Saving data, saving energy
Consolidated Edison Co. of New York and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have joined in an energy efficiency program to provide technical assistance and $10 million in financial incentives to data centers in Westchester County and New York City.
The utility and state agency aim to reduce energy costs at participating facilities by $8 million and save 55,000 megawatt hours annually in energy use by data centers, a vital component of the information technology infrastructure.
New York state has the second highest concentration of data centers in the U.S., according to NYSERDA officials, and their energy consumption doubled between 2000 and 2005. With many data centers reaching capacity within their existing footprints, businesses are faced with either optimizing their operations or designing and building newer, more efficient facilities.
“New York state has a high concentration of mission-critical data centers,” Rebecca Craft, ConEdison director of energy efficiency programs, said in a statement. “Data centers have historically maximized uptime and reliability without always focusing on energy efficiency.” Efficiency savings from the program will save dollars not only for data centers but for all ConEdison service customers, she said.
The joint program will offer energy savings support for projects that maximize return on investment, including upgrades of IT equipment and management strategies that reduce energy use per unit of data processed or stored.
The data center efficiency program has four main components:
* Technical assistance studies for data centers to identify their energy efficiency options.
* Energy efficiency incentives for retrofit and new construction projects to offset the cost of improvements.
* Customer installation support.
* Outreach, education and marketing to recruit data centers into the initiative.
To participate in the program, data centers can call 212-701-7222. For additional information, visit http://www.nyserda.org/data-centers or http://www.coned.com/energyefficiency.