Green scheme may cut power bills

Electricity bill rebates for firms that adopt energy-saving technologies could be on the cards after PC power management specialist Verdiem revealed that it is in talks with several utility companies about introducing such a scheme.

However, experts are divided on whether UK electricity suppliers will support an initiative that would incentivise a reduction in energy use.

In certain US states, such as California, firms that cut energy use are receiving rebates from increasingly hard-pressed electricity suppliers in an attempt to limit demand and reduce the risk of power shortages.

Kevin Klustner, chief executive of Verdiem, said the company has partnered with a number of US utility firms to offer rebates to customers that deploy the vendor’s Surveyor solution, which allows firms to automatically turn off PCs that are not in use. Similarly, Sun Microsystems and VMware have also partnered with Pacific Gas & Electric to offer energy bill rebates to customers using their technologies to cut datacentre energy use.

Matt Davis, managing director at Verdiem’s European partner United Access Limited, said the firms were in discussions with UK utility companies about introducing similar schemes here. If successful, the initiative could possibly be emulated by other IT vendors offering energy-saving technologies.

Binoy Dharsi of research firm Datamonitor expected some suppliers to be interested in Verdiem’s proposals. “Rebates would be attractive as another marketing angle for energy suppliers,” he said. “Customer retention is very important in this industry and this kind of programme could help.”

A spokeswoman for energy supplier E.ON said the firm would “fully investigate anything that would help improve customers’ energy efficiency”.

However, a spokesman for NPower was more sceptical about the prospect of rebate schemes. “That model might work in the US, but there is not the same pressure on the grid here,” he said. “There are other areas we invest in to encourage reduced demand, but I can’t think of a situation where we’d incentivise customers to use less energy.”

The debate comes as competition heats up in the area of energy-efficient datacentre technology. Fujitsu Services has unveiled plans to invest in a new £44m datacentre designed to exploit the latest green IT and cooling technologies while saving enough energy each year to power 6,000 homes.

Meanwhile, Sun has launched green services based on its initiative to limit the environmental footprint of its own datacentres. Richard Barrington, head of public policy at Sun, said a series of free white papers would detail the best practices it had developed when building three new “green” datacentres. The vendor will also offer consultancy