by Nicola Phillips, Copywriter

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) has become the industry standard for measuring the energy efficiency of data center facilities. PUE was established in 2007 by a consortium called the Green Grid, and has been an ISO standard since 2016.

Before the widespread use of PUE, there was no comparable metric for analyzing the performance of data centers over time, or judging the relative power consumption and distribution of a given facility as it relates to its efficiency.

PUE is a very helpful tool. But, like almost any metric used in isolation, it has its shortcomings. There are two primary issues with the PUE metric: first, the misleading nature of factors used in its calculation, and second, the factors missing from that calculation.

In this paper, we’ll provide an overview of PUE, including what impacts it and how to optimize it, and then dive into what is missing from the PUE calculation. We will conclude with recommendations for other industry-wide standards that should become common practice.