A new power management service designed to cut the financial and environmental cost of wasted energy has saved around 50 tonnes of CO_² a month since it was introduced in March.

PowerMAN, which ‘hibernates’ inactive PCs at 10pm  each day, was activated across all staff PCs after a trial with Information Services and student PCs. It was introduced alongside WakeMyPC, which allows people to switch on their PCs remotely. This means staff  no longer have to leave their computer on out-of-hours to be able to work remotely.

Only four per cent of PCs have been opted out of the service (including essential and experimental equipment), which demonstrates widespread support for the University’s commitment to reducing the amount of energy we use.

PowerMAN is expected to deliver savings of around 600 tonnes of CO_² in a year – roughly the same amount it would cost you to run 140 medium-sized family cars for the same time period.

PowerMAN has been introduced as part of the University’s response to the Higher Education Funding Council for England carbon reduction strategy introduced in January 2010. The strategy aims
to improve carbon management and reduce direct emissions by 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 against a 1990 baseline. Universities also have to set their own targets and develop carbon-management plans to measure performance, which will be considered when HEFCE allocates future capital funding.

“The introduction of PowerMAN (and the complementary WakeMyPC) system has immediately delivered cost and carbon savings, said Professor Alan Dodson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Information Services, Infrastructure and Environment and Professor of Geodesy, Faculty of Engineering.

“The estimated 600 tonnes/yr of CO_² reduction provides a useful contribution of over four per cent of the University’s targeted annual saving for 2015. The financial saving is also significant.”

Prof Dodson added: “We will continue to pursue further savings through improvements to PowerMAN, other Green IT projects as well as wider infrastructure initiatives.”

Find out more at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/is/computer/wakemypc.aspx