News stories of the month


BCS launches energy efficiency accreditation for data centres


Award (CEEDA). The Award will provide data centre operators with an independent accreditation and verifiable evidence that their data centre is following energy efficiency best practice. CEEDA is based on the EU Code of Conduct for Data centres which BCS was the first professional organisation to endorse in 2009. David Clarke, Chief Executive


B


Officer, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT explains: “This is an incredibly important issue for the industry to address and as the Chartered Institute for IT; we are determined to develop solutions that help the IT industry improve its green credentials. “Our role is to provide the


CS, The Chartered Institute for IT has launched the Certified Energy Efficiency Data centre


profession with the knowledge and expertise to allow them to significantly contribute to creating low carbon and energy efficiency outputs, both as individual IT professionals and within their organisations.”


DatacenterDynamics (DCD) has been selected by the Institute to deliver the data centre assessments which in turn will be carried out by assessors chosen and maintained by DCD to standards developed by the Institute. Dan Scarbrough Co-Founder &


CEO, DatacenterDynamics adds: “DatacenterDynamics is very excited to be working with BCS to promote CEEDA, which we believe will provide a verifiable framework to enable data centre operators to benchmark their energy efficiency against that of their peers and provide a roadmap for


higher performance.” The CEEDA award will include a comprehensive report and action plan detailing the energy saving potential in the data centre. The Award, based on findings in the assessment, will take the form of gold, silver or bronze energy efficiency ratings.


Zahl Limbuwala, Chair of BCS Data Centre Specialist Group concludes: “BCS is uniquely positioned to offer a truly independently governed award for the data centre industry that not only recognises those that have improved their energy efficiency but also highlights future areas for further improvement”. Full details about CEEDA can be found at www.ceeda-award.org


ENVIRONMENTAL COST INCREASES OF 50% ARE A GREATER THREAT TO BUSINESSES IN 2011 THAN WHOLESALE ENERGY PRICES


ower Efficiency, the energy procurement and carbon strategy consultancy, has made public its views on the impact of rising energy prices for UK businesses during 2011. Whilst the company has expressed that it fully expects prices to continue rising and large companies should look to mitigate their financial exposure by purchasing in advance through the wholesale market, by far the greatest threat to businesses is the continued impact of environmental costs imposed by the government. The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, Climate Change Levy and Renewables Obligations will place a 0.7 pence per kilowatt-hour increase from April 2011 on what businesses are currently paying. This represents a year on year increase of 50% for environmental costs which will reach as much as 30% of a typical electricity bill.


P 40| SUSTAINABLE FM | DECEMBER 2010/JANUARY 2011 Commenting on the increases John


Field, director of carbon management at Power Efficiency said, “At a time when businesses are clawing their way out of the recession, these increases are substantial and will have an impact for large energy- using businesses. The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, which is now effectively a tax on UK businesses, is playing a significant role in this increase and customers would be wrong to focus purely on wholesale energy costs, when there are no signs that the environmental costs will reduce in the future.”


There are steps that customers can take to minimise their exposure and Power Efficiency recommends the following. • Focus on energy efficiency within the business. This does not need huge investment to be effective. Significant operational savings


can follow from the use of energy metering and management tools now available; they are often in place but not fully used


• Take the time to research energy suppliers, or use an outside specialist company to do it for you. Customers will pay the price for sticking with the same supplier year in, year out


• Buy energy in the wholesale market, and develop a strategy to actively manage energy price risk


• When you receive energy bills look at them carefully for saving opportunities such as volume tolerance charges, availability charges, reactive power charges and transmission charges www.powerefficiency.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69