How to Benchmark Data Center Energy Costs

In the spring of 2007, UPS's Ben Swanson and Joe Parrino attended a conference on the growing problem of data center power consumption. One suggested remedy was to benchmark and analyze the power flowing through the data center. So after the conference, Swanson, the facilities department manager, and Parrino, a data center facilities manager, profiled their two main data centers to learn what they could do to increase their energy efficiency and, ultimately, save money.

They found one crucial area to improve: their 65 computer-room air handlers. Parrino and his team found that some of their power distribution units had perforated tops. "We were losing all sorts of air through the tops of the cabinets," he says, which meant that some of the cool air circulated by the air handlers was being wasted by cooling the PDUs. They restricted the air flow through the cabinets, tested to make sure they wouldn't overheat, then turned 24 air handlers off.

The move has saved UPS 1.6 million kilowatt-hours and about $124,160 per year. And that's not all-they also benchmarked their mechanical cooling system and were able to reduce its energy use, saving an additional $100,000 annually. The mechanical plant of these UPS data centers consumes about half what a typical data center mechanical plant consumes, according to their benchmarking study, Parrino says.

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