Datacenters… Not as Power Hungry as Predicted?
Boy where did the summer go? We just looked up and realized it’s the middle of August. Since August means lots of cool, rolling fog in San Francisco it’s sometimes easy to forget what summertime means to the rest of the country. Humidity and 100 degree temperatures mean that folks crank up the air-conditioner and use tons of electricity. In fact several states across the South and Northeast have recently warned of the potential for rolling brownouts should the current heat wave continue.
Speaking of electricity use, datacenters have been the target of some startling predictions. According to a widely referenced EPA study released in 2007 the growth of the Internet and the continued digitization of society would cause datacenter power consumption to double between 2005 and 2010. The consumed capacity for US datacenters in 2011 was predicted to exceed 12 gigawatts. That’s enough power to serve over 14 million homes!
That’s why we took special notice of a recent article from the New York Times that refutes the EPA study. Jonathan G Koomey, a consulting professor at Stanford University, was engaged by the Times to produce a report effectively auditing datacenter growth and comparing it to the EPA predictions. Surprisingly, despite the greatest period of datacenter construction on record, overall power consumption only grew by 56% globally between 2005 and 2010. In the US power consumption only grew about 36%. Mr. Koomey identifies two significant factors that limited power consumption during this period: the recession first and foremost but also the improved efficiencies of the facilities as well as the equipment inside of them. Still despite the good news analysts warn that the slowed rate of power use could be only temporary.
At Silent Partner we’re bolstered by the news in this study. It’s satisfying to note that efficiency and “green” efforts do pay tangible dividends rather than solely being used for marketing. Regardless if the recent activity in our financial markets is any indication we may see a continuation of these lower power consumption rates for some time.
