Mar 27 2008
High Tech's Energy Crisis...Err, Energy's High Tech Crisis
Over the next couple of days, PG&E is hosting a conference at the Pacific Energy Center to discuss how to best help the high tech industry reduce their energy use. Leading utilities throughout the country will be sharing best practices to deal with what many technology leaders are seeing as a significant challenge - the increasing costs associated with the industry's voracious appetite for energy.
According to a recent story by InformationWeek, data center energy consumption has doubled between 2000 and 2005 and now accounts for about 1.2% of all energy consumed in the U.S.
This is a staggering amount considering the country's size and broader manufacturing capacity. Moreover, the clustered nature of this industry means that utilities serving specific geographic locations - Silicon Valley, Austin, New England, and the Pacific Northwest - are more impacted by this phenomenon.
Serving a high density of technology customers, PG&E recognized a few years back the broader impact that the high tech industry was having on the grid. Applying lessons learned in its 30 year energy efficiency history, they assigned Mark Bramfitt, profiled in this week's Businessweek story, to develop specific programs to help high tech companies reduce their energy use.
In addition to creating rebate and incentive programs to replace inefficient servers with more energy friendly technology, Mark also started meeting with peers at other utilities and quickly realized that this was not just a California problem.
The result of these discussions was the creation of a nationwide coalition of utilities to discuss and coordinate energy efficiency programs for the high tech sector, focusing on data centers.
This week marks the first meeting for the group. Attendees include California utilities Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, City of Palo Alto, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power attending the meeting. Utilities from the Pacific Northwest, Texas, New York, and Canada will also participate at the two-day event.
The two day itinerary includes panels and roundtables discussing specific programs as well as data center tours of PG&E customers Google, Network Appliances and HP.
Looks like a great event. We'll be following up with Mark over the next few days to learn more about the conference. Stay tuned...
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