Assistant Energy Secretary Alexander Karsner and John Tuccillo, director of The Green Grid, signed an agreement at an industry roundtable forum that included participants from the financial services and entertainment industries with large New York-based data centers, technology vendors, state government and non-governmental agencies and utilities.

Because energy-intensive data centers are among the fastest growing industries in the United States, DOE has identified them as key to increasing the country’s energy efficiency, reducing load on the electricity grid and enhancing data-center reliability.

If the 10 percent target were achieved, 10 billion kilowatt-hours would be saved, equivalent to electricity consumed by one million U.S. households annually. These energy savings would reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 6.5 million tons per year – equivalent to removing nearly 1.3 million cars from the road annually.

The collaboration will provide data-center managers with a jointly developed set of guidelines to help improve their energy efficiency. Last year, data centers were estimated to have used 61 billion kilowatt-hours, or 1.5 percent, of electricity in the United States. That figure is projected to grow 12 percent per year through 2011.

As partners, the DOE and Green Grid will develop a common set of metrics and tools and develop a Web site so data centers can easily access the resources needed to implement their energy-management programs.

DOE and Green Grid will train company personnel in conducting energy-savings assessments and in identifying energy-efficiency enhancements.

Since 2005, DOE has completed 344 energy-savings assessments in some of the nation’s most energy-intensive companies, identifying over $585 million in potential savings. If fully implemented, the DOE says these energy improvements would yield carbon-emission reductions equivalent to removing nearly 850,000 cars from the road each year.

Source: Environment News Service (ENS).