CLP Power Hong Kong looks to further reduce its carbon footprint by implementing more than 40 green IT initiatives over the next five years, said the firm's Group Planning, Control & IT Operations Manager Andre Blumberg recently.

 

The green IT initiatives are part of the company's Climate Vision 2050 aimed to achieve a 75 percent reduction in CO2 emissions, said Blumberg, adding that the green IT initiatives include further data center rationalization and regional IT app consolidation, server and storage virtualization, the deployment of collaboration and virtual meeting tools, as well as the use of more energy efficient PCs and servers.

 

"We will also look closely at implementing water cooling in our data centers once the technology gets mature," said Blumberg. "Our disaster recovery facility in Shatin is ready for future deployment of water cooling after a revamp completed in May 2009.

 

According to him, the Shatin disaster recovery center was built in 1996, serving as a backup to the firm's primary data center in Sham Shui Po. The Shatin facility processes billing and business transactions of about 2.3 million local customer accounts and support more than 5,000 employees in Hong Kong, India, and South East Asia, Blumberg noted.

 

During the revamp that cost HK$20 million, CLP Power also had a consolidation exercise that saw the number of servers drop from 253 to 171, said Blumberg. "With server consolidation, re-arrangement of server cabinet rows into alternate hot and cool air aisles, and the adoption of other best cooling practices, we manage to upgrade the facility at its original site measured 4,000 square feet instead of relocating it to a 7,000 square feet site that will cost us more and produce 15 tons of construction waste," Blumberg noted.

 

With the hot and cool air aisles, the company gains extra space to host more servers for accommodating future business growth, said Blumberg.

 

Both CLP Power subsidiary CLP Engineering and an independent energy consultant firm ERM did energy assessments on its Shatin facility, said Blumberg, adding that the facility consumes 20 percent less electricity after the upgrade. "That can be translated into an annual saving of 1 million kilowatt hours, equivalent to 600,000 kg annual CO emission that requires the planting of 26,000 trees to compensate," said Blumberg.