EPA launches an online GHG reporting tool

Last week the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) launched a tool to allow the electronic reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) data.

Under the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), launched in 2009, the EPA requires reporting of greenhouse gas data and other relevant information from facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more per year in the United States. The EPA expects to receive 2010 GHG data from approximately 7,000 large industrial emitters and suppliers, including power plants, petroleum refineries and landfills.

Under this program, organisations have to submit GHG data to EPA annually. The first round of data will be submitted electronically by September 30, 2011. The EPA plans to publish non-confidential GHG data collected through the programme by the end of 2011.

Before it was released the electronic GHG Reporting Tool (e-GGRT) was extensively tested by more than 1,000 stakeholders, including industry associations, states and NGOs, to make sure it was clear and easy to use.

 

Given the battering the EPA has received over the legislation there’s a lot resting on the reporting process being as easy as possible. This is one piece of Green IT that really needs to work well!

The hotel industry is collaborating on a common carbon footprint methodology

The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) are getting together to come up with a common hotel industry methodology to calculate and communicate carbon emissions. The initiative is being led by the Carbon Measurement Working Group, which includes international hotel companies such as Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International Inc. and Premier Inn, among others.

At the moment carbon measurement metrics vary widely in the industry, based on a number of different methodologies and tools, which is seen as causing confusion as well as a lack of transparency. The Working Group aims to devise a unified methodology based on available data.

It’s a multi-phased approach and the Working Group will work with a cross-section of stakeholders to solicit input and feedback. The Phase One methodology has had input from Greenview Consulting and has been reviewed by the World Resources Institute. The objective of the first phase is to have standards available for the 2012 RFP season.

 

This development in the hotel industry demonstrates a couple of factors in the growth of carbon accounting which may have an impact on the carbon emissions management software market.

Firstly, its not legislation that’s pushing this move, at least not directly. Some chains may already fall foul of legislation in some countries, but as yet it will still be a small part of their operations. This is an industry initiative, recognising that the hotel sector as a whole needs to proactive in carbon counting and needs to do it right. It’s these sorts of initiatives that are making the CEMS market one of the fastest growing green ICT sectors.

Secondly, it remains to be seen exactly what the Working Group comes up with, but it’s very likely to be tailored to the specific concerns of the hotel industry, reflected in what’s counted and how. As with much enterprise software, specific industries very often want to see their own priorities reflected in the software they use. It points to an industry focus in the CEMS market, which may well help to keep it fragmented. There may not be completely industry-specific solutions, but at least tailored modules.

SynapSense raises $16m funding for expansion

Data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) company SynapSense has raised $16m from investors, led by Crosslink Capital.  The investment is earmarked to help SynapSense provide global customer support and meet the demand for its data centre optimisation platform.

It’s a sign of the growth in this important green IT market that SynapSense is the second DCIM company I’ve reported on recently that has announced a financing round. Sentilla has raised a similar amount - $15m – as I reported last Friday. (In fact SynapSense was first off the block but I missed the announcement).

SynapSense claims to offer the most complete data centre optimisation platform, delivering visibility, resiliency and energy efficiency to data centres. “Strong customer demand validates that real ROI is the core component of the emerging DCIM segment and SynapSense has emerged as the recognised leader,” according to Peter Van Deventer, CEO.

 

See my comments on Sentilla last Friday. This is a dynamic, evolving and competitive market and there’s a strong sense that money is being poured in to help players establish a market presence for the long term. But nothing is guaranteed, given the competing technologies and lack of standards in DCIM. Fertile ground for venture capital, though.

Sentilla raises another $15m in funding

According to greentechenterprise, Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software company Sentilla has raised $15m in a third round of funding. SingTel Innov8, the VC arm of Singapore telco carrier, joined existing investors and now owns 23.4% of the company.

Sentilla makes software to analyse, control and optimise data centre equipment power use, competing with the likes of Modius and SynapSense. The company maintains that using its software can save 25% on data centre energy bills, produce a return on investment in less than a year, reduce equipment needs by 21% and increase the life of a data centre by 3-4 years.

 

 

Sentilla is a good example of a company that started out simply monitoring and managing power use but is moving to a more comprehensive analysis of computing efficiency inside the data centre.

This is becoming an increasingly competitive market as other companies make similar moves, either directly or through partnerships and agreements. There are lots of different hardware and software approaches to data centre IT efficiency and not much in the way of standards, so companies and products are going to have to work very closely together to produce the sort of comprehensive energy monitoring and management solutions that users will be demanding in the future. No one company will be able to do it all.

It’s going to be an interesting market to watch, though, given the spectrum of green IT vendors involved, ranging, for example, from VMware at one end to Schneider Electric at the other.

Apple recycling extends to buy-back (in the US)

According to AppleInsider, Apple has introduced a buy-back scheme as part of its recycling programmes, although only in the US. The company has added an option that pays (via Apple Gift Cards) for old iPhones, iPads, Mac or PC desktop or notebook computers. Apple has contracted with PowerOn to run the programme.

To receive a payment you need to go through a question and answer session on the Apple Reuse and Recycling web page to get a preliminary valuation. If it does have a market value then you can get a shipping label to send it to PowerOn and if PowerOn agrees with the initial assessment the gift card is sent out. (If PowerOn’s final assessment is different you can still get the device back if you prefer, at no charge).

If the product does not have a market value you get a pre-paid shipping label so the product can be sent for ‘responsible recycling’.

 

Well it all helps. Having a potential value is going to encourage people to at least investigate using the proper channels for reuse and recycling, rather than throwing electronics into the bin. 

PowerOn may not necessarily offer the best deal, though - there are now lots of places that buy second-hand phones, games machines, etc, - but the Apple scheme makes it easy. Of course it’s not much use if you don’t want to buy Apple equipment in the future.

The ITU’s first Green Standards Week is aimed at raising awareness of green ICT

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development are organising an event in Rome with a focus on raising awareness of the importance of using ICT standards to build a green economy and combat climate change.

The first Green Standards Week will include a ‘High-Level Segment (HLS)’ and three workshops. The HLS is for Ministers and senior representatives from the ICT industry to exchange views on how ICTs can help in the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the run-up to Durban (COP-17). The aim of the HLS is to set policy objectives and targets to measure and improve government green ICT strategies and standards, including ICT-enabled applications across the economy.

The three workshops will be:

Methodologies for Environmental Impact Assessment of ICT. Jointly organised with the European Commission, this workshop will look at the work to measure the impact of ICTs on climate change and how to standardise the way to calculate the reduction of GHG in ICT operation.

Moving to a Green Economy through ICT Standards will explore how ICTs can help to address climate change and build a green economy, looking at standards, policies and best practices.

Submarine Cables for Ocean/Climate Monitoring and Disaster Warning: Science, Engineering, Business and Law aims to encourage the development of new technologies and standards and to explore business opportunities for telecommunication companies to become active players in monitoring climate change.

Green Standards Week, which is sponsored by Huawei, Research in Motion, Alcatel Lucent and Microsoft, will run from 5 to 9 September.

 

This sounds like a useful event, pulling together some influential organisations and companies to discuss issues central to green ICT. It does seem that the role of ICT in combating climate change is being discussed more and more, even though governments still seem reluctant to embrace, or promote, ICT as part of the climate change solution, rather than just part of the problem. Hopefully, this event will help.

You can get involved. Remote participation is possible (as you would expect from the ITU) with video, streamed audio and the ability to submit questions online.

How green IT can enable logistics emissions reductions - Ericsson

Ericsson has produced a case study modelling the emissions savings that Turkish mobile operator Avea Mobile could make by using mobile location-based services with its its field force management. The results are a good demonstrate of the green enabling potential of ICT. 

Avea Mobile is a mobile operator in Turkey with a nationwide customer base of 11.6 million and offering services to 97% of Turkey’s population through its next generation network.

The case study is is based on Avea Mobile having around 140 active business customers with around 1400 subscribed employees. In the original Business As Usual (BAU) case, system engineers are sent out by car to various locations to perform service tasks. As and when that job is done they become ready for new assignments. Typically the next task would be scheduled according to its priority, which could mean a long drive, since the service centre is not aware of where the engineer is or the address of the customer. There may be other engineers who could get there more quickly.

 

 

The objective of the new system was to use a Mobile Positioning System, a Geographic Information System (GIS) and content and application middleware to locate employees on the map and choose the nearest one to the location of the task.

There are a number of assumptions built into the assessment, but the bottom line is that Ericsson found that through using location-based services there is a potential to reduce CO₂e emissions by up to 510 kg CO₂e per subscriber per year while only adding 5 kg of  CO₂e per subscriber per year for the service system itself. The potential reduction ratio over a 20 year period could be 1:100 (depending on whether and how the infrastructure is included).  

 

The absolute reduction is about 710 tonnes CO₂e per year if applied to Avea Mobile customers with a total of around
1400 subscribed employees.

 

It’s a neat demonstration of how green IT can make a dramatic difference in emissions reductions in logistics. There are no cost figures included in the survey, but whatever the cost was it would have been significantly reduced by the saving in employee travel time, fuel costs and wear and tear on vehicles.

BuildingIQ receives a Aus$1.2m grant

Australian energy management software company BuildingIQ has been awarded a Aus$1.2m federal grant to expand its offerings. The grant comes from Commercialisation Australia, an initiative of the Australian federal government.

Founded in 2009, BuildingIQ’s software is aimed at helping reduce building energy cost and consumption. The system predicts energy demand and adjusts heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to optimise energy use. At the core is a thermal model that learns a building's energy performance and then adapts to changes in internal or external conditions. It factors in weather forecasts, occupant comfort, peak demand factors, and demand response signals to minimise energy cost and consumption.

 

 

The company claims that the software has achieved up to 40% HVAC savings and 30% peak load reductions in a wide variety of buildings in Australia and the US. The funding from Commercialisation Australia will go towards developing and delivering the SaaS-based technology across portfolios, partners and geographies.

Smart meters – big brother or planet saver?

I mentioned in the previous post that Onzo’s solutions provide a range of methods for customers to access their meter data. The company also says that its software analyses the data and is capable of “extracting valuable insights, including the identification of individual appliances from whole house data”.

It’s this sort of ability that seems to be behind much of the objections to smart meters in the US. You can get a taste for the concerns in the YouTube video at http://youtu.be/8JNFr_j6kdI (click on the picture below).

 

It seems that people (in the US at least) are concerned about how much information is being gathered about them through the meters (even though the information may uncover some wrongdoing). 

I share the general concerns about the amount of data held on all of us, but I’m not sure whether the fact that someone knows I’ve just put the kettle on is really impinging on my human rights. Between them CCTV, store cards and ATM transactions pretty much track my every move.

The real difference here is that smart meters have direct user benefits. They give us a degree of understanding and control over our energy use and will, in the long run, enable us to save energy and money, easily and conveniently.

More importantly they’ll help save the planet, which is perhaps the most important way we are all going to be kept safe.

Onzo anticipates one trillion meter readings by the end of the year

UK company Onzo, which provides the means to track and analyse smart meter data and describes itself as the world’s leading expert in energy analytics, says it’s on track to record a trillion (1,000 billion) meter readings by the end of 2011.

The company puts the achievement down to its server architecture - known as Cortex – which has apparently already logged over 300 billion meter readings from the commercial deployment of its Smart Energy Kit. Onzo provides a range of methods for customers to access the meter data, including a web portal, printed report, display, smartphone, email and SMS alerts.

Onzo’s clients include Scottish and Southern Energy, which it says is the second largest utility in the UK and the ninth largest in the world, with more than nine million customer accounts.

 

It’s good to hear about a small UK company success in the Green IT/smart meter industry. Onzo is not just confining itself to the UK, though. Back in April I reported on the fact that the company’s Smart Energy Kit has been chosen for a trial in Amsterdam to find out how much energy home owners can save when given easy-to-understand information about their electricity consumption.

In fact Onzo has Business Development Directors targeting Europe, North America and Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific. The company is discussing projects with a number of utilities around the world to use a combination of Onzo’s data capture and analysis capabilities, as well as consumer touch points and professional services.

The ‘trillion meter readings’ announcement doesn’t really mean very much, though. How often are readings taken? The company’s own literature says that “Cortex is capable of handling different data resolutions from monthly to one-second reads”. At one reading per second you only need to track 31,710 meters to reach a trillion readings in a year. Just so you know.

EnergyHub launches a smart thermostat service – but how does it work?

Part of the aim of this blog is to pass on information about green IT companies and products, to help give them a wider audience and spread the message. But sometimes it’s hard.

A US company called EnergyHub recently released a product called Mercury, described as a ‘Software Platform to Optimize Wireless Thermostats and Increase Consumer Engagement’. Beyond that it’s difficult to work out. Here’s an edited version of the press release:

Today, EnergyHub™ announced its new Mercury™ smart thermostat service, a software platform designed to reduce residential energy consumption. The cloud-based service, now available to cable and television service providers, home security companies, utilities, and device manufacturers, uses analytics and user interfaces to optimize thermostats and increase energy efficiency.

Coupling wireless thermostats with EnergyHub’s Mercury platform empowers end-users to automate their heating and cooling systems through web and mobile interfaces, helping them save up to 20 percent on their energy bills.

The Mercury platform analyzes the consumer’s comfort preferences and the home’s characteristics to arrive at a customized heating and cooling plan. Over time, the system provides personalized coaching based on the home’s historical performance and provides comparisons to other households to encourage even greater efficiency.

Mercury is delivered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that can be customized to match any brand so that established home security, cable, and telecommunications service providers can bundle thermostat optimization and remote monitoring and control services with existing subscription offerings. Device manufacturers (such as thermostat and security systems) use the platform to deliver customer interfaces that support next-generation product offerings and create new revenue streams.

Utilities and grid operators use the software’s analytics and back-end management tools to improve the yield of demand response programs while delivering real-time measurement and verification.

Offered either as a turnkey solution or as a supplement to existing consumer-facing programs, the platform integrates easily with AMI and AMR network deployments, without the need for costly back-end investment.

 

But how does it work? How is it controlled? What needs to be installed? How are the savings made? How exactly is it delivered?

There is a lot of good information in the press release, and I think it might be an interesting product/service to report on, but it really isn’t clear, at least not to me.

 

My point is that it’s a lost opportunity. EnergyHub is by no means the worst example of a press release I’ve seen - usually I just give up and move on (after wasting some time). If I don’t understand what it does or how it works I can’t really comment on it and it doesn’t go into the blog. (Sometimes I’ll see a bad press release just reproduced word-for-word on other sites because they don’t understand what it means either!)

What surprises me is that so many companies waste the chance to get their message across. It’s particularly true in a market like green IT, where features and benefits really need to be clearly explained to an audience that might not be aware and where lots of new products and services are emerging.

Part of The Green IT Report’s business is to help companies get their message across clearly through white papers, case studies and general editorial support. If press releases are anything to go by then more companies should be knocking on my door!

Cisco pulls out of the home energy management market

Cisco has followed in the recent footsteps of Google and Microsoft by announcing that it is withdrawing from the home energy management market.

The initial indication came from the company’s Q4 webinar, but there was more in a blog from Laura Ipsen, Senior VP in Cisco’s Smart Grid business:

“Over the past two years the home and building energy management markets have evolved in such a way that we believe we can provide more value to our customers and the industry by enabling interoperability through our core networking products and solutions (for example, EnergyWise) as part of our integrated architecture within the broader smart grid effort.

For building energy management, this means we are actively pursuing several strategic options for Cisco’s Network Building Mediator and Mediator Manager product line, with an emphasis on minimizing the impact on current customers, partners and employees.  For energy management in the home, we will transition our focus from creating premise energy management devices to using the network as the platform for supporting innovative applications and architectures that will improve our customers’ value proposition in the consumer energy management market”.

Cisco has had an end-to-end approach to smart grids through its Connected Grid, with Home Energy Management one of the building blocks. There were a number of announcements a year or so ago, including a touch-screen display and energy management software for monitoring and controlling energy use. The device connected to smart meters, with Ethernet and wifi connectivity for a home network.

 

Cisco withdrawing from this market is less of a surprise than Microsoft and Google. Cisco is well placed to provide the network and connectivity capabilities across the smart grid infrastructure, but building and home energy management requirements are a more specialist area and clearly not core business for the company.

Home energy management is going to be a significant green IT market in the long term, but for the moment it’s fragmented and immature. That’s likely to be the case until smart meter/smart grid technology is more settled, but already there are lots of specialist companies offering a range of solutions.

I suspect Microsoft and Google will re-enter the market through acquisition, when the dust has settled, but it doesn’t really make much sense for Cisco to be there at all, except to provide the connectivity.

The UK government has underestimated the benefits of mandatory greenhouse gas reporting

Several UK NGOs and other organisations have challenged the findings of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on the costs and benefits of mandatory GHG reporting. While Defra’s impact statement estimated the total cost (over a ten year timeframe) of as much as £6,025m and the benefits at no more than £1,355m, the new analysis puts the figures at a maximum cost of £1,417m and a possible benefit of £2,029m.

The study comes from a report by adelphi commissioned by The Aldersgate Group, WWF, The Co-operative Group and Christian Aid. It’s an analysis of the Impact Assessment (AI) published by Defra for consultation on options for mandatory GHG reporting. The AI estimated costs and benefits for four options – the new analysis focuses on option 3, which would introduce mandatory carbon reporting for all large UK companies.

The report maintains that Defra's approach is too narrow. For example, it doesn’t consider the benefits from wider behaviour change, product and service innovation and other advantages. There are also long term intangible benefits for businesses in relation to brand and international reputation.

The report concludes that overall, the new estimates show that the net benefits are significantly higher than the Defra IA and that option 3 provides an opportunity, rather than a burden, for the UK economy.

The report maintains that its new figures are still on the conservative side, because of the lack of reliable data. A number of expected benefits are not included, among them the costs and benefits of reporting international emissions, health benefits from reduced emissions of non-road transport, the positive effects on companies that would not have to report under option 3 and the general international competitive advantages for the UK in the low carbon economy.

 

Given the clear green incentive inherent in mandatory GHG reporting, the issue is whether it is too much of a financial burden on industry, particularly in an international competitive context. While the cost may be fairly straightforward to measure there are a lot of tangible and intangible benefits, which the report has tried to quantify (for option 3 – reporting for large companies).

From a global warming perspective, mandatory reporting seems like a good idea and likely to create a much greater awareness of the issues within business. Reporting leads to comparisons that lead to action, and green ICT initiatives are likely to be in the front line, so it is very relevant to the ICT market.

Logica wins Scottish and Southern Electric contract to support smart meter deployment

Scottish and Southern Electric (SSE), Britain’s second largest energy supplier, has awarded Logica a contract to provide communication, data and pre-payment services for residential smart meter system trials.

The companies will partner to deliver smart metering systems ahead of the mandated roll-out across the country, expected to start in 2014 when the new Data Communications Company (DCC) is in place. The DCC role is central to the use of smart meters, responsible for gathering meter readings and passing the data back to the suppliers. 

Logica will support SSE through its Smart Data Services and Instant Energy product. The Instant Energy service enables real time communication with customers’ meters using SMS messaging and pre-payment customers can top up their credit using the same technology as pay-as-you-go mobile phones.

 

This is another good smart meter win for Logica, which seems to be carving out an important slice of the market for itself. I reported on a similar win, worth £2.4m, with OnStream to provide services for a minimum of 26,000 residential smart meters over the next five years. Logica says that through Smart Data Services and Instant Energy it now supports over 85% of smart meters installed in people’s homes across Britain.

And that’s not all. In July Logica and SAP announced they would jointly bid to become the provider of the central data management capability, one part of the role of  the DCC, which needs to be in place before the mass roll-out. The contract is expected to be worth more than £100m and it’s an area where Logica has history. The company set up and ran (for ten years) the UK's New Electricity Trading Agreements (NETA), which replaced the previous wholesale electricity market mechanism.

Logica is certainly well positioned in the market. The company must have a good chance in the race to become DCC while also in the running for large-scale meter service deals, where the big money will be. It’s a reminder of the scale of the opportunities in this area of Green ICT.

Modius integrates with Intel for data centre power management

Data centre monitoring and management company Modius has announced that the Enterprise version of its OpenData solution will integrate with Intel’s Data Center Manager (DCM), which records power and temperature data from IT equipment in real time. By integrating with Intel’s DCM, OpenData will be able to provide enhanced data and analysis of the energy use of IT equipment and data centre facilities.

The functionality added to OpenData includes the ability to track power use and the temperature levels of devices and racks in real time, with warnings of any deviations. The integration will also provide visibility of power use from the UPS to individual servers, as well as cold spot and hot spot identification. The company believes that the information will help data centre managers improve efficiency and lower power costs, potentially expanding data centre capacity as well as providing early warning of any problems.

“Intel Data Center Manager coupled with OpenData Enterprise Edition enables data centre operators to gauge device-level performance and take actionable steps to plan for capacity and reduce energy consumption,” said Jeffrey Klaus, director, Data Center Solutions, Intel. “OpenData dashboards and reports with data from Intel DCM gives operators increased intelligence across a heterogeneous landscape of IT and facilities equipment.”

 

As I’ve said before, the data centre is becoming a battlefield for various companies offering the means to monitor and manage power use. It’s a good move from Modius, but it’s not the first to integrate with Intel’s DCM. Similar announcements have come from JouleX, Power Assure and CiRBA, all of who provide data centre power management solutions.

Given the range of methods and devices available to manage data centre power use – from virtualisation to power meters - it’s hard to see who the winners and losers will be. But integration, compatibility and standards will become the name of the game – something that the Open Data Centre Alliance should help with.

Data centre electricity use slows

The electricity used by data centres doubled between 2000 an 2005 and much of the call to action to address the issue has been based on predictions that it could double again by 2010. But new research suggests that the growth has slowed significantly, growing by 56% from 2005 to 2010, even less in the US at 36%. 

The research comes from a new study by Jonathan Koomey entitled "Worldwide electricity used in data centers" which can be downloaded here.  Koomey is Consulting Professor, Stanford University, and has researched and written extensively on resource use, particularly electricity, by IT equipment.

Key findings from the new study are:

• Growth in the installed base of servers in data centres had already begun to slow by early 2007 because of virtualisation and other factors.

• The economic slowdown that started in 2008, combined with further improvements in virtualisation, led to a significant reduction in the server installed base by 2010, compared to the IDC installed base forecast published in 2007.

• Growth in electricity used per server probably accounted for a larger share of demand growth from 2005 to 2010 than it did in 2000 to 2005.

• Electricity used in global data centres in 2010 accounted for between 1.1% and 1.5% of total electricity use. For the US that number was between 1.7 and 2.2%.

• Electricity used in US data centres in 2010 was significantly lower than predicted by the EPA’s 2007 ‘Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency’.

The bottom line is that in 2010 electricity use by data centres was about 1.3% of all electricity used worldwide. In the US, data centres accounted for 2% of all electricity used.

 

Well its good news that data centre electricity use has slowed, but there are two points to note here:

1) In the study the lower than predicted energy use is attributed mainly to a lower server installed base than was expected, rather than the efficiency improvements anticipated in the report to Congress. So while the actual level of energy use in 2010 fell within the EPA’s ‘Improved operation scenario’ predictions from 2007, it’s primarily down to the recession.

2) The report also says that electricity used per server has been a more important factor in growth in data centre power use in recent years. This can be seen as a positive factor, on the grounds that virtualisation has resulted in greater individual server utilisation. But while virtualisation is widespread, there is still a long way to go before all servers are virtual – many are not.

The results indicate that there is still some way to go in making servers more energy efficient. A server doing nothing can be consuming as much as 60% of the energy it needs when working flat out. Addressing that issue looks increasingly like a green IT priority.

Smart meter displays change consumer behaviour in Texas

Survey results from a 500 participant smart meter In-Home Display pilot programme in Texas show that 71% of customers reported that they have changed their electricity consumption behaviour as a result of having access to their energy use data.

The survey was carried out on the back of the implementation of smart meters and intelligent grid technology partly funded with a $200m Smart Grid Investment Grant from the US Department of Energy.

The survey responses showed that:

• 83% of respondents reported turning off lights at night or when not in the room,

• 51%  adjusted the temperature on their thermostat,

• 93% reported they are satisfied with their in-home display, and 97% reported they will continue using it.

To date, CenterPoint Energy has installed nearly 1.5 million smart meters in its 2.2 million meter system, with complete deployment due next year. Consumers who have already received their smart meter can get detailed information on their electric usage by visiting SmartMeterTexas.com. In the future they will have the option of purchasing an in-home display, providing them with up-to-the-minute usage information. 

 

There’s a lot of scepticism about the use of smart meters, particularly if all they provide is information about energy use, as in this case. It’s interesting to see how and when energy is used and the impact minor changes in use can have, but you can’t help wondering whether the novelty will wear off. This survey confirms that this type of real-time data can have an impact, but they need to carry out a follow-up survey in a year or two to see if people are still taking any notice.

Smart meters may have some impact on their own, but my view is that they will only really come into their own when they’re combined with smart grids that offer differential pricing, so you can actively manage energy use to save money. Without that, the best bet to reduce usage is to provide online analysis that shows the customer’s electricity use compared with figures for neighbours. Wanting to do better than others (and save more money than they do) is a powerful incentive.

Energy Star gets more competitive

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a new Energy Star programme to identify the most efficient products with the Energy Star label. The programme will start this year, on a pilot basis, with clothes washers, heating and cooling equipment, televisions, and fridge-freezers.

According to the EPA “Product categories were selected and recognition criteria were established to ensure that products that receive this recognition demonstrate efficiency performance that is truly exceptional, inspirational, or leading edge — consistent with the interests of environmentally-motivated consumers and early adopters”.

 

It’s an interesting development that, hopefully, will eventually include green ICT products. The problem with the Energy Star labelling system is that there’s currently no incentive for manufacturers to do more than reach a minimum requirement. The EPA can up the criteria over time, but there’s no challenge to do better. The ‘Most Efficient’ label will help, by giving the best performers more recognition.

The alternative would be to have various levels of achievement, as is the case with the EPEAT Gold, Silver and Bronze certification for green IT equipment – I guess the ‘Most Efficient’ label is a step in this direction. Better still would be to simply have a ranking of comparable products, showing the most energy efficient. I wouldn’t like to be the person responsible for that, though.

DHL launches an online logistics CO2 calculator

DHL Global Forwarding has launched a new tool for calculating the carbon emissions from shipments. The company’s customers can track emissions from road, sea and air transport using the online tool, known as the GoGreen Carbon Dashboard, which is part of Deutsche Post DHL’s GoGreen initiative.

DHL says it’s a response to sustainability regulations around the world that expect companies to manage, account for and reduce CO₂ emissions associated with their supply chains.

The Dashboard provides:

• An analysis of emissions associated with shipments.

• A detailed breakdown of the carbon footprint, including shipment mode, weight and volume, and
actual distance travelled.

• Calculations that can take into account carbon
emissions associated with 3rd parties.

• A baseline with meaningful KPIs, that helps companies work towards their carbon reduction targets.

• A ‘What if…’ function to analyse how carbon emissions
can be reduced through supply chain changes.

It’s all part of DHL’s broader green strategy. The company claims to be the first logistics provider with a quantified carbon efficiency target. The aim is to improve carbon efficiency by 30% by 2020 and, starting with an efficiency improvement of 10% by 2012.

 

Ultimately we’ll have a world where every supplier will be able to automatically calculate the carbon emissions for every product and service they deliver to a customer. You’ll be able to check and compare online before purchasing and for many customers the data will be automatically transmitted, along with the invoice, for integration with an in-house or online carbon emissions management solution.

The DHL system is taking the first steps towards this green IT ideal.

Dell supports free air cooling with hotter server warranties

Dell has announced a range of servers, storage and network equipment designed to run at higher than normal temperatures for short periods. The Dell Fresh Air cooling solutions are capable of operation in temperatures up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit/45 degrees Celsius.

New data centres increasingly make use of outside air for cooling, making either less use of chillers or not using them at all. But usually the maximum temperature that equipment can run at is 95 F (35 C), which limits the places and times they can do without chillers. Dell will provide warranties for the new range of equipment to run at up to 900 hours of 104 F (40 C) operation per year and up to 90 hours at 113 F (45 C).

With equipment able to run at higher temperatures for short periods the back-up chillers can be run less often, or not at all, improving energy consumption. It means that data centre operators can save over $100K per year per megawatt of IT in their data centres, according to the company.

 

It’s good news. It’s often said that servers can run hotter than they usually are, but data centre operators are reluctant to push their luck. Having a warranty behind the hotter running will give them some reassurance.

More importantly, it could make the difference between installing chillers in a new data centre or not. If there’s a risk of exceeding normal temperature limits for a few days, then the Dell equipment could be the answer (although the limitation would be the highest operating temperature of whatever other equipment is also installed in the data centre).

Having said that, with climate change on the way the flexibility that this level of hotter running provides may not be enough in 10 years’ time. Hopefully by then Green IT pressures will have resulted in equipment guaranteed to run at higher temperatures permanently.