Configuring ENERGY STAR data center property types

Edit online

To automate the API process for obtaining Energy Star scores for data center property types, complete some additional one-off configuration.

Capturing data center property use details

Similar to other property uses for ENERGY STAR in IBM® Envizi ESG Suite, you must capture data center property use details in an account with a specific EnergyStar Property Use Details - Data Center account style.

Tagging IT electricity accounts

According to ENERGY STAR, IT energy is the amount of energy required by the server racks, storage silos, and other IT equipment in a data center. IT energy is a measure of energy, for example, kWh. Do not report IT energy as an instantaneous reading of electric demand.

You can measure IT energy at any of the following locations:
  • Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) output, which is required for a score in most cases
  • Power Distribution Unit (PDU) input
  • PDU output
  • Server or equipment input

You can capture IT energy in Envizi as electricity accounts. Apply account tags to the relevant electricity accounts to indicate where the energy is being measured. For the Tag Type, select EnergyStar - Data Center IT Energy. If you do not apply the EnergyStar - Data Center IT Energy tag, the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager will display an error that no IT meters have been captured for the location.

Only Accounts in Envizi can be used to set up the automation for data center ENERGY STAR score calculations. If the IT electricity energy consumption is captured as a meter in Envizi in the form of interval data, it is not supported by this process.

Establishing a relationship between data center property use details accounts and IT electricity accounts

According to ENERGY STAR, each data center property use must be associated to one or more IT electricity meters. A building or location can have multiple data centers, so it is essential to link the corresponding IT electricity accounts with their dedicated data center property details account, for the ENERGY STAR score to be calculated. To link the accounts through the Account Relationships page, use the following steps:
  1. To access the Envizi Account Relationships page, click Manage > Accounts
  2. Right-click the IT electricity account or the data center attributes account, and click Account Relationships.
  3. Click Create New, and complete the form:
    • For relationship type, select Related To.
    • For the source and target accounts, select the IT electricity account and the data center property use details account respectively, or the other way round.
    • Based on your data center's energy meter configuration, create additional relationships for each IT electricity account as required.

Managing data center property uses and meters separately in ESPM

If data center specific property uses and meters are not stored in Envizi and are managed only in ESPM, the previous setup is not required. In such cases, use the Partial Data Sync mode to upload remaining energy account data into ESPM.