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Spiralling energy costs are focussing the attention of organisations on every aspect of their facilities management function. And nowhere is this more important than in the new generation of data centres, says George Bailey.

Even before the current energy crisis, according to a recent survey by Energy Watch, electricity costs in the UK had increased by around 60% since 2003. This has clearly been felt across the whole range of building functions of course, but the now ubiquitous datacentre has arguably been the most hard hit.

Currently, in the United Kingdom, around £0.50 (AED 3.62) is spent on energy demanded by data centres for every £1.00 (AED 7.24) spent on hardware - an astonishing proportion and something that is expected to increase by 54% over the next four years.

These cost increases are driving managers to revisit the way datacentres are managed, closely linked with the ethical desire to manage the centres in a more environmentally friendly way. As usual, the bottom line and the environment are inextricably linked.

"These are UK figures but this is a global issue even if the structures of energy markets can vary enormously across international boundaries," says Toby Benzecry of Modus Group, one of the UK's leading data centre specialists.

"The UAE has its own idiosyncrasies, not least because it is one of the most important producers of oil and gas in the world and will continue to be so for some time. The region also has the advantage in many cases of being able to develop many buildings from scratch using the very latest technology and thinking, compared to many other nations which have a long established and mixed building stock that can present its own challenges in terms of developing a coherent energy use strategy."

Even so, this is an issue that is of great and growing concern because according to recent statistics cited by the organisers of the Middle East Electricity conference, energy consumption in the UAE is growing at an average rate of around 10% each year.

This is more than double the international average and is projected to treble by 2020.

Last year, power consumption rose by 15% in the UAE and the number of electricity consumers in the UAE rose by 19%.

All of these new people must be supplied with power and fuel and that is just one reason why Arab nations are projected to spend over US $120 billion (AED 440 bn) on new power projects between now and 2012.

"Now you can apply your own interpretation to these stats, but the underlying reason is obvious," adds Benzecry.

"The Middle East is quite literally one of the powerhouses of the global economy. Little wonder when you consider the way that resources and people are being drawn into the region. The surge of building work and economic growth in the area is well documented but less so is the way that people are being drawn to the region. And while this is a welcome sign of economic growth, it presents its own problems from an environmental point of view."

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