating less efficient 5V and 3.3V buses
  improves the overall efficiency of the power
  supply for the same power rating

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ENERGY STAR for Servers

• Other Possible Tier 1 Requirements
• Power Management - What does this mean for
  servers?
• Standardized labels for consumers to compare
  server capability/energy use
• Similar to DOE labels on white goods
• Standard Ethernet protocol for querying power
  consumption of server components
• Adaptive speed Ethernet (similar to Version 4.0
  ENERGY STAR Computer Specification)

Source Brian Fortenbery, EPRI, Digital Power
Forum 2007
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ENERGY STAR for Servers

• Server Performance Benchmark A Possible Tier 2
• January 2006 SPEC Power and Performance Committee
  began development of benchmark for evaluating
  energy efficiency of servers
• Working prototype has been developed -- final
  product by the end of 2007
• Could require reporting of SPEC score in Tier 1
  to determine applicability to Tier 2
• More info on progress www.spec.org/specpower

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Next Steps for Servers

• Draft framework discussion document distributed
  for stakeholder review July 2007
• Current
• review of stakeholder comments on framework
  discussion document
• gathering relevant information
• October 31 ENERGY STAR stakeholder meeting to
  discuss Draft 1 specification requirements
• Following the Uptime Institute 2007 Charette in
  Santa Fe, NM October 28-30 www.uptimeinstitute.org
  /charette
• Goal Tier 1 specification finalized by early
  2008

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Data Center Energy Plan
Measure data center using developed / available
metrics
Implement changes in operations (eliminate
comatose servers, virtualize and consolidate
existing servers, enable available power
management, implement other best practices)
Alter procurement policies for new hardware to
emphasize efficiency
Remeasure regularly to determine savings
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Data center energy efficiency assessment

• A simple standard to assess data center energy
  efficiency
• Compares total power used by the data center to
  the power used by the technology
• Provides a market comparison
• Demonstrates range for opportunity improvement

Objective
Most energy efficient
Least energy efficient
Current
1.5
3.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
(1) Standard supported by Green Grid, originally
published by Lawrence Berkley National
Laboratory, 2003
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Opportunities for Energy Savings

• Government will encourage industry to look at all
  opportunities to improve energy productivity in
  best practices in DC design, operation and for
  equipment
• Software will be looked at as both a driver of
  and a solution to increased energy consumption in
  the data center
• With more energy transparency due to common
  metrics, markets can develop to foster fair
  competition

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Power Mgnt. for Your Desktop

• Get organizations to
• Primary Activate power management features (will
  have numeric goals)
• Secondary Buy ENERGY STAR products
• Think about the impact of IT/office equipment on
  global warming
• Tie together the various ES IT savings
  opportunities (products tools) into something
  larger and more useful to participants
• Offer more ways to save energy money than just
  CPM
• Leverage corporate carbon reduction initiatives
• Coordinate with Green Grid and Climate Savers to
  carry message

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Final Thoughts and Take Aways

• More attention being paid to the implications of
  energy supply and demand than ever before
• We are seeing the emergence of a more
  environmentally sensitive consumer class
• Is government leading or following public
  sentiment?
• Enterprise wide strategic energy management and
  planning a competitive must have for every
  organization
• Voluntary and industry schemes (and claims) to
  save energy will increasingly be questioned for
  their effectiveness -- they must be challenging
  and verifiable to be credible

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Andrew Fanarafanara.andrew_at_epa.gov

• For more information
• www.energystar.gov
• http//www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/saveenergynow
  /
• http//hightech.lbl.gov/datacenters.html

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Energy Efficiency Gives More!

• Since 1970, energy efficiency has met 77 of new
  energy service demands in the U.S, while new
  energy supplies have contributed only 23 of new
  energy service demands.

Energy Service Demand
Energy Supply
1970 Energy Usage
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A Roadmap to Better Datacenter Mgnt.?

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