An Example of Methodology to Assess Energy Efficiency Improvements in Datacenters

Data centers (DCs) consume large amounts of electricity, of which there is an increasing shortage at escalating prices. Fortunately, new technologies and research developed by many organizations have resulted in new products, architectures and best practices that create significant savings. However, in Europe there is a lack of a complete normative plan which provides standard metrics and methodologies for DCs and, more generally, for energy efficiency in the ICT sector. Evaluation of DCs should be based on globally accepted assessment systems in terms of policies that promote the improvement of energy efficiency, renovation and improvement of infrastructures, management methods and so on. To this end, the present paper presents a procedure aimed at evaluating and checking the energy saving in DCs obtained as a result of replacement of "elements" with more energy efficient ones. The procedure presented, starting from an evaluation of DCs' s energy baseline, provides a method for measurement and comparison of energy consumption before and after a significant improvement in a DC, in order to evaluate analytically the energy saving. The methodology was developed in the framework of the definition of a policy for the set-up of a mechanism of public incentives to foster the adoption of energy efficient solutions in DCs.