Presented by Mark Acton, Independent Consultant, Non Executive Director, EkkoSense

Data center energy efficiency has been an ongoing topic and goal in the industry that has led to many innovations around how data centers are powered and cooled. The primary driver for this has typically been to reduce costs related to energy usage, with increasing capacity as a distant second. In recent years, commitments towards net zero and sustainability have sparked a renewed focus on data center energy efficiency, leading to the implementation of greener initiatives for data centers and access to renewable power becoming a key selection criteria for many new sites. This has also led to PUE becoming the de facto metric by which many facilities measure energy efficiency. While PUE is indeed a valuable metric, it’s important to note that it is not a true metric for energy efficiency and other KPIs are needed to more accurately measure performance. This session will discuss the different KPIs that can be used, while also examining the plausibility of many myths that surround energy efficiency and sustainability, to ultimately lay out a potential path forward for the data center sector.