Expands Industry-Leading Financial Incentive Programs for Energy Efficient Computing Equipment
SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas and Electric Company today announced that it is the first utility to join The Green Grid, a non-profit consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. The utility will now include The Green Grid's efficiency standards to expand its industry-leading financial incentive programs for customers who purchase premium efficiency servers, data storage devices, routers, and other computing equipment.
"PG&E has developed an industry-leading portfolio of high tech energy efficiency programs and services for our customers, and learning what constitutes premium efficiency for computing equipment will help us expand our offerings," explained Brad Whitcomb, vice president of customer products and services for PG&E. "We want to provide our customers with information and incentives for the most energy efficient high tech equipment on the market."
The Green Grid is a consortium of more than forty high-tech equipment companies, including AMD, APC, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Rackable Systems, SprayCool, Sun Microsystems and VMware, whose goal is to lower the overall consumption of power in data centers around the globe. The consortium will work together to develop meaningful, platform-neutral standards, measurement methods, processes and new technologies to improve data center efficiency and performance.
"PG&E brings a highly-valued perspective," said Don Tilton, a director of The Green Grid. "The utility's leadership and experience in developing innovative high-tech energy efficiency programs will enhance our efforts to improve overall data center efficiency. As more utilities join, we expect to collaborate on standardizing demand response and energy efficiency incentive and rebate programs across the industry to accelerate the adoption of technologies that support this goal."
PG&E currently offers a comprehensive portfolio of programs and service offerings for the high tech sector, including financial incentives for the following:
- Virtualization projects — Incentives to customers who undertake IT virtualization projects in data centers that result in the removal of computing equipment.
- MAID Systems — Incentives for Massive Array of Idle Disks, or MAID systems that store rarely-used data to hard disks that are normally turned off, helping customers realize 75% or more in energy savings compared to typical systems.
- Energy efficient servers — Incentives for customers who replace old, inefficient servers with new energy efficient ones.
- HVAC upgrades — Incentives for projects that effectively reduce the amount of energy needed to cool data centers.
- 80 PLUS power supplies — $5 incentive per unit to manufacturers who integrate power supplies with a minimum efficiency of 80% or more into desktop computers and servers.
- LCD monitors — $10 incentive per unit to manufacturers of energy efficient monitors.
- "Sleep-mode" software — $15 incentive per computer for enterprise customers who purchase software that allows computers to "snooze" when not in use.
"Our customers and the industry are asking us to expand our programs, and to promote them to other utilities," said Mark Bramfitt, principal program manager for the high tech sector at PG&E. "Having industry-accepted measurement protocols will form the basis of new programs, and we hope to complement The Green Grid's efforts with our knowledge and experience."
PG&E's existing server incentive programs applies to replacement projects where the utility can measure and calculate energy savings from the removal of old, inefficient servers and replacement of them with fewer and more energy efficient ones. The Green Grid standards will allow PG&E to expand its incentive program offerings to include new purchases of premium efficiency servers and other computing equipment.
In February, PG&E announced that it is leading the formation of a nationwide coalition of utilities to discuss and coordinate energy efficiency programs for the high tech sector, focusing on data centers. The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), TXU Electric Delivery, Austin Energy, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and NSTAR all signed on to the coalition. Since that time several additional utilities have asked to take part in the coalition, including two utilities in Canada.
Data centers can use up to one hundred times the energy per square foot of typical office space, so the energy efficiency opportunities are significant. PG&E customers in northern and central California who are interested in earning financial incentives for data center efficiency measures must apply prior to implementing projects and can find more information about the company's programs and service offerings at www.pge.com/hightech.
A leader in energy efficiency for over 30 years, PG&E's programs have saved customers nearly $10 billion and prevented approximately 125 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from entering the atmosphere. Going forward, PG&E is doing even more. Between 2006 and 2008, the utility is spearheading nearly $1 billion in enhanced energy-efficiency programs. This investment will avoid the need for more than 600 megawatts of new generation—or roughly the amount of electricity produced at a large power plant.
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