The Demand Response Research Center (DRRC) at LBNL provides a system that enables electric utility customers to automate energy load shedding during peak demand periods. It's called Demand Response Automation Server (DRAS). Basically, it takes a feed from the utility whose payload includes data for: Event Pending, Price levels, and Price Schedule. The system can interface with environmental management systems to turn off lights and raise set points when curtailment events and price jumps occur. It could also be used in combination with systems management software to automate data center load shedding, but has yet to be adopted for this purpose. With advanced virtualization and automation technologies, there is ultimately no reason that workloads could not be migrated according to a demand / cost equation.
The barrier to DRAS adoption in the data center has been a mix of scant awareness, legacy perceptions, and a shortage of creative thinking. But all that is changing. DRRC is on a campaign now to build awareness among all eligible facilities and IT managers about the potential for DRAS. And the old saw that says power cycling a computer reduces it's MTBF is just that: old. Today's systems, for the most part, are engineered to withstand daily power cycles well beyond the typical useful life of a computer. With the benefit of this knowledge and the findings of a Harris Interactive Poll commissioned by Sun, IT and facilities managers are inducing employees to turn off their computers when not in use. But we still need more creative thinking.
While the traditional facilities folks appear to be abundantly creative with power saving measures (in a DRAS webinar last month, Aimee McKane from LBNL, cited one example where a bakery participating in DRAS bought more bread pans to avoid running the dishwasher during peak demand periods,) creative applications of DRAS in the data center are in short supply.
Still, the conversations are happening, as Walter Bays demonstrated on his blog today. If a courageous (and creative) company were to combine Dynamic Infrastructure technology from Sun and DRAS from DRRC they could begin to realize the savings possible in Walter's energy utopia. Services from Sun and others specializing in Demand Response systems like EnerNoc, can help these first mover companies develop strategies for capitalizing on these huge energy saving opportunities.
