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The conflict between ‘broadband everywhere’ and the need for ICT and data-centre power reduction

Summary
This presentation questions the result of extending a fast-broadband network, both fixed and mobile, to all EU citizens with respect to the need to reduce carbon emissions by a reduction in electricity generation.  The growth in ICT power demand may outstrip the introduction of renewable power sources and, as a result, produce an overall increase in carbon-footprint of ICT whilst, in counter-balance, ICT may not enable enough low-carbon solutions and behaviour to balance the equation.

The main points are summarised as:

• Growth in data volume carried on the internet and on mobile networks is already higher than 60% CAGR (compound annual growth rate)
• Fast-broadband ‘everywhere’ will accelerate the growth rate in data volume, mainly comprising HD-Video for domestic, entertainment & social purposes
• Transport and handling of data consumes power, currently estimated to be a significant proportion at 40% of the 2-3% that ICT consumes overall
• The UK government and the EU both have targets to offer fast-broadband to all citizens
• The improvement in power efficiency of the hardware, following Moore’s Law, will fall behind the growth in demand
• ICT will continue to consume an ever-increasing share of the national power infrastructure
• Only a paradigm shift in technology with an energy efficiency improvement of 3-4 orders will stabilise the power demand to practical limits

ICT is an essential infrastructure for the national economy – but, surely, to increase industrial and commercial productivity and not necessarily to enable a growth in home entertainment?  A paradigm shift in technology is never foreseeable and perhaps a concentration of the broadband capacity for commercial and government purposes - possibly by restricting capacity to domestic users to modest broadband rather than the superfast 30Mbps as proposed by the EU – would be a sustainable policy to pursue?

Speaker: Ian Bitterlin

Job title: Chief Technology Officer

60 years old, Ian has been married to Lynne for 40 years and the family lives in the Cotswolds in the UK.  Hobbies include classic automobiles, including his Coventry built 1949 Drop-head Coupe Daimler, and clay-pigeon shooting.

With a BA in Mathematics, a First Class BSc(Hons) in Technology, a postgraduate Diploma in Design & Innovation and an Honorary Doctorate for international speaking activities, Ian’s career has taken him from the design office through site installation, engineering, service and sales to senior management.

During a long engineering career with Schindler (Elevators) and Demag (rotating machines and variable speed drives) Ian wrote numerous technical papers on the subject of variable speed drive systems in the material handling industry and presented them at UK and international conferences on three continents.

Moving in 1991 to Anton Piller (UPS) for seven years as a Director was the start of his long involvement within the critical power and cooling industry.  This led to several posts within the Liebert and Emerson organisation culminating in Managing Director of Emerson Network Power.

Since 2001 appointments have included VP for Active Power Inc (flywheel UPS), International Sales Director for Chloride and CTO of Prism Power Ltd.  Ian is now CTO for Ark Continuity, a leading low-carbon data-centre developer based in Corsham, Wiltshire.

An active speaker and author, technical papers on critical power and cooling have been presented at European conferences in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Warsaw, Budapest, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Madrid and Barcelona whilst, further afield, conference presentations and keynote speeches have been made in Johannesburg, Sydney, Brisbane, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Sri Lanka, Tokyo and Seoul.

Ian was a co-author for the CIBSE publication Guide K, Electricity in Buildings, in two chapters, UPS Systems and MV Switchgear.

Actively involved with EN50600 as an Expert panel member Ian is also a Member of several UK Engineering Institutions, including CIBSE, IET, BCS and the BIFM as well as being a member of The Uptime Institute, AFCOM and the IEEE.

Watch this session in the Infrastructure and Facilities Theatre on February 29 2012 at 10:45 am