Study reveals annual US data centres consume 45 bn kWh costing nearly $3 bn a year

7 March 2007 News

In a keynote address at the LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit in New York in February, Randy Allen, corporate vice president, Server and Workstation Division, AMD, revealed findings from a study that comprehensively calculated, for the first time, the energy consumed by national and global data centres annually.

Addressing the need for thorough, credible estimates on data centre power use, the study found that in 2005, in the US alone, data centres and their associated infrastructure consumed five million kW of energy, the equivalent of five 1000 MW power plants.

As a result of the study's startling findings, AMD is challenging stakeholders both within and outside the industry to step-up efforts to increase energy efficiency in order to reduce energy consumption and associated costs.

Supported by a grant from AMD and authored by Jonathan Koomey, Ph.D., the study calculates the total power used by servers both in the US and around the world. The study builds on data from analyst firm IDC on the stocks and shipments of servers, as well as measured data and published estimates of the power per unit used by various server models.

The study found that in 2005, total data centre electricity consumption in the US, including servers, cooling and auxiliary equipment, was approximately 45 billion kWh, resulting in total utility bills amounting to $2,7 bn, with total data centre power and electricity consumption for the world estimated to cost $7,2 bn annually. The report also examines the growth in electricity demands since the year 2000, concluding that over the last five years server energy use has doubled.

"Though we have long known that data centres worldwide consume a significant amount of energy, AMD believes Dr Koomey's findings are a wake-up call not just for the IT industry, but also for global business, government and policy leaders," said Allen.

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