HP is studying Singapore's enterprise data centers to create energy efficiency benchmarks that can be used by Singapore's government to set guidelines and even possibly regulation in future.

Figures on energy consumption and the performance of more than 20 companies with enterprise-sized data center operations will be recorded to devise the baseline, used to asses current and future builds.

Director of HP Critical Facilities Services Ed Ansett, who is based in Singapore, said legal requirements are the first aim of the Singapore Green Data Center Standard project but eventually the research could be used for regulating the data center industry.

"The NEA (National Environment Agency) will probably come out with some guidelines using the information but they mostly want to understand the status of data centers in Singapore, to benchmark a large number of these and then make some recommendations on improving energy efficiency," Ansett said

At the moment there is no legal requirement for energy efficiency in Singapore but Ansett said a lot of large data center operators do measure power usage effectiveness (PUE). 

Data center operators in Singapore have to be conscious of efficiency if they want to overcome high costs associated with power and cooling, according to Ansett. 

"In tropical climates like Singapore cooling bills are disproportionately high when compared to commercial buildings in more temperate climates such as Australia," Ansett said.

"Temperature and humidity is relatively constant and high all year round."

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is supporting the initiative and will use the data gathered to identify areas for standardization and highlight data center issues, HP said.

The study will highlight mechanical, electrical and operational issues in the data centers studied.