A global taskforce on data center efficiency announced agreement on standard approaches and reporting conventions for data center energy productivity (DCeP). The taskforce recommends that data centers define attributes and measure DCeP, an equation that quantifies useful work that a data center produces based on the amount of energy it consumes.

DCeP allows each organization to define “useful work” as is applicable to its business. For example, a retail business may use number of sales as the measure for useful work, while an online search company may use the number of searches completed.

In October 2012, the taskforce reached consensus on the use of the Green Energy Coefficient (GEC), Energy Reuse Factor (ERF) and Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) metrics. Previously, it announced agreement on guidelines and specific measurement protocols for Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), a metric originally developed by The Green Grid Association.

The global taskforce on data center efficiency is comprised of representatives from: The Green Grid Association; US Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now and Federal Energy Management Programs (March 2009 – October 2012); US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Program; European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Data Centres Code of Conduct; Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; and, Japan’s Green IT Promotion Council.

With this fourth and final public memo, the task force concludes five years of work to harmonize directions designed to improve key energy efficiency metrics within data centers.