February 15, 2008 (Computerworld) From cars to condos, "green" is all the rage these days — and IT is no exception. Eco-friendly computing promises the twin win of saving money and the environment. In this groundbreaking awards program,Computerworld honors 12 user companies and another dozen vendors that are leading the way (see the full list of honorees).
These green leaders are virtualizing, videoconferencing, turning down the cooling systems and turning off the lights. Want to see how your organization stacks up with the winners? Take our quiz to find out how green your company is now, and how to make it even greener. Also, read how the "Green Dozen" were chosen, view the full survey completed by the participants and see our list of the greenest technology vendors and data center suppliers.
Austin Energy, ranked number 7, is no Johnny-come-lately to energy efficiency among U.S. companies. The $1.2 billion power company estimates that it has saved energy equivalent to the output of a 660-megawatt power plant since 1985, when it launched the first in an extensive lineup of innovative energy conservation and renewable resources programs. Austin Energy's goal is to boost that total savings by an additional 700 megawatts of power by 2020. Also, for the sixth year in a row, the city-owned power company ranks as the No. 1 seller of green energy, including solar and wind power, among all U.S. electric utilities. "We pride ourselves on being one of the most progressive utilities in the world," says CIO Andres Carvallo.
The most important goal of Austin Energy's energy-saving initiatives is reducing reliance on electricity and thus lowering overall carbon dioxide emissions. To reach that goal, it plans to use technologies such as smart appliances to monitor and control power usage at customer sites. The utility also plans to implement new server and storage technology, including multicore CPUs, virtualization, and de-duplication and compression techniques in its own data center. Currently, the company's 1,600 staff has an IT department running just over 600 servers on 150 physical machines. This translates to 40% energy savings, says Carvallo.
Austin Energy's IT group manages 195,000 real-time devices used for automated electricity metering and distribution. That number will increase to 500,000 devices by early 2009. The company also now receives 35% of its revenue online, up from no online payments in 2003.
Austin Energy, ranked number 7, is no Johnny-come-lately to energy efficiency among U.S. companies. The $1.2 billion power company estimates that it has saved energy equivalent to the output of a 660-megawatt power plant since 1985, when it launched the first in an extensive lineup of innovative energy conservation and renewable resources programs. Austin Energy's goal is to boost that total savings by an additional 700 megawatts of power by 2020. Also, for the sixth year in a row, the city-owned power company ranks as the No. 1 seller of green energy, including solar and wind power, among all U.S. electric utilities. "We pride ourselves on being one of the most progressive utilities in the world," says CIO Andres Carvallo.
The most important goal of Austin Energy's energy-saving initiatives is reducing reliance on electricity and thus lowering overall carbon dioxide emissions. To reach that goal, it plans to use technologies such as smart appliances to monitor and control power usage at customer sites. The utility also plans to implement new server and storage technology, including multicore CPUs, virtualization, and de-duplication and compression techniques in its own data center. Currently, the company's 1,600 staff has an IT department running just over 600 servers on 150 physical machines. This translates to 40% energy savings, says Carvallo.
Austin Energy's IT group manages 195,000 real-time devices used for automated electricity metering and distribution. That number will increase to 500,000 devices by early 2009. The company also now receives 35% of its revenue online, up from no online payments in 2003.
Henry Wong, a member of The Green Grid consortium, lauds Austin Energy's IT efforts, which have enabled the utility to communicate with customers about their time-sensitive power requirements. A so-called smart power grid, which delivers power when needed and conserves power when it isn't needed, would be impossible without such communication, he says. "We know that technology can facilitate that with better automation and controls," adds Wong. "Austin Energy is willing to become the proving ground by offering that automation to monitor demand and have systems capable of being able to react to that demand."
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