With data center growth continuing unabated, site selection remains a key strategic challenge determining revenues, total cost of ownership and lifecycle. Evaluation factors are myriad and complex with environmental risk, taxes and regulations, transportation, construction and permitting costs and speed to market all playing a role.

With huge, 24/7 power demands however, perhaps the most significant is power availability, connectivity and the support of the energy network. Data centers are undoubtedly key customers for utilities and this looks set to continue, as data center electricity use is on-track to reach a consumption of 140 billion kilowatt-hours by 2020. As such, utilities play a key role in addressing the needs of data centers and providing the foundation for successful data center growth.

• Understand the evolving relationship between data centers and utilities to support long-term data center requirements
• How to project-manage site selection projects to deliver new data centers successfully
• The role of PPAs, Demand-Response and new technologies in meeting growing demand