The Green Grid is going beyond PUE, unleashing two new metrics on the data center industry it said it hopes will gain the same amount of global traction ÔÇô CUE and WUE.

Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is now used around the world to measure the amount and effectiveness of power used within the data center. It is hoped that CUE (carbon usage effectiveness) and WUE (water usage effectiveness) will create some more particular challenges in the data center.

The Green Grid said that like PUE, CUE and WUE have been designed with data center optimization in mind, as well broader sustainability efforts.

Measurements for CUE have been released in a whitepaper on The Green Grid's website, but WUE will not be available for viewing until the first quarter of 2011.

Carbon usage effectiveness will be measured by taking the total CO2 emissions caused by the total data center energy (PUE) and dividing this number by the IT equipment energy, or by multiplying the carbon emission factor (CEF) by the data center's annual PUE (CUE= CEFxPUE). 

The Greed Grid's report says that: "Ideally, CO2 emissions data would be gathered from real-time CO2 meters that collect data from the local power sources."

The Green Grid board member and Emerson Network Power representative Jack Pouchet said the offering helps build on the tools needed for planning for increased computing, networking and storage demands.

"CUE and WUE metrics are significant steps forward in helping data center operators measure the effectiveness of carbon and water use by their data centers," Pouchet said.

"Using a sound set of metrics like PUE, CUE and WUE will lead to better managing of natural resources and can potentially reduce consumption."

 

To find out more about rising metrics, see our video on DatacenterDynamics TV on Youtube with John Tuccillo and read our special report on the global metrics in this edition of FOCUS ÔÇô issue 13 ÔÇô out now!