Digital Realty to Publish PUE Data for Its Sites

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) has begun publishing energy efficiency data about its data center facilities using the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric. Digital Realty said it is now using PUE for measuring and reporting energy efficiency in its portfolio of 70 facilities spanning 12.6 million square feet across North America and Europe. The company said it will also publish benchmarks that will support industry-wide initiatives to make datacenters greener and reduce expenditures on energy.

PUE is an emerging standard promoted by The Green Grid and others in the data center industry to provide a consistent way to measure the ratio of power delivered to IT equipment versus the total amount of power used by the facility. PUE allows data center managers to calculate how much power is driving the actual IT equipment versus non-IT elements such as cooling and lighting.

"PUE is a compelling way to measure energy efficiency in datacenter facilities because it offers our industry an apples-to-apples comparison similar to the miles-per-gallon (MPG) fuel efficiency rating that the auto industry uses," said Jim Smith, Vice President of Engineering at Digital Realty Trust. "Regardless of whether you are driving a pickup truck or a sports car, miles per gallon is a clear standard for measuring efficiency across all makes and models