NetApp Throttles Air Conditioners–Reaps Millions of Dollars

Michael Kanellos

December 8, 2008 at 2:48 PM

Shut down the air conditioners and earn millions.

That’s the message from NetApp, the services and storage giant. The company received a $1.4 million dollar rebate from Pacific Gas and Electric for retrofitting its data center in Sunnyvale, Calif. with an eye toward energy efficiency.

The changes will save approximately $1.2 million in power bills a year. If you extrapolate that over three years, NetApp will save $3.6 million in power and still have that $1.4 million rebate.

The new data center, as configured, has a power use effectiveness (PUE) of 1.3. PUE is a ratio comparing the total amount of power consumed by a data center divided by the amount actually used for computing. A PUE of 1 is the mythical idea. Some data centers in California have a horrendous PUE of 3 or higher. Most of that extra power goes into air conditioning. Keeping servers cool takes about half of the power in a conventional data center.

Upgrades included a flywheel as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, energy-efficient transformers, outside air economizers (i.e. things that let in air from the outside to cool stuff), and a variable primary chiller plant.

Data centers use approximately 1.5 percent of the power in the U.S. and 2.5 percent here in Northern California and the figure is rising. Perhaps even more important for greentech companies, data centers have already signaled that they will invest in energy efficiency technologies, which makes them an easier sales target than some other industries.

PG&E is also working on a program to give large companies rebates for replacing PCs with thin clients.