For colocation providers, Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) is similar to margins produced by wholesale versus retail pricing. With the commoditization of colocation, providers are forced to pay closer attention to how they utilize power, and they’ve had a lot of help along the way. Moore’s Law, advancements in rectifier & inverter Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) circuitry, smart power supplies, virtualization, Solid-State Drive (SSD), Light-Emitting Diode (LED), and higher temperature server thresholds have all contributed to delivering higher efficiency.
General numbers put global data center power consumption at just over 200 terawatt hours annually which equates to approximately 1% of the planet’s electricity. This number hasn’t changed much despite seeing the number of data center numbers increase five fold over the last ten years. PUE is a simple formula for measuring effective use of power within the data center – in basic terms, what is consumed in the facility compared to the IT load. The average is 2:1 and anything below that is considered inefficient.
Power Usage Efficiency Distribution
Clark Energy – https://www.clarke-energy.com/natural-gas/data-centre-chp-trigeneration/
The good news is technology will help to maintain those numbers as we see growth, however with 5G networks, AI, Hyperscale, and crypto mining, help maintain and improve those numbers. It might also be a good time to look seriously toward full cycle self-sustaining solutions such as NeuBlue’s pyrolysis systems which serve multiple purposes, turning waste into energy.
There’s no doubt that data center growth in the next ten years will go well beyond linear, but how we pay attention to the numbers that matter, like Power Usage Efficiency, will determine the macro effect on industry and the planet.
