Terms and Definitions

PUE – Power Usage Effectiveness, defined as a ratio between the total power consumed by a data center facility and the power consumed by the IT equipment that runs in the facility. For example, a PUE value of 2.0 indicates that for every watt of IT equipment power consumed, an additional watt is consumed to operate the facility that houses the equipment (e.g. equipment cooling, power distribution to the equipment).
Total Data Center Power – Represents all the power consumed by the data center facility at one point in time. This value should represent an instantaneous power consumption value.
Total Data Center Energy – Represents all the energy used by the data center facility for a given time interval. This value typically represents a 15-minute energy usage value.
Total IT Equipment Power – Represents all the power consumed by the IT equipment used in a data center facility at one point in time. This value should represent an instantaneous power consumption value
Total IT Equipment Energy – Represents all the energy used by the IT equipment in the data center facility for a given time interval. This value typically represents a 15-minute energy usage value.
Support – Represents the overhead amount of energy or power required to operate the data center, which does not account for IT equipment power consumption. This value represents the data center power distribution losses, as well as the power consumed to cool down the data center facility.