Data centres need relief. How can energy companies help?

The evolution in technology requirements has highlighted the thirst for power that data management needs, which has also highlighted the rise in costs that are needed to keep the power on in this ever growing sector.

With legislation and the green taxes putting pressure onto industries, it seems to be that data centres are feeling the full force of the price rises and taxation.

The downside with this rapid growth is that the demands on energy supply and the cost to these businesses becomes a substantial strain on the outgoings.

The elements that cause a concern for an ever growing data management business is the modernisation of power thirsty equipment, which can be the first place to start for any data management company looking to perform better and improve their energy consumption.

Operational decisions at data centres include the review of power, rack space, CPU and cooling.

As a business it’s being able to get the right balance of investment into new technology that will save you in the long term, without impacting income and growth targets.

Energy management companies can help in this situation by analysing the energy use and working out energy contracts which suit a data management’s operations. They can also assess the infrastructure of each site and make the necessary changes where needed.

Another issue that data management companies face are the government taxes on high energy users as part of the carbon reduction scheme posed on EU members. This means that green taxes have been a constant pressure on data management companies which are run differently from most other industries. For example, most other industries use energy and raw materials to produce a physical tangible object and this is where data management organisations differ.

Data centres differ from both, the manufacturing and service industry; they are heavy users of electricity and other infrastructure and hardware, and they don’t deliver anything physical. Legislators are aware of the service economy, but this hasn’t taken into consideration that this service sector industry is a power hungry one, that cannot be pigeon holed so easily.
They may also be reducing emissions elsewhere, with the likes of online conferencing, satellite navigation which can increase fuel efficiency thus reducing emissions, plus the reduction in postal costs and the need for a convoy of postal vehicles due to email and cloud storage. Also, building management systems or smart grid functions which create efficiency and easily manageable systems also further reinforce this provision.

All this has brought forward a term “cross-sectoral carbon transfers” that is used to describe the minimised overall carbon impact. This is due to the overall carbon emissions that data centres reduce in the long term.

Data centres can actually be beneficial to local economy, and even a global economy. Unfortunately, with the squeeze of carbon taxes, incentives, regulations to IT departments and data management centres, the strain to the cost of running these businesses means that they take the burden of increasing costs.

One of the ways that costs have been reviewed to help look at reducing energy usage is by looking at the initial infrastructure and equipment used in these facilities; such as – Real-Time reporting, Performance Management, Capacity Planning, Regular Monitoring and a regular review of the energy efficiency of the facility and equipment. All this should help with meeting EU regulations that are imposed on them.

Many top people within the data management industry believe that these green taxes should be withdrawn from data management companies due to the fact that they help increase growth within the economy. Also, to effectively reduce their carbon footprints, the cost of these green taxes should be subsidised into incentives and deducted from the cost of upgrading to more energy efficient equipment.

This is why energy management is an ever growing industry with an ever growing demand, as learning how a business uses energy and understanding the need for better use and management of a business’s consumption. This helps to identify the areas of improvement, such as equipment and energy supply. It also looks to monitor the long term effects and attitudes towards efficient use with software and monthly reports – whether this is on the market prices of energy or the internal use of equipment.

CUB (UK) Ltd has been in the energy industry for almost 20 years, as the industries have grown we have seen many issues that our clients have had to face. Due to this we have built up a vast knowledge of industries and how contracts and energy management can help to lessen the strain of energy bills and legislation.

No size fits all, but if you look to review and tailor your business needs to the appropriate changes; you will soon see the benefits for the long term.