WP#22 - Usage and Public Reporting Guidelines for The Green Grid's Infrastructure Metrics (PUE/DCiE)

Overview

The Green Grid's WP 22 is dated 29 October 2009 and was written by Jon Haas (Intel), Jamie Froedge (Emerson), John Pflueger (Dell) and Dan Azevedo (Symantec). It sets the rules, guidelines and a required process an organisation should follow before making a public PUE or DCiE claim.

The paper's central contribution is a standard nomenclature, so that whoever announces a value also communicates the key information about how it was measured. Without this, two PUE values obtained by different methods are easily set side by side, producing misleading comparisons.

The paper presents transparent reporting as the way to raise the credibility and usefulness of the metrics. The goal is to make published PUE figures credible and comparable. This view can be read as one of the precursors of the metric discipline that later matured in standards such as ISO/IEC 30134-2 and EN 50600-4-2.

As a limitation, the paper dates from 2009, and the detailed measurement categories and the content of the nomenclature scheme are not covered on this page.

Key points

1. Dated 29 October 2009; authors Jon Haas, Jamie Froedge, John Pflueger and Dan Azevedo.
2. Defines rules, guidelines and a required process for public PUE and DCiE claims.
3. Introduces a standard nomenclature so a claimant communicates key measurement information with the value.
4. Transparent reporting is presented as the way to raise the credibility and usefulness of the metrics.
5. The goal is to make published PUE figures credible and comparable.
6. Related standards: ISO/IEC 30134-2, EN 50600-4-2.

Using it in design

• In the reports module, attach the measurement nomenclature (measurement category and level, period, design or measured) whenever a PUE figure is exported.
• Block the 'measured' label for design-stage estimates.
• Show a warning if the reported PUE is based on less than 12 months of data.

Who should read it

Data centre operators and energy-efficiency engineers who publish or report PUE to customers.

Related standards

• ISO/IEC 30134-2
• EN 50600-4-2

Publication details

Authors

Jon Haas; Jamie Froedge; John Pflueger; Dan Azevedo

Publisher

The Green Grid

Year

2009

Document number

WP 22

Document language

English

Source type

Industry body

Access

Citation only

Licence

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

Citation