Commercial, Demand Management, Energy Efficiency, Energy Storage, Industrial  -  June 1, 2016

CenturyLink targets 25% energy reduction at data centers by 2030, commits to sharing strategies

Joining an ever-growing list of companies taking new strides to manage energy use at data centers, CenturyLink Inc. on June 1 announced new energy reduction targets and promised to share strategies for achieving them. 

The hybrid IT solutions provider is aiming to cut its non-IT load energy consumption in its U.S. data centers by 25% by 2023, the company said in a news release announcing its joining of the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Challenge. Working with the DOE, CenturyLink says it will share successful strategies that maximize efficiency over the next decade. 

CenturyLink also outlined some of its previous success stories in energy efficiency, including its recent move to deploy Bloom fuel cell technology in a multi-tenant data center; the company says it was the first global data center provider to do so. 

The Bloom Energy servers at the data center in Irvine, Calif., generate electricity through a clean electrochemical process using air and natural gas, delivers enhanced sustainability benefits, including high efficiency, small physical footprint and reduced water use, CenturyLink said in the release.

"This initiative aligns with CenturyLink's ongoing efforts to continually improve energy efficiency across our entire data center portfolio," David Meredith, CenturyLink senior vice president of global data centers, said in a statement about its commitment to the Better Buildings Challenge. "We're fully committed to running highly efficient, well-managed data centers that meet and exceed a myriad of industry standards."

Other related data center initiatives under CenturyLink's belt, according to the release, include:

• Opening a central Washington data center that is supplied, in part, by hydroelectric generators powered by the nearby Columbia River.
• Winning a coveted Energy Efficiency Improver's award in April from DatacenterDynamics for reducing power consumption by more than 30% at CenturyLink's Columbus, Ohio, data center.
• Pursuing Energy Star certifications for 20 U.S. data centers, including a recently certified Boston facility that ranks in the top 1% of all data centers in the U.S. for energy efficiency.

Since the Better Buildings Challenge launched in 2011, program partners have saved $1.3 billion and 160 trillion BTUs of energy. The Better Buildings program is a Smart Energy Decisions content partner.

Share this valuable information with your colleagues using the buttons below: