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In late 2001, Syska Hennessy Group was asked to participate in
a joint project with NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority) and the Lawrence Berkley National
Laboratory to study energy consumption at typical data centers.
Our goal was to understand the flows of energy to various sources
of energy consumption within a data center, generate an
understanding of levels of facility utilization and to determine
the efficiency of the cooling systems, lighting systems
and control systems. These studies were mainly developed to generate
a more robust set of benchmarks and efficiency recommendations.
The studies provided insight into the distribution of electrical
power within the data center and the overall electrical demand
for data center facilities. Energy benchmark data for a sufficient
number of data centers will also eventually help to identify current
best practices, and determine efficiency and reliability improvement
areas.
With Syska Hennessy’s extensive experience with data center
technology, we were able to assist Lawrence Berkley with
developing the study goals and procedures. Critical in this
process was also to identify suitable facilities that operate
as typical data centers. Syska Hennessy worked with Lawrence
Berkley to identify facilities containing equipment and
operating criteria typical of today’s modern data centers.
Our scope included calculations of cooling system and data processing
equipment energy consumption, lighting and plug loads, equipment
types and control strategies. Our study also revealed surprising
facts about the facilities and its utilization.
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