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13 Aug 2010
Comments:2
The Environment Agency (EA) is reminding UK datacentre operators that they have until 31 September to sign up to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme.
The legislation, which came into force on 1 April, requires firms to buy allowances for their annual carbon emissions. Charges are capped at £12 per tonne and the worst offenders will be “named and shamed” in an energy-efficiency league table.
According to the EA, more than 1,200 UK organisations have signed up for the scheme, which is less than half the number that need to.
Further reading
Those that fail to register in time could face fines of £5,000, and be charged £500 for every day they fail to act for up to 80 days.
The controversial legislation has been criticised by the channel because of fears it could lead to an increase in datacentre off-shoring and impact on datacentre resellers' margins.
Tony Grayling, head of climate change and sustainable development at the EA, said: “Around a third of organisations that we expect to register for the CRC scheme have registered well in advance of the deadline.
“We would urge the remaining businesses to sign up now, and not leave registration to the last minute. Our dedicated CRC helpdesk is available to help businesses through the registrations process.”
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Do you agree?
Energy Baselining
Another problem is that most companies only get a bill for total energy consumption for the quarter, they have no idea as to where this energy is being used and as such have no idea as to where or how they can comply with the CRC in terms on energy REDUCTION which is the main essence of the legislation.
Many companies provide energy metering and energy baselining services, only a few provide products that can measure IT energy consumption and then provide consultancy on how to reduce the IT energy bill.
www.carbon3it.com have a range of low cost energy monitoring solutions for measuring IT energy
Posted by JOHN BOOTH | 20 Aug 2010
Why have so few companies failed to register so far?
Electricity is the biggest single operating cost for any colocation datacentre or in-house datacentre, so every company is keeping a keen eye on the costs of electricity. So, why have so few companies failed to register so far?
Perhaps the answer lies in the way the calculation is done to set the 6GWh per annum threshold? The calculation is across the whole of an organisation, including all subsidiaries. An independent colocation data centre has only one or a small number of sites to worry about, each of which creates a large and very visible invoice from the electricity utility company each month. So the datacentre industry is very aware of its costs. But a company which operates, say, a thousand chemist shops and factories across the UK has exactly the same problem, but spread across many thousands of bills, all of which may be aggregated and negotiated centrally, but which may alternatively be negotiated, accounted and paid at local level. Some may be on half-hourly meters, others not. Head office may not even be aware which bills, when added up, exceed the registration threshold.
So, it clearly isn't the datacentre or colocation industry that is likely to make up the list of companies that should have registered but haven't, it's all the sprawling big corporates without decent financial controls, who are confidently sitting there thinking it has nothing to do with them. When the EA points out to them that it really has, along with a nasty fine, they may discover they need to do something about it quickly.
Posted by Roger Keenan, managing director, City Lifeline | 18 Aug 2010
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