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The following content is from an older version of this website, and may not display correctly."Such a strong claim demands evidence, especially in light of recent criticism of companies "gaming the numbers" the firm says.
Google has opened a blog in which Urs H├Âlzle, Senior Vice President, Operations at the company claims that it is operating the world's most efficient data centers.
The firm said it measured PUE ratings at six "large scale facilities and reported: "PUE results from all large-scale Google-designed data centers. Specifically, these results include all of our data centers with an actual IT load of at least 5MW and time-in-operation of at least 6 months. The energy-weighted average PUE for all six data centers over the entire time interval is 1.21, nearly matching the EPA goal for state-of-the-art data centers even though we do not use the exotic techniques assumed necessary to reach this level of efficiency in the EPA report. Data Center B had the lowest annual PUE value of 1.15 and the lowest quarterly average of 1.13, meaning that all electrical losses and cooling overhead combined used just 13% of the IT load. We believe that each of these data centers is more efficient than any other comparable (i.e. large real-world) data center currently in operation today.
"It is worth noting that we only show data for facilities with an actual IT load above 5MW, to eliminate any inaccuracies that can occur when measuring small values.
"Our numbers include all power-consuming items in the facility, with one single exception (power used by the office area), and are measured throughout the year and not just during favorable seasons. Similarly, we count only the servers, storage and networking equipment as IT equipment power. For example, electrical losses in a server's power cord would be counted as overhead, not as IT power. Similarly, we measure total utility power at the utility side of the substation so that losses in substation transformers are included in our PUE. (For more details see the section on measurement methodology further below.) We strongly encourage all data center owners and operators to adhere to Green Grid PUE measurement standards, so we can all drive efficiency forward with meaningful comparisons. The total data center power consumption is comprised of three major categories: IT power, data center power distribution losses, i.e., losses associated with delivering power to the IT equipment from the electric grid, and the power consumed to operate the data center cooling system. The intent of the PUE metric is to highlight the fraction of the total data center power consumption devoted to IT equipment. The ideal PUE value is 1.0, corresponding to a data center where all of the electrical grid power supplied to a data center is devoted to IT equipment and no power is used for cooling and power distribution. A PUE <1 would be possible with on-site generation from waste heat, but currently this is commercially impractical to implement."
Full details of the measurements are HERE The blog is HERE
Google has opened a blog in which Urs H├Âlzle, Senior Vice President, Operations at the company claims that it is operating the world's most efficient data centers.
The firm said it measured PUE ratings at six "large scale facilities and reported: "PUE results from all large-scale Google-designed data centers. Specifically, these results include all of our data centers with an actual IT load of at least 5MW and time-in-operation of at least 6 months. The energy-weighted average PUE for all six data centers over the entire time interval is 1.21, nearly matching the EPA goal for state-of-the-art data centers even though we do not use the exotic techniques assumed necessary to reach this level of efficiency in the EPA report. Data Center B had the lowest annual PUE value of 1.15 and the lowest quarterly average of 1.13, meaning that all electrical losses and cooling overhead combined used just 13% of the IT load. We believe that each of these data centers is more efficient than any other comparable (i.e. large real-world) data center currently in operation today.
"It is worth noting that we only show data for facilities with an actual IT load above 5MW, to eliminate any inaccuracies that can occur when measuring small values.
"Our numbers include all power-consuming items in the facility, with one single exception (power used by the office area), and are measured throughout the year and not just during favorable seasons. Similarly, we count only the servers, storage and networking equipment as IT equipment power. For example, electrical losses in a server's power cord would be counted as overhead, not as IT power. Similarly, we measure total utility power at the utility side of the substation so that losses in substation transformers are included in our PUE. (For more details see the section on measurement methodology further below.) We strongly encourage all data center owners and operators to adhere to Green Grid PUE measurement standards, so we can all drive efficiency forward with meaningful comparisons. The total data center power consumption is comprised of three major categories: IT power, data center power distribution losses, i.e., losses associated with delivering power to the IT equipment from the electric grid, and the power consumed to operate the data center cooling system. The intent of the PUE metric is to highlight the fraction of the total data center power consumption devoted to IT equipment. The ideal PUE value is 1.0, corresponding to a data center where all of the electrical grid power supplied to a data center is devoted to IT equipment and no power is used for cooling and power distribution. A PUE <1 would be possible with on-site generation from waste heat, but currently this is commercially impractical to implement."
Full details of the measurements are HERE The blog is HERE