Data centers: $7B in annual energy costs

U.S. data centers and their associated infrastructure consumed five million kW of energy in 2005, the equivalent of five 1,000 MW power plants, according to Randy Allen, corporate vice president of chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

In a keynote address at the LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit in New York, Allen revealed findings from a study that calculated, for the first time, the energy consumed by national and global data centers annually.

Supported by a grant from AMD and authored by Jonathan Koomey, Ph.D., staff scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and consulting professor, Stanford University, the study calculates the total power used by servers both in the U.S. and around the world.

The study built on data from analyst firm IDC on the stocks and shipments of servers, as well as measured data and published estimates of the power per unit used by various server models.

Total data center power and electricity consumption for the world was estimated to cost $7.2 billion annually. The report also examines the growth in electricity demands since the year 2000, concluding that over the last five years server energy use has doubled.

"Though we have long known that data centers worldwide consume a significant amount of energy, AMD believes Dr. Koomey's findings are a wake-up call not just for the IT industry, but also for global business, government and policy leaders," said AMD's Allen.

"This study demonstrates that unchecked demand for data center energy use can constrain growth and present real business challenges."

Ongoing work between industry leaders and governmental agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is helping to identify steps to reduce IT industry energy consumption.

Allen challenged these groups to accelerate their efforts and suggested several next steps to help bring accountability and measurement into tracking the industry's efforts, including:

• Instituting an annual report on energy efficiency in U.S. data centers, to measure progress and determine new opportunities and challenges
• Developing a mechanism to enable businesses, large and small, to measure their own data center efficiency, and
• Increasing alignment between government and vendor-neutral industry groups to foster the development of energy-efficient data centers for the future

Koomey's study was peer reviewed by IT industry, government and energy efficiency policy professionals.

AMD is a leading global provider of processors for the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets.