WP131: A Critical Analysis of Power Usage Effectiveness and Its Use as Data Center Energy Sustainability Metrics

<a href="https://embed.stanford.edu/iframe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurl.stanford.edu%2Fyz143cs2917" class="su-underline">Show Content</a>

Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Data centers represent an increasingly popular construction project type, supported by the continued growth in internet-based services. These facilities can, however, consume large amounts of electricity and—especially if growth trends continue—put strain on utility grids and energy resources. Many metrics have been proposed to evaluate and communicate energy use in data centers. In many cases, the goal is that these metrics will be used to develop energy conscious behavior and perhaps data center sustainability ratings or building codes to reduce average energy use. In this paper, we examine one of the more popular metrics, Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), and discuss its shortcomings toward effectively communicating energy sustainability. Our inference is that PUE is an instantaneous representation of electrical energy consumption that encourages operators to report the minimum observed values of PUE. Hence, PUE only conveys an understanding of the minimum possible energy use. Instead we propose the use of energy-based metrics or average PUE over a significant time period—e.g., a year—to better understand the energy efficiency of a data center and to develop sustainability rating/ranking systems and energy codes.

Type of resource	text
Date created	February 2013

Author	Yuventi, Jumie
Author	Mehdizadeh, Roshan

Subject	Center for Integrated Facility Engineering
Subject	Stanford University
Subject	Data centers
Subject	energy efficiency metrics
Subject	Power Usage Effectiveness
Subject	sustainability standards
Genre	Technical report

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/yz143cs2917

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.

Preferred Citation: Yuventi, Jumie and Mehdizadeh, Roshan. (2013). WP131: A Critical Analysis of Power Usage Effectiveness and Its Use as Data Center Energy Sustainability Metrics. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/yz143cs2917

CIFE Publications

Loading usage metrics...