IT equipment is at the core of energy consumption in data centers. Energy savings at the IT level will have an impact on essentially all energy use in these facilities. According to the Uptime Institute (2020), many energy efficiency opportunities involving IT equipment such as servers, network, and storage remain untapped.
The Department of Energy's (DOE) Microsoft Excel based IT Efficiency Tool was developed to help accelerate the energy savings in data centers by identifying opportunities through IT equipment upgrades.
The November 2023 version contains several important upgrades, including:
1) Improved estimates of carbon release, including T&D electrical losses
2) Introduced on-site water savings using the WUE metric
3) Updated with latest available eGRID carbon emission data
4) Improved interoperability between the three system tools (IT Equipment, Air Management, and Electrical Power Chain)
5) Updated the User's Manual
6) Clarifications and improved functionality