Feb. 20, 2002 -- The meltdown in the data center industry has helped dispel "myths" about the growth and power usage of these facilities, according to new research from the energy information unit of McGraw-Hill.
The series of E Source studies by Platts, titled "Delivering Energy Services to Internet Hotels," predicts that market conditions could transfom the relationship between facility operators and electric utilities, prompting a shift to energy efficient data centers that closely monitor power usage.
As carrier hotels sprung up around the country from 1998 to 2001, developers' demands for enormous electric loads - generally above 100 watts per square foot and sometimes as high as 400 watts per square foot - often tested utilities' existing infrastructure.
But the requested loads rarely materialized, and according to Platts, may have been based upon faulty estimates and fed by marketing strategies. The survey characterized data centers as high-density electrical loads, or HiDELs.
"Results of early studies suggest HiDELs typically draw only 30 to 55 watts per square foot," the study noted, a number well above the 5.4 watts per square foot used by the average commercial building, but far less than most developers were seeking.
These inflated requirements may have been fueled by misconceptions about the power levels needed to operate data center equipment, according to Platts, which found that vendor "nameplate" ratings are often substantially higher than actual loads.
"Arguably, a larger problem is that many HiDEL customers are impressed with high-power density capacities, perhaps because they believe that higher capacities are associated with higher reliability," said the report.
"As a result, HiDEL marketers use high capacities as a selling point for their facilities. This belief (in the connection between capacity and reliability) seems to be so widespread that it is unlikely to yield to a smattering of monitored statistics. Until it does, however, utilities should expect to receive escalating power requests from HiDEL developers."
Those requests led to tense relationship between carrier hotel operators and utilities, who began demanding large cash security deposits to shift some of the risk back to the facility owner.
"Utilities complained that installing infrastructure for HiDELs would cost billions of dollars, and they had little confidence those companies would be around long enough to amortize those investments," the Platts report noted. "So far, it appears the utilities' concerns were well-founded."
Although the growth of the Internet has not led to a power crisis, as some had feared, it has altered the long-term power demand outlook. Electric service providers must find ways to work together with carrier hotel and data center operators, according to Platts, which consulted with professionals from Level 3, Inflow and Exodus, as well as numerous engineers and utility executives.
A significant issue in the future demand picture is the trend towards smaller equipment, such as blade servers that can jam more than 300 web server appliances into a single 19-inch wide colocation rack.
This kind of equipment density could dramatically influence the power needs of data centers, and over time may even surpass the loads requested by developers in recent years.
A study last year for the 7x24 Exchange by Roger Schmidt of IBM and Suhas Patankar of Innovative Research projected that equipment heat loads will continue to rise through 2005, leveling off at server power densities of up to 1,200 to 1,500 watts per square foot.
"There is the potential for a future power shortage," said Jay Stein, a director of E Source research at Platts and leader of the studies. "The amount of power drawn by microprocessor chips continues to rise, and so the computers installed in future data centers may demand much more power than those installed today."
However, Stein says that a future power crunch is unlikely as U.S. utilities are already preparing for the next wave of data center industry expansion.
"Utilities are instituting infrastructure charges that shift risk from the utility industry to the data center developers," he said. "They are also encouraging their data center customers to use new, more efficient electronic technologies that only recently came onto the market. More efficient technology is going to ease the way for future data centers."
Platts is the energy information, research, consulting and marketing services unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.