ENERGY STAR Guest Speaker to Present Core Principles of Data Center Energy Use Benchmarking

The Data Center Alliance (DCA) has announced that Kathy Diehl, Regional ENERGY STAR Program Manager, will speak at its first Road Show event. The event, titled “Winds of Change: Creative Concepts for Increasing Data Center Efficiency,” will be held on July 27th at the Biltmore hotel, 2151 Laurelwood Road, Santa Clara, California, from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm. This event will provide insights into data center energy management challenges to an audience of CIOs, facilities managers, data center managers, IT managers and system administrators.

Diehl’s talk, "ENERGY STAR for Data Centers," will address the development of the "Guiding Principles for Energy Efficiency" used to assist data center operators wishing to assess the energy efficiency of their facilities. The presentation will explain the application of ENERGY STAR'S Portfolio Manager data base to benchmark and rate the energy use of data centers in order to foster and reinforce energy savings.

Kathy Diehl is the Regional ENERGY STAR Program Manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s San Francisco Office, and has been in this position for about six years. Prior to Energy Star, Diehl was the Renewable Energy Lead for the region’s Air Division, and has been active in the region’s Climate Change Program for 15 years. Diehl has a Masters in Environmental Engineering and a Bachelors in Environmental Science, both from the University of California at Berkeley.

According to EPA, “Data centers use a significant amount of energy, accounting for 1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption at a cost of $4.5 billion annually, an amount that is expected to almost double over the next five years. Significant energy and cost savings are possible through modest gains in efficiency. Improving the energy efficiency of America’s data centers by just 10 percent would save more than 6 billion kilowatt-hours each year, enough to power more than 350,000 homes and save more than $450 million annually. Energy Star provides a proven energy management strategy and free tools for public and private organizations to save energy and money through increased energy efficiency.”

The Data Center Alliance event is sponsored by Digi International, Elliptical Mobile Solutions, Minicom, PDI, and Wright Line. Together with other alliance partners, these companies have joined forces to leverage the core strengths of each organization, and to fill the information gap in the marketplace by providing a centralized, comprehensive source for building successful IT infrastructures.

The keynote speaker, William Dunckel, Senior Project Manager at PG&E, will be speaking about “Myths & Facts Driving Data Center Energy." A panel of data center professionals will cover a broad range of topics such as scalable designs for rack enclosures, data center mobility, lowering cooling costs, power management, facility design, and remote access management, among others.

“We’re honored to host Kathy Diehl at our first road show, and to broadcast Energy Star’s important message about data center energy efficiency,” said David Zucker, Executive Director of the DCA. “As the energy consumed by data centers is growing at an alarming rate, DCA supports the effort of educating the data center community about saving energy and helping to combat climate change.”

Register now for the free event “Winds of Change: Creative Concepts for Increasing Data Center Efficiency.”