Beijing Bans Data Centers with High PUEs
RJ Tee
September 05, 2017
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In a surprising announcement, the Chinese government has issued a full ban on data centers in Beijing whose power usage effectiveness (PUE) exceeds 1.5.
As explained in Data Center Knowledge, the move is part of a larger push by the Chinese government to improve the environmental footprint of the rapidly-growing country. Now, the government is starting to crack down on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
PUE refers to the total amount of energy used by a data center facility in comparison to the energy delivered by its computing equipment. A reading close to 1 is considered to be very efficient. Most data centers in China, however, have a PUE of 2.2 according to a recent study from Yale Forestry’s Environment 360 publication.
Businesses with data centers in China must now decide how to respond to this new regulation. Already, some organizations left the city rather than adhere to compliance. This, however, is not the most efficient way to handle the situation. Beijing is a huge market, especially from an edge computing perspective. Businesses today are trying to bring their data centers closer to end users in key markets, not further away. And Beijing — a city with 21.5 million people — is a huge market.
An alternative option is to use intelligent power distribution units to discover where energy waste is occurring in the data center so that immediate action can be taken to curb excessive usage. With the help of Server Technology’s products, data centers in Beijing can significantly improve power efficiencies.
So take our advice: Don’t run from a high PUE reading. Fight back using data gleaned from real-time power monitoring solutions.
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