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A good thing just got better. Last year, IBM gave System p and System z users the industry's first corporate-led initiative to enable clients to earn cash-redeeming Energy Efficiency Certificates (EECs) for reducing the energy needed to run their data centers. Now IBM is expanding its energy trail-blazing to make the Energy Efficiency Certificates available across the IBM System x and BladeCenter server product platforms.
Of course, IBM consistently has offered products, software and services designed to hasten the arrival of the green data center. Virtualization offers perhaps the single biggest lever toward reducing energy costs. With its ability to consolidate scores of servers down to a handful, virtualization doesn't just reduce the rate of growth in energy consumption, but cuts energy usage in absolute terms. IBM continues to deliver leadership virtualization solutions on System x and BladeCenter, most recently announcing models of the System x3850 M2 and BladeCenter HS21 XM which include the industry's first hardware-integrated hypervisor, VMware ESXi (formerly known as VMware ESX Server 3i).
IBM server offerings similarly reduce your energy needs. Edison Group, an independent technology analysis and consulting firm, compared the power consumption of IBM BladeCenter with a comparable BladeSystem blade server configuration from HP. Edison Group found that IBM BladeCenter H requires nearly 10% less power than the equivalently configured HP BladeSystem c7000. Extrapolated over 224 servers and with an energy cost of 9.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, this can save you up to $12,000 per year in energy costs.1
If such reductions in operating costs aren't enough, companies may also be eligible for an incentive from local utilities and/or state energy funds. As a result, you may be able to improve the efficiency of your business, free up data center space and increase capacity for future growth while maintaining current costs, reducing your cooling, and taking actions that demonstrate your company's commitment to a better environment.
The Energy Efficiency Certificate Program
Not only can virtualization on servers such as the IBM System x3950 M2 reduce complexity in your data center, consolidate servers, and enable you to save on power and cooling requirements, but the Energy Efficiency Certificate program documents and verifies the energy savings a client achieves through implementing energy efficiency projects. The certificates earned—based on energy use reduction verified by a third-party—provide a way for businesses to attain a certified measurement of their energy use reduction, a key emerging business metric. The certificates can be traded for cash on the growing Energy Efficiency Certificate market, or otherwise retained to demonstrate reductions in energy use and associated CO2 emissions.
The Energy Efficiency Certificate initiative utilizes Neuwing Energy Ventures, a leading verifier of energy efficiency projects and marketer of Energy Efficiency Certificates, to document and verify the energy savings a client achieves through implementing energy efficiency projects. Energy efficiency projects can be identified using IBM's data center evaluation offerings. An evaluation will result in recommendations clients can follow, including implementing virtualization technologies to reduce the number of physical systems needed, and addressing data center design flaws to reduce unnecessary power consumption.
IT executives should become familiar with Energy Efficiency Certificates if they aren't already. Many are being asked to make green commitments without understanding how to achieve and document the improved efficiency. One common goal often discussed is the new 12x12 reduction goal, which would require a company to commit to a 12% reduction in CO2 by the year 2012. IBM is positioned to help clients get beyond "what do I do?" EECs document concrete, measurable savings (they add to bottom line) and may be one way for IBM to help clients meet their environmental commitments in meaningful ways.
How do EECs work?
The steps to earning certificates are simple. First, Neuwing Energy and IBM determine the initial energy draw from the data center or IT equipment identified for the project. This is usually based on industry-accepted energy estimates for the servers in use and the power and cooling profiles of the data center. Next, a second review of energy draw will be taken after steps designed to reduce energy consumption.
"Every IBM System x server now can assist IT executives in not only reducing power consumption, but also verifying and documenting the savings so that the data center qualifies for Energy Efficiency Certificates."
Neuwing Energy will issue customers an Efficiency Certificate for the total megawatt hours of energy no longer needed to power and cool their data center or operate IT equipment. Neuwing Energy keeps a portion of each customer's earned certificates or charge a per-mwH-saved fee in exchange for the assessment. Clients have no out-of-pocket cost.
Customers can trade earned Efficiency Certificates on the Energy Efficiency Certificate market, or they can retain their certificates, using them to demonstrate reductions in energy use and associated CO2 emissions. The markets for Energy Efficiency Certificate trading are in the early stages of development. Currently, trading occurs directly between brokers or companies and utilities—most commonly in locations where regulatory requirements require utilities to procure Energy Efficiency Certificates to cover demand growth. Certain states, including Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, already have instituted energy efficiency requirements. Utilities in these states are mandated by state regulators to meet certain percentages of their projected power needs through energy efficiency programs. In Connecticut, the state has set a floor value of $10 per megawatt hour and a ceiling value of $31. Before long, it is expected that an open exchange will be established as EECs are incorporated into more state and country level demand side management program.2
Every IBM System x and BladeCenter server can now assist IT executives not only in reducing power consumption, but also in verifying and documenting the savings so that the data center qualifies for Energy Efficiency Certificates. IBM System Director Active Energy Manager—an entitled download with many System x and BladeCenter servers3 — monitors and reports actual power consumption. This data can be used with an Energy Efficiency Certificate program to generate documented verification of energy reductions achieved through the use of IBM data center servers and IT equipment.
IBM System x, of course, laid the groundwork for IBM technology advancements that have brought x86-based servers to the forefront of enterprise computing, helping clients streamline business operations and do more with the same IT dollars. Now with the introduction of System x3950 M2, System x offers the premier platform for virtualization and for the green data center.
The Energy Efficiency Certificate program is just another example of IBM leadership in promoting the greening of the data center while simplifying and consolidating it.
1http://www.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/news/power/
2Press Release, IBM Launches World's First Corporate-Led Energy Efficiency Certificate Program, November 2007
3 Active Energy Manager can monitor power consumption for selected rack servers, BladeCenter® chassis and blade servers, and intelligent power distribution units (iPDU). For a current list please see: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/eserver/v1r2/index.jsp?topic=
/aem_310/frb0_main.html
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