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July 24, 2013

Berkeley Lab Shows Strategies to Achieve Low-Carbon Data Centers

Because data centers are responsible for 1%–2% of the world's electricity use, they are the target of considerable research into how to reduce their carbon emissions. However, assessing the true carbon intensity of data centers has not been easy. A recent perspective in the journal Nature Climate Change, co-authored by a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researcher, proposes that energy models of data centers provide "actionable guidance" to policymakers. The perspective presents the results of one such model that offers a typical U.S. data center carbon footprint, and how much its footprint is reduced through different carbon management strategies.

The research suggests that the carbon footprint reduction resulting from managing the lifecycle of IT devices (through lifetime extension and recycling initiatives) is dwarfed by that of best practice energy efficiency in the data center. Best practice efficiency reduces the emissions from data centers during their operation, employing such strategies as using the most energy-efficient equipment available, as well as server virtualization and application consolidation, which together lead to higher utilization of each server's computing capacity. The research suggests that while using renewable electricity helps reduce data center carbon emissions, this strategy must be coupled with best practice efficiency. See the Berkeley Lab press release.

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This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

July 24, 2013

Energy Department Releases Updated eGallon Prices

The Energy Department on July 19 highlighted the continued growth of electric vehicle sales—doubling in the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012—as it released its most recent pricing data showing the low cost of fueling on electricity. The national eGallon, a way for consumers to compare the costs of fueling electric vehicles versus driving on gasoline, rose slightly to $1.18 from $1.14 in the latest monthly numbers, but remains far below the $3.49 national average retail cost of a gallon of gasoline.

Plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) sales tripled from about 17,000 in 2011 to about 52,000 in 2012. During the first six months of 2013, Americans bought over 40,000 PEVs, more than twice as many sold during the same period in 2012. The latest numbers also show how the early years of the PEV market have seen much faster growth than the early years of the hybrid vehicle market. Thirty months after the first hybrid was introduced, monthly sales figures were under 3,000. By comparison, sales of PEVs, first introduced in December 2010, have soared to nearly 9,000 in the last month. At the same time, thanks to technology improvements and growing domestic manufacturing capacity, the cost of a battery has fallen by nearly 50% in the last four years, and is expected to drop to $10,000 by 2015. See the Energy Department press release.

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This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

July 24, 2013

Energy Department Invests to Save Energy in Small Buildings

The Energy Department on July 17 announced an award of $10 million—matched by at least $14 million in private sector funding—for six projects to help operators of small commercial buildings save money by saving energy. These buildings are less than 50,000 square feet in size and include schools, churches, strip malls, restaurants, and grocery stores. The six projects are aimed at developing user-friendly tools and resources that can be easily deployed at any small building.

The six projects are designed to help building owners across the country save money. The New York-based BlocPower will develop a crowd-sourcing website to help market, finance, and install energy efficiency retrofits for 1,500 small buildings including churches, schools, small businesses, and non-profits in low-income communities across the country. EcoCity Partners, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, will lead a pilot program to design and offer pre-packaged technology retrofit options by building type and size, business type, and climate zone to help the owners of 50 small commercial buildings identify the best retrofit approach. Ecology Action of Santa Cruz, Inc. in Santa Cruz, California, will leverage its existing network of contractors to use low-cost, high-impact tools to analyze and implement deep energy retrofits and financing options that are appropriate to small buildings, and is expected to reach about 900 small buildings in northern California.

Also, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is partnering with Architecture 2030 to develop a 2030 District program for small commercial office and retail buildings, including a technical toolkit that provides guidance and resources for building owners and operators, including buildings in Seattle, Washington; Cleveland, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Los Angeles, California. The National Trust for Historic Preservation will partner with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to provide low-cost energy efficiency services to small businesses in California, New York, Washington State, and Wisconsin, leveraging the Trust’s National Main Street Center network of communities focused on preservation-based economic revitalization. And Southface Energy Institute will help develop simple, affordable energy efficiency evaluation and upgrade tools that meet or exceed the Architecture 2030 Challenge targets, including a 50% energy improvement in new construction and a 20% energy improvement from upgrades to existing buildings. The institute will also partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Georgia Tech to develop training materials that will help local contractors to conduct energy audits for about 240 small buildings in the Atlanta, Georgia, metro area.

In the United States, the commercial building sector, of which more than 90% are small buildings, consumes about 20% of all U.S. energy. According to studies by NREL and the Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, small buildings have tremendous potential to save energy and improve their bottom lines. See the Energy Department's press release.

This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

July 24, 2013

EPA Debuts Upgraded Energy Star Portfolio Manager Benchmarking Tool

The EPA on July 18 announced the release of an upgrade to its online energy management and tracking tool, the Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The upgraded tool can help businesses achieve President Obama’s call to make commercial buildings at least 20% more energy efficient by 2020. The new Energy Star Portfolio Manager delivers a more user-friendly interface, enhanced data sharing capabilities, better reporting, and for the first time, the ability to manage buildings across their lifecycle, from design through occupancy.

Tens of thousands of organizations—including school districts, retail chains, hospital systems, and local governments—currently use Energy Star Portfolio Manager to measure the energy performance, water use, utility costs, and greenhouse gas emissions of more than 40 percent of the nation’s commercial building space. The tool will continue to deliver the nearly 150 energy, greenhouse gas (GHG), and water performance metrics that owners and managers of commercial buildings use to make strategic management decisions. One of these metrics, the 1–100 Energy Star score, rates a building’s energy efficiency against similar buildings nationwide.

Energy Star-certified buildings use, on average, 35% less energy and generate 35% fewer GHG emissions than typical buildings. Studies have shown that they have lower operating costs, increased asset value, and higher occupancy rates. See the EPA press release and the Energy Star website.

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Oracle Press Release

Oracle Study Says Utilities Not Yet Seizing Smart Grid Data Potential

North American Utilities Expect Analytics Will Drive Operational Efficiency; Less than Half are Using Big Data to Improve Customer Service

Redwood Shores, Calif. – July 23, 2013

News Summary

Utilities today accumulate enormous amounts of smart grid data, but still need to turn information into business value. A new Oracle study, “Utilities and Big Data: Accelerating the Drive to Value,” the second annual study in the Oracle Utilities Big Data series, shows utilities are increasingly prepared for the smart grid data influx compared to last year, but still struggle to fully leverage the data collected. Significant potential still exists to use this information to drive customer service and operational improvements for business value.

News Facts

Oracle’s “Utilities and Big Data: Accelerating the Drive to Value” report surveyed 151 North American senior-level utilities executives with smart meter programs to gauge:

Preparedness to handle the big data influx

How data is being used to improve operations and customer service

Future short- and long-term plans to use smart grid data

The potential of cloud-based solutions for data management and analysis

Where utilities will derive the greatest value from predictive analytics.

While more utilities say they are completely prepared this year compared to one year ago, less than half of utilities report they are using smart grid data to improve customer service and operational efficiency today.

Key Survey Findings

Preparedness Increasing, but Still Lagging: Utilities are more prepared to manage the data deluge today than they were one year ago, with 17 percent responding they are completely prepared, up from 9 percent in 2012. However, the majority still say they are underprepared. Utilities report slight improvements in information sharing and using information for strategic decision making.

Opportunity to Improve Customer Service: Fewer than half of utilities today use smart grid data to provide alerts or make other direct customer service improvements.

Big Data Skills Gap is Real: Sixty-two percent of survey respondents said they have a big data skills gap – including those who say they are prepared for the smart grid data influx.

Potential in the Cloud: While two out of three utilities are considering cloud-based solutions for smart grid/smart meter data management and analysis, only 26 percent are actually planning, implementing or maintaining a cloud solution today.

Utilities Believe in Analytics: Seventy percent of utilities said they expect predictive analytics to improve revenue protection and 61 percent said they expect it to reduce asset maintenance costs.

Supporting Quote

“Our new study shows that while more utilities today, over last year, are completely prepared to handle the big data influx from smart grid, most still struggle to get business value from the information they collect. The most progressive utilities are transforming themselves now into data-driven businesses to accelerate the opportunities big data and analytics can bring to improving customer service and operational efficiencies,” said Rodger Smith, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities.Oracle Utilities Receives Highest Rating Given in MarketScope for Outage Management Systems Report

Supporting Resources

Report: “Utilities and Big Data: Accelerating the Drive to Value”

Infographic: “Utilities and Big Data: Accelerating Drive to Value”

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About Oracle Utilities

Oracle Utilities delivers proven software applications that help utilities of all types and sizes achieve competitive advantage, business performance excellence and a lower total cost of technology ownership. Oracle Utilities integrates industry-specific customer care and billing, network management, work and asset management, mobile workforce management and meter data management applications with the capabilities of Oracle's industry-leading enterprise applications, business intelligence tools, middleware, database technologies, as well as servers and storage. The software enables customers to adapt more nimbly to market deregulation, meet ever-evolving customer demands and deliver on environmental conservation commitments. Additionally, Oracle Utilities helps utilities prepare for smart metering and smart grid initiatives that enhance efficiency and provide critical intelligence metrics that can help drive more-informed energy and water usage decisions for consumers and businesses. For more information, visit www.oracle.com/goto/utilities.

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.