Legislation covering building planning and carbon
emissions, together with expected hikes in the cost of electricity,
could affect the design and operation of datacentres, IT directors
have been told.
The warning, from experts presenting at tomorrow's (25 October)
Power and Cooling for Data Centres Summit 2006 in London, comes as
demand for datacentre capacity continues to climb.
But with suitable sites increasingly hard to find due to
inadequate electricity supplies, and legislation expected to drive
greater energy efficiency within the datacentre, IT directors may
have to rethink their priorities in this area.
Charlotte Eddington, a senior surveyor at CB Richard Ellis,
said, "The Greater London Authority is recommending that 10% of
energy for new developments comes from renewable sources, and the
EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is forcing buildings
to be more energy efficient."
She said it was also only a matter of time before datacentres
were brought into the EU Emission Trading Scheme, under which
industrial plants are taxed on their carbon emissions. "IT is a
very high energy user in the UK, so there is a greater need for
datacentre power efficiency," said Eddington.
Another factor affecting the building of new datacentres is that
they often require an upgraded electricity supply. Keith Breed,
author of a BroadGroup datacentre report, said there was a shortage
of electricity in Europe, which could lead to price hikes, as
electricity providers attempt to recoup the cost of building new
infrastructure to cope with demand.
"Electricity costs have been rising over the past two years and
they are 30% of datacentre operating costs," he said.
www.datacentres.com/pac
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/trading