NYSERDA, Con Edison and IBM Help New York Companies To Reduce Data Center Costs by $80 million Over 10 Years.

Companies To Reduce Data Center Costs by $80 million Over 10 Years.

Consolidated Edison Company of New York (Con Edison) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) today in Westchester announced a partnership to help data centers in New York City and Westchester County reduce their energy use, save on operating costs, and cut greenhouse gas emissions through more efficient use of electricity.

Under the Data Center Efficiency Program, Con Edison and NYSERDA will work together to provide data centers in the Con Edison service territory with targeted technical assistance as well as $10 million in financial incentives to support energy efficiency initiatives.  This funding is available with the goal of reducing energy costs by $8 million and achieving 55,000 MWhs in annual energy savings.

New York State contains the second highest concentration of data centers in the country.  These critical components of our information technology infrastructure are intensive energy consumers.  Studies have shown that energy consumption from data centers doubled between 2000 and 2005.  With many data centers reaching capacity within their existing footprints, businesses are faced with either optimizing their operations or designing and building newer, more efficient facilities.

“New York State has a high concentration of mission-critical data centers.  Data centers have historically maximized uptime and reliability without always focusing on energy efficiency,” said Rebecca Craft, Director of Energy Efficiency Programs of Con Edison.  “Through the Con Edison/NYSERDA joint Data Center Initiative, we’ll be working together to create sustainable information technology.  Efficiency savings from these data centers can help manage peak energy demand, and provide real dollar savings not only to data centers but to all customers in our service territory.”

“Energy management is absolutely critical for data centers to control costs while minimizing environmental impacts,” said Francis J. Murray Jr., NYSERDA President and CEO.  “Combining the energy expertise and resources of Con Edison and NYSERDA will provide data centers with the best options possible to meet their growing energy needs.  This important partnership will give data centers targeted and individualized solutions to meet their growing energy needs.”

“NYSERDA’s incentive program for data centers is a primary factor in selecting New York-based servers for virtualization rather than servers located in states without such programs.  Furthermore, it increases the total affordability of our consolidation and virtualization program allowing us to do more with our limited investment resources,” said John Adams, Project Executive, Head of Virtualization, IBM.