How many times have your parents asked you to turn the tap off in order to avoid wasting water? How many times have you opted to purchase an energy-saving lamp in order to reduce your electricity bill? The power consumption of home PC ranges from 400 to 650 Wt1 - enough to illuminate 6-10 lamps, but have you ever considered managing your PC energy consumption? Nowadays there is a solution for that concern and it is known as PC power management. It “refers to the mechanism for controlling the power use of personal computer hardware. This is typically through the use of software that puts the hardware into the lowest power demand state available.”[1] It may vary from “plug-and-play” software for home users up to complex software solutions for enterprises. The Cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that PC power management software alone could be saving almost 47 mt CO2 of emissions by 2015, equivalent to taking nearly 8 million cars off the road.[2]
The power management market looks attractive in terms of figures. The PC and server power management software market is set to expand nearly fivefold to $783 million by 2015, equivalent to an annual growth rate of nearly 35%[3]. This market growth is mainly driven by the following factors:
- Steady price growth of power sources with consequent rising in kilowatt-hour price; Legislation on PC energy-saving standards which require increased level of power efficiency[4];
- Increasing level of Corporate Social Responsibility that has clear intention to decrease corporate IT footprint
- Dedicated PC power management software providers (e.g., 1E, Verdiem, Faronics Technologies; Sparxent; Verismic)[8];
- Companies that offer power management as part of a lifecycle management solution (e.g., VMWare, Oracle and CA, IBM and other big players in the computer sector);
- Open source power management software could take a big piece of a market pie.
Analysts have demonstrated that managing the power of a PC can save up to $77 per year per PC. This would result, according to Pike Research, in savings of $18.6 billion per year by 2015 for the companies that adopt software solutions aimed at cutting wasted power from computers and servers[5]. These saving opportunities would probably further contribute to increase the PC power management market. However, it’s not all about future prospects, but it’s something that could also happen right now: for example, AT&T in 2009 showed how it is saving $13 million a year in energy use from power management[6].
On the other hand, power management does not currently have benefits in some cases due to the fact that many IT departments are not responsible for energy costs, and therefore do not have a powerful incentive to make changes. The degree to which IT is given a greater stake in reducing energy costs will be a significant factor in the development of this market. There’s no doubt that companies will pay more attention to this topic, because power management tools offer a quick return on investment. Managing a company's power efficiency will have a positive impact on ROI since IT assets represent a comprehensive part of total assets. The data depicted in the table below shows the short-term returns of such investments:
For those who are interested in job positions in this field or are looking for entrepreneurial ideas to be able to exploit growing markets, the PC power management market could be a potential target and, in the next couple of years, this market is expected to be shaped by competition among:
Moreover, PC power management is not only an opportunity for the private sector, but the public sector can also contribute to make this market more interesting: consider the successful example of implementation of computer scripts by undergraduate interns from Iowa State University for Ames laboratory. The goal was to determine how IT infrastructure consumes less power by shutting down unused nodes and turning them on as needed, or after peak alert hours. The laboratory calculated savings of 17,700 kWh and roughly 7 metric tons of CO2 on just one of its server rack clusters.[9]
Finally, even if you are not interested in the market for professional purposes, there is still an opportunity to approach PC power management by applying its principles in daily life. So, don’t waste any more time: starting today, turn your laptop off when you are not using it!
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_power_management
[2]http://www.pikeresearch.com/newsroom/pc-and-server-power-management-software-revenue-to-reach-783-million-by-2015
[3]http://www.pikeresearch.com/newsroom/pc-and-server-power-management-software-revenue-to-reach-783-million-by-2015
[4] http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=9A4C01D9-1A64-6A71-CE8F6A4157EA85DF
[5] http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/10/11/pc-power-management-market-boom-energy-prices-rise
[6] http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/10/28/att-save-piles-cash-energy-management-software?src=int
[7]http://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/tech_deployment/pdfs/43650.pdf; http://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/tech_deployment/pdfs/43651.pdf; http://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/tech_deployment/pdfs/45814.pdf
[8]http://www.pikeresearch.com/newsroom/pc-and-server-power-management-software-revenue-to-reach-783-million-by-2015
http://www.verdiem.com/about
[9] http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy11osti/51397.pdf
I think that this is truly an untapped market for energy and cost savings. I know that in my professional environment, we have motion sensors for lights and various outlets - but that our computers are locked down, and we are not able to change our power settings for "security reasons." Therefore, all of the PCs are set to high-power (and required to be docked via non-motion/timer sensitive outlets). If an employee attends a two-hour meeting, he either has to shut down his computer entirely, or leave his computer running at full-blast, connected to the network, without any way to lessen his power usage even though he's hundreds of feet from his desk.
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