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U Chicago Tries Energy Management in Medical Data Center

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 06/21/10

The University of Chicago has implemented a new energy management system in one of its data facilities and adjoining offices. The university's medical center is running Acuity Solution from Agentis Energy to track kilowatt-hours of usage in real time, calculate electricity costs, report on demand, and identify opportunities for savings.

In the installation a monitor called Acuity Apex is attached to the utility meter for the overall facility and registers the pulses that report usage in kilowatt hours. Submeters measure electricity use by each set of servers in the server room. The data is sent via a router to a dedicated energy management Web portal developed by the vendor in collaboration with the medical center. In addition, the managers of the facility receive e-mail alerts on their electricity demand.

"The power draw of the servers themselves and the need to keep them in temperature-controlled environments makes data centers particularly energy-intensive," said Tony Rubino, director of networking and data center facilities at the medical center.