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Policy

South Korea greens national data centres

By Kelly Ng | 5 October 2009

South Korea has committed to reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of its national data centre by 18 per cent by 2013.

IT resources managed by the National Computing and Information Agency (NCIA) has been increasing steadily at 25 per cent since 2006. Based on current consumption patterns, it is estimated that electricity use will more than double within the next five years, from 89,718 megawatt hour (mwh) to 216,243 mwh.

The agency launched the ‘Smart Green NCIA’ initiative last month (August 2009). It aims to strengthen efforts to implement green technology to slow down its growing environmental impact.

“To get a green data centre, any new or reconstructed computer room follows a tightly defined energy-efficient design and is linked to a system which monitors electricity use,” Kang, Jung-hyup, President, National Computing & Information Agency told FutureGov.

The reduction of energy consumption will come from two main areas. “First, by consolidating information resources, we hope to save electricity of 12,779 mwh by 2012. Second, we plan to install a more efficient local cooling system which promises a saving of 23,103 mwh by 2013,” he adds.

Other initiatives include enforcing a green procurement policy and leveraging day lighting. When assessing new equipment, the procurement team will give additional points to greener and more efficient products. The use of day lighting will be scaled up to five per cent in 2013 from the current 0.1 per cent. The more environmental LED light – which accounts for four per cent of lights now – will also replace 50 per cent of all lights by 2013.

NCIA, an organisation under the Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS), is not alone in its push for greening South Korean’s public sector. A committee involving 16 agencies was formed to address the concern that projects by different agencies do not overlap.

The coordinated ‘Green IT National Strategy’ calls for an investment of 4.3 trillion won (US$3.6 billion) and aims to reduce carbon emissions by 18.4 million tons.

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