Power management could save thousands

An organisation of 2,500 employees could save £29,000 a year using power management capabilities

Organisations could save over $40,000 (£27,000) a year in energy costs by employing power management functionality, according to research from Gartner released today.

The analyst firm created a model to simulate the power consumption of a typical working year for an enterprise PC, taking into account times when the unit would be idle, including lunch breaks and holiday periods.

Gartner estimated that savings of £43,300 (£29,000) could be achieved using power management capabilities, based on an organisation of 2,500 employees working eight-hour business days, 230 days a year, using PCs 70 per cent of the time. The power calculation assumes a cost of roughly $.10 (6p) for one kilowatt-hour.

To achieve such savings, companies must create policies to activate power management capabilities on all PCs, according to Gartner analyst Frederica Troni.

Firms could save an additional $6,500 (£4,350) by switching off and unplugging devices, but Gartner advised against this as some machines may need to have software updates applied during non-work hours.

"Without a lot of effort you will see a nice successful project, whereas other green incentives are more complex to undertake," said Troni. "You need to explain the benefits of [power management] to the organisation, and examine what tools you already have in-house."

Although the savings calculated by this research are very small when compared to total PC cost of ownership, they could generate significant energy savings, she added.