Washington (Platts)--27Sep2012/609 pm EDT/2209 GMT

Leading Democrats in the US House of Representatives asked federal agencies Thursday what steps they may be taking to reduce the "tremendous amount of electricity" used by data centers.

Representative Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and two senior Democrats on energy subcommittees, said a recent story in The New York Times raised new questions about the impact of data centers on the US electric grid.

They asked the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency to explain their response to a requirement in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act for them to establish a voluntary program to promote technologies that would help data centers save energy.
"These facilities consume a tremendous amount of electricity," the lawmakers said. "In 2010, approximately 2% of all electricity used in the United States was consumed by data centers."

Moreover, data centers often use diesel generators for backup power, which contributes to air pollution, they said.

The September 22 New York Times story said "[m]ost data centers, by design, consume vast amounts of energy in an incongruously wasteful manner."

According to the story, the centers "can waste 90% or more of the electricity they pull off the grid."

Also signing the letter were Representatives Bobby Rush, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, and Anna Eshoo, the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

DOE could not be reached for comment immediately, and an EPA spokeswoman said she would inquire for an agency response.

--Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com 
--Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, keiron_greenhalgh@platts.com

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