Efficiency organizations around the world have begun to take notice of the amount of energy consumed in the ever-expanding web of home and business networks. A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) claims there are more than fourteen billion network-enabled devices in use globally. Projections point to fifty billion network-enabled devices deployed by 2020 and one-hundred billion network-enabled devices by 2030.
While most agencies have looked at reducing networked related energy consumption on a “product” level (i.e. standards to reduce the energy consumed in appliances during standby mode), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a different approach. The EPA and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), recently held a joint workshop to discuss roles for the ENERGY STAR program and others in promoting energy savings by looking at networked devices and networking equipment as integrated systems. Their thinking is that energy savings gained from an overall system design could outweigh gains from individual device-specific improvements.
Progress on definition development for intelligent systems efficiency
Agreement to develop models for implementing systems efficiency
Interest in developing case studies and a potential data source for metrics work
Interest in determining ways to verify savings claims from IT efficiency providers
Interest in engaging utility measurement and verification (M&V) experts
Initial metric development discussion
The EPA plans to schedule a series of quarterly conference calls to continue this discussion. The next call is tentatively planned for Tuesday, September 30th.
source: http://www.powerint.com/blog/mrgreen/us-epa-explores-holistic-approach-networked-system-efficiency
Comments are closed.
