Facebook

Data centers are among the largest consumers of electrical power in the United States, using between 1.7 and 2.2 percent of the nation’s power. Gartner Inc. recently estimated that it cost $1.6 million a year to power an 8,000-square-foot data center. And with the world demanding more and more digital information, those costs are rising 10 percent a year.

The challenge inspired Eaton to think beyond the now and anticipate the industry’s needs for tomorrow.

A critical metric of success for data center efficiency is the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating. The average PUE for data centers in 2011 was 1.83. But Facebook demanded better.

Eaton had already partnered successfully with Facebook to achieve a PUE of between 1.06 and 1.08 in its Prineville, OR data center. Building on that success and our expertise in energy efficiency and backup power protection, we rolled up our sleeves and helped design a unique solution for the Forest City facility.

Eaton’s Power Xpert 9395 and 9390 uninterruptible power systems (UPS) power and protect Facebook’s networking infrastructure and servers. Both units have the highest efficiency rating (99%), smallest footprint and lowest carbon footprint in the industry.