Under the Data Center Efficiency Program, Con Edison and NYSERDA will work together to provide data centers in the Con Edison service territory with targeted technical assistance as well as $10 million in financial incentives to support energy efficiency initiatives. This funding is available with the goal of reducing energy costs by $8 million and achieving 55,000 MWh in annual energy savings.
New York State contains the second highest concentration of data centers in the country. These critical components of our information technology infrastructure are intensive energy consumers. Studies have shown that energy consumption from data centers doubled between 2000 and 2005. With many data centers reaching capacity within their existing footprints, businesses are faced with either optimizing their operations or designing and building newer, more efficient facilities.
"New York State has a high concentration of mission-critical data centers. Data centers have historically maximized uptime and reliability without always focusing on energy efficiency," said Rebecca Craft, director of energy efficiency programs of Con Edison. "Through the Con Edison/NYSERDA joint Data Center Initiative, we'll be working together to create sustainable information technology. Efficiency savings from these data centers can help manage peak energy demand, and provide real dollar savings not only to data centers but to all customers in our service territory."
"Energy management is absolutely critical for data centers to control costs while minimizing environmental impacts," said Francis J. Murray Jr., NYSERDA president and CEO. "Combining the energy expertise and resources of Con Edison and NYSERDA will provide data centers with the best options possible to meet their growing energy needs. This important partnership will give data centers targeted and individualized solutions to meet their growing energy needs."
"NYSERDA's incentive program for data centers is a primary factor in selecting New York-based servers for virtualization rather than servers located in states without such programs. Furthermore, it increases the total affordability of our consolidation and virtualization program allowing us to do more with our limited investment resources," said John Adams, project executive, head of virtualization, IBM.
IBM(r), Con Edison, and NYSERDA have been instrumental in driving sustainable computing and business practices in New York. IBM, an innovator in the development and manufacturing of IT-related hardware, software and business solutions, is not only a leader in data center energy efficiency and cooling best practices, but also offers services to assist IT and facility managers in earning incentives that reward building electrical load reduction efforts in the data center sector.
The joint program will offer energy savings support for projects that maximize return on investment including Information Technology equipment upgrades and management strategies that reduce energy use per unit of data processed or stored, such as server upgrades, virtualization, storage consolidation, and infrastructure upgrades such as those that reduce cooling needs.
The program brings together the program and technical resources of Con Edison and NYSERDA to work collaboratively to identify energy efficiency opportunities for data centers in New York City and Westchester, and assist them through the design and implementation of sustainable, cost reducing, energy efficient measures and practices. Projects will be developed and prioritized based on return of investment, phased implementation plans, and customer goals.
The Data Center Efficiency Program consists of four main components:
- Technical Assistance Studies for data centers interested in identifying their energy efficiency options;
- Energy Efficiency Incentives for retrofit and new construction projects to off-ser the cost of energy efficiency improvements;
- Customer Installation Support to provide participating data centers with a complete package that addresses all energy related issues critical to their facilities' operation and;
- Outreach, Education, and Marketing to recruit data centers into the initiative.
