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Financing energy efficiency in university data centres and IT activities
A collaboration of the JISC-financed RECSO and Green in Silico projects
Rising prices, carbon regulation, and sector targets are all making universities and colleges pay greater attention to their IT energy consumption and carbon emissions. Many low-medium payback measures are possible, but are often blocked by a lack of funding or incentives amongst users. Several solutions are now emerging. Energy costs can be devolved to entire departments or for easily metered activities, such as data centres. Alternatively, Estates can still pay energy bills, but share a proportion of any cost increases or falls from an agreed baseline. An energy efficiency fund can also be used to finance energy efficient equipment, covering either the whole cost (as with Salix schemes), or the price premium for high performance models. However, if schemes of this kind are to work effectively it is important to address issues such as:
- Raising user awareness of energy consumption and costs (e.g. through more and better use of whole life costing)
- The development of new energy-related skills/posts within departments or units
- Ensuring that Estates departments support data centre and other IT actions if their own financial incentive to do so has been reduced or removed, and
- Achieving accurate and useful information from meters and other sources.
This workshop will explore these topics and provide an opportunity for estates, finance, and IT staff to acquire new information, and share experiences and thinking. It is a joint initiative of two JISC financed projects - Responsible Energy Costs, led by Forum for the Future and the University of Gloucestershire, and Greening Scientific Computing, led by HEEPI’s SusteIT project.
Programme
| Time | Activity |
|---|
| 12.30 – 13.00 |
Registration & Refreshments |
| 13.00 – 13.10 |
Welcome and Overview from JISC
Rob Bristow, Programme Manager, Green IT |
| 13.10 – 13.35 |
Financial Incentives for Energy Efficiency - Options, Issues and Best Practice Examples in HE
Professor Peter James, Director, HEEPI S-Lab and SusteIT projects |
| 13.35 – 14.05 |
Making Financial Incentives Work – An Accountant’s Perspective
Martin Bennett, Reader in Financial Management, University of Gloucestershire; and former Chair, European Environmental Management Accounting Network |
| 14.05 – 14.35 |
Financial Incentives and IT/Data Centre Energy Efficiency –Findings from the RECSO Study
David Aeron-Thomas, Head of Metrics, Forum for the Future |
| 14.35 – 14.50 |
Q & A, Discussion |
| 14.50 – 15.10 |
Refreshments |
| 15.10 – 16.15 |
Small group discussion/brainstorming, followed by plenary:
- can accounting and management systems sometimes be a barrier to improving ICT-related energy efficiency in universities and colleges?
- are better financial incentives needed to achieve low carbon ICT?
- if so, which incentives will work best, and in what circumstances?
- what should those involved (from ICT, estates and finance) do to make this happen?
|
| 16.15 (approx) |
End |
Although the event is free, as we expect the event to be very popular, cancellations after August 31st and no-shows that are not due to illness, will be charged at £100.
Book your place online
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