Presenter:
Harry Handlin, GE Energy, Technical Committee
Scott Henneberry, Schneider Electric
Anant Venkateswaran, GE Energy
As the data-driven economy drives the growth of data centers worldwide, we are facing unprecedented challenges of improving energy efficiency in data centers. Motivated by the very same drivers that are propelling the Smart Grid worldwide, the data center industry is going through a path breaking global transformation. Issues like reliability, cost of energy, green-house gases etc., have created an urgent need to look at data centers as an energy sink rather than purely a load, providing for interesting possibilities in the future. Looking at data centers as an "End Node" of the Smart Grid, this session will highlight the current trends in terms of opportunities, stakeholders, standards and barriers that are unique to increasing data center efficiencies. It will also provide representative examples and present considerations and recommendations in support of the establishment of sustainable data center initiatives globally. Interaction between the utility, as well as data centers and the impact of renewables and storage will also be addressed.