DOE and The Green Grid Sign MOU
NEW YORK, NY – U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Green Grid, to increase energy efficiency in the ever-growing information technology sector. The Green Grid is a consortium of information technology companies seeking to lower the overall consumption of power in data centers around the globe. Assistant Secretary Karsner and John Tuccillo, director of The Green Grid, signed the MOU at the New York Stock Exchange, kicking off a day of in-depth discussions with operators of financial services data centers.
“The agreement signed today with The Green Grid builds on the Department’s continued effort to improve energy efficiency in the private sector,” Assistant Secretary Karsner said.  “Data centers represent an important part of the information economy, and joining forces with The Green Grid puts us on a path to identify and build the necessary tools for thousands of data centers to more easily capture energy savings.”
The DOE-Green Grid MOU intends to focus on assisting data center operators and facilities to initiate and implement an energy management program and adopt clean energy and efficiency technologies.  Specifically, the MOU identifies future activities DOE and The Green Grid may collaborate on to: develop a common set of metrics and tools; develop a website so data centers can easily access tools and resources to initiate and implement an energy management program; encourage data centers to obtain energy savings assessments; train company personnel in conducting energy savings assessments and in using tools to identify energy efficiency enhancements; and define areas of pre-competitive research and development for data center operations.
As part of Assistant Secretary Karsner’s discussions today, DOE and The Green Grid have also set a common goal of improving overall energy efficiency in data centers by 10 percent by 2011, factoring in current projected data center use. 

Degree Controls, Inc. (DegreeC)  announced its fourth seminar in a series addressing the growing problem of data center cooling. In addition to addressing energy and thermal management in the data center, the seminar will include analysis and discussion of the EPA’s Report on Server and Data Center Efficiency, which was submitted to the U.S. Congress in August of this year.
The seminar will be held November 1, 2007 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA.
Kevin Heslin, editor of Mission Critical magazine, which is the exclusive media sponsor for the seminar, will kick-off the seminar with an industry and trend report.  “We are delighted to be involved in this seminar.  DegreeC’s seminar series is touching on a topic that is very timely for today’s data center teams,” said Heslin.

New Technologies

The Integrated Power Center 2 (IPC2) offering of solutions from Square D Integrated Power and Control Solutions (I PaCS) by Schneider Electric has expanded to include free-standing, front- and rear-aligned equipment available in multiple enclosure options, including NEMA 1, NEMA 1 with drip hood, and NEMA 3R. The expansion increases the flexibility of the IPC2 offering, permitting development of configurations for increasingly diverse applications. IPC2 solutions reduce floor space, installation time and material handling costs for new and retrofit commercial, retail or industrial applications that have 208 V and/or 480 V requirements.

The Emax range of air power circuit breakers from ABB offers performances at the top of their category. The Emax series offers increased performances, allowing for the use of smaller circuit breaker frames, obtaining considerable savings both in economic terms and in space within switchboards, switch gear and control panels. The Emax E3X-A and E6X-A now reach top performance in terms of rated short circuit current using fuseless technology (200 kA at 480 V), while the Emax E2 is enhanced by the S and H versions. ABB has introduced Bluetooth communications to help program the advanced modular trip units while maintaining a safe distance from the switch gear.

HP unveiled the HP 8.6-kVA and 11-kVA three-phase modular power distribution units (PDUs). These PDUs are perfect for blade systems and find and ideal application among customers with a dense data center environment requiring rack-mount power distribution. They address the lack of sufficient outlet receptacles and space in the rack, the difficult to access PDU outlets, as well as the high amperage needed to support blade systems. Each unit uses a standard three-phase input plug and has six IEC C19 outlets. The three-phase PDUs use HP’s unique modular architecture, which is designed specifically for data center customers who want to maximize power distribution and space efficiencies in the rack.