Back in May, in an report about IBM’s new POWER6 processors that are due to debut on the System i next year, I wrote: “IBM now sees power consumption as an important area and System i users can expect to hear more on this subject when POWER6 processors are incorporated into the platform. From a UK perspective, with electricity costs becoming an increasingly contentious subject, one can see how cost savings can be a good selling point for IBM. However, even though we are told that our future power supply needs could be problematic, we do have an extremely robust electricity supply infrastructure.”

Put simply, I was wrong. The eagle-eyed readers of iNEWSWire UK were quick to point out that, amongst other gripes, quoted wait times for new electricity substations are about 12 months and many building developments are being hindered because they cannot get a power supply.

Plainly, power-hungry data-centres become problematic in such an environment. And when you examine how much energy a large data centre consumes, you can see why. For instance, managed services provider TelecityRedbus announced in June that it had begun construction of a new £50m data centre in central London. This 50,000 square feet site has a planned resilient power capacity of 25 megawatts. Incredibly, that’s about as much power as it takes to power the city of Leicester, according to Steve Wallage, managing consultant at BroadGroup Consulting which has published a good deal of analysis on this subject.

Wallage says that there are number of factors at play here. “The UK, in particular, has a major upcoming power problem caused by lack of investment in energy network and delay over nuclear -- or a suitable alternative. Other European countries, albeit arguably dangerously dependent on Russia, tend to have a better long-term strategy, or, in the case of countries such as France, have made a significant investment in nuclear.”

This would certainly ring true as I have heard anecdotal evidence to suggest that some large System i-driven companies are keen to site their central IT operations in the Channel Islands so that they can connect to both the UK and French power grids.

Wallage says that power challenges do vary widely. “For power-hungry deployments such as data centres, London is particularly a challenge, and specifically certain areas such as Docklands and the City.”

Regulation also looms large according to the analyst, pointing to uncertainty about future mandates on energy consumption from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). In London, he points out, the GLA often requires data centres to meet the eco-friendly benchmarks set by the Combined Heat and Power Association (CHP).

“IT, and particular data centres, will increasingly be seen as 'bad' in the environmental world, much akin to airlines,” predicts Wallage who says that groups like banks and supermarkets will be very keen to avoid bad publicity.

All of which would explain why IBM is keen to be at the forefront of “green IT”. In May, Big Blue announced that is was to spend $1 billion per year across its businesses to dramatically increase the level of energy efficiency in IT. As part of Project Big Green, 850 “energy efficiency architects” are to be sent out to IBM customers around the world to spread the message and armed with tools to drive down IT costs.

Seamus Quinn