Energy-related costs are estimated to account for about 50 per cent of overall operating expenditure in a typical data centre in Singapore.

A typical data centre with about 10,000 square feet of net IT space consumes an average of 18.1 million kilowatt hours of energy annually. The Credit Suisse Regional Data Centre managed to reduce its energy consumption by 3.85 million kilowatt hours, thanks to measures such as efficient air-conditioning to reduce cooling power demand and the use of energy-efficient IT equipment and virtualisation technology to reduce overall IT equipment power demand. This, in turn, translated into cost savings of about S$1 million a year.

The Credit Suisse facility, together with the Equinix SG2 Data Centre and the Singapore Tourism Board Data Centre, were the first three data centres in Singapore to be awarded the newly-launched Green Mark for Data Centres, a dedicated green building rating system which aims to encourage the adoption of energy-efficient design, technologies and systems among local data centre operators.

The certification, which was jointly developed by Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), was announced by Ms Grace Fu, Minister in Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Environment and Water Resources and Foreign Affairs, at the opening of the International Green Building Conference and BEX Asia on 10 October.

In her speech, Ms Fu said greener and more energy-efficient data centres will not only benefit from reduced costs, but also value-add to their brand because they adopt good energy and environmental management practices.

Energy-related costs are estimated to account for about 50 per cent of overall operating expenditure in a typical data centre in Singapore. “As data centres become more energy-intensive, this proportion is expected to grow over the years. These present opportunities to help data centres here embrace more green and energy-efficient practices, which could then be a source of the industry’s competitive advantage,” she said.

A Green Mark rated data centre is estimated to be able to achieve potential energy savings of up to 30 per cent. With Singapore’s commercial data centre space projected to increase by 50 per cent from 2010 to 2015, there is thus potential for significant savings for data centres if they were to go green.

“As the demand for data centre increases, there is a need to ensure the sustainable development of data centres,” said IDA’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ronnie Tay. “To this end, the Green Mark for Data Centre scheme aims to encourage better management and improved energy efficiency of data centres in Singapore.”

The Green Mark for Data Centre scheme covers both data centres that may occupy a purpose-built data centre building or are part of a larger building. It assesses data centres based on five key criteria – energy efficiency, water efficiency, sustainable construction & management, indoor environment quality as well as other green features. Based on the combined scoring, the data centres will be awarded Green Mark Platinum, GoldPLUS, Gold or Certified status.

Dr John Keung, Chief Executive Officer of BCA, said, “While the original BCA Green Mark scheme started off with a focus on building owners, we are now shifting our attention to occupants. Placing greater emphasis on users will help instill in them a sustainability mindset and allow them to play a greater role in Singapore’s green building movement.”

The BCA-IDA Green Mark for Data Centres is the result of a two-year collaborative effort between BCA and IDA, with supporting partners from Energy Research Institute @ Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N) and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (LBNL) in US. It is an extension of the successful BCA Green Mark for buildings scheme launched in 2005.