Energy
Spotlight on a scarce resource

Energy – available at the flick of a switch, ever-present and available in whatever quantity you desire. Energy is so commonplace and taken for granted that it’s called a utility.

Without it, no business, enterprise or organisation of any size could operate without it. Energy is fundamental to our whole society.

Yet, we are beginning to face a very real threat that we are running out of it. Recently, there have been alarming sounds that the UK electricity grid cannot cope with excessive short term increases in power demand causing a number of blackouts.

Energy companies have responded to this demand by raising prices. British Gas announced in July that its electricity would go up by nine percent, following a 15 percent increase in January earlier this year. EDF announced in March a 4.7 percent increase in electricity pricing and suppliers such as Southern Electric and Eon are expected to follow suit shortly.

Taking note of this, the UK government, for the first time anywhere in the world, has introduced a long term legally binding framework to tackle the dangers of climate change.

The Climate Change Bill was introduced in Parliament on 14 November 2007 and completed its passage through the House of Lords on 31 March 2008. It has now moved to the House of Commons for consideration and is aiming for Royal Assent by autumn 2008.

This bill would commit the UK to achieving reductions of 26-32 percent in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels). This corresponds to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of around 32-37 percent by the same date. The key component of the legislation would require a mandatory 60 percent cut in the UK’s carbon emissions by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels).

So, it’s clear that energy is running low, prices are going up, and the government is trying to push CO2 emissions down.

Now it’s time for businesses and public sector organisations to play their part. It’s time to look at the way they have been using power, and the way it should be used from now on.

One of the major areas of energy use – indeed growing energy use – is Information Technology. This is especially so of data centres.

A study published last year by consultancy BroadGroup found that the average energy bill to run a corporate data centre in the UK is about £5.3m per year. The report predicted that this would double to £11m over five years and that the UK would become the most expensive place in Europe to run a data centre.

Aside from the data centre, you of course have all your desktops and networking gear which all contribute to the problem too.

So, IT may be one of the major culprits behind large amounts of energy use, but IT can also be the way to decreasing this energy use.

Organisations should look to technologies such as virtualisation to reduce the real number of servers and storage arrays it operates. Cloud computing – where applications are hosted on the internet – also helps by allowing for the use of smaller and more energy efficient desktop machines.

Working with an outsourcing partner who understands, and can help you implement, these technologies are a good way to start your move toward a more energy efficient organisation.