DOE Data Center Energy Assessment Process Manual, v3 (March 2022)

Overview

The manual is a document prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) that provides administrative instructions for running a data center energy assessment before, during and after the site visit. The current file is version v3 dated 22 March 2022 (2.54 MB).

The guide was written for the DCEP training programme, yet it can be used by any qualified assessor. That means the process knowledge is open not only to programme participants but also to independent consultants and operations teams. Its approach treats an assessment not as a one-off measurement but as an orderly workflow consisting of a data request, on-site measurements and reporting. The manual has companion tools. The Center of Expertise (CoE) toolkit contains an Energy Assessment Worksheet and an Energy Efficiency Assessment Report Template with a sample report.

These components help gather assessment results in a common structure and allow comparable reports to be produced across different assessors. As to limits, this record rests on the description on the resource page and does not summarise the manual's section content, measurement methods or thresholds. The source is an administrative process document; it does not impose a particular efficiency target or technical design rule. Relevant standards and design guides should be used separately for technical decisions.

In practice the value of a process document like this lies in settling the scope and output of an assessment in advance: when it is known from the start which data will be requested at which stage, what will be measured on site and in what form the result will be presented, the assessment is faster and more consistent across different facilities.

Key points

1. Provides administrative instructions for before, during and after an energy assessment.
2. Designed for the DCEP training programme but usable by any qualified assessor.
3. Current file: DOE v3 dated 03/22/22 (2.54 MB).
4. The CoE toolkit includes an Energy Assessment Worksheet.
5. The toolkit also includes an Energy Efficiency Assessment Report Template with a sample report.
6. The process can be thought of as a workflow of data request, on-site measurements and reporting.
7. The document is administrative; it contains no technical thresholds or design rules.

Using it in design

• Mirror this process in the audit workflow of the operations module: pre-visit data request, on-site measurements, report.
• Design the report output so it can be exported to the CoE report-template structure.
• Include measurement points in the monitoring design in line with the data an assessment will request.
• Use the assessment worksheet fields as a basis for the operating data collection list.
• Treat the process document as a workflow framework, not as a technical design rule.

Who should read it

Consultants, DCEP participants and operations engineers carrying out energy assessments of existing data centers.

Publication details

Authors

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Publisher

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / U.S. Department of Energy

Year

2022

Document number

v3

Document language

English

Source type

Government / public

Access

Free to read

Licence

Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document

Citation