Market transitions take a solid vision and years of hard work to materialize.  But even early technology adopters can realize significant operational savings with the products available today.  CiscoLive presents a once a year opportunity for customers to meet with many of the world’s top ICT thinkers and innovators—all in one place.  Though the Cisco EnergyWise partner program has over 100 technology partners, not all are shipping products.  Visit the EnergyWise Pavilion or the Technical Solutions Clinic for a deep dive look at what’s possible and what’s coming.  Cisco EnergyWise and the partner ecosystem can make IT professionals heroes.

For an overview of all events, visit the daily show schedule here:  http://www.ciscolive.com/us/week-at-a-glance.php#monday

If you haven’t registered yet and just want to wander the world of solutions, admission is free if submitted in advance.  http://www.ciscolive.com/us/registration-packages/

Cisco EnergyWise Events

• Collaborate with us on Twitter using the #energywise tag or find us on the Smart Connected Communities Institute’s Cisco EnergyWise site.  http://www.smartconnectedcommunities.org/groups/cisco-energywise?view=overview

• See Cisco EnergyWise in action at the Cisco EnergyWise-UPOE Pavilion, booth 2776.

• For the most comprehensive look at Cisco EnergyWise solutions, visit the EnergyWise site in the Cisco Technical Solutions Clinic, booth 2906.

Tuesday

8 AM:  “IT Transformed: The Impact of Energy, Sustainability and LED Lighting Trends”, presented by EnergyWise creator, Matt Laherty.

BRKSPG-1403--This course is intended to provide a survey of energy and sustainability trends and show how these will impact the network engineer. The course will cover: sustainable defined, ICT trends, Smart Grid and Smart Loads, energy profile visibility, net-zero buildings, real-time 3D operating BIM, Converged System Operations Center (SOC), and much more!

Wednesday

8 AM:  “Cisco EnergyWise Fundamentals: The Network as the Platform for Energy Management”, presented by EnergyWise Architect, John Parello.  John has over 20 years experience building products to solve significant customer challenges.

With energy and environmental constraints in mind, Cisco has developed a solution that makes the network a control plane for energy management. Cisco EnergyWise enables the network to monitor and manage network and network connected devices. This includes Switching, Routing, PoE, and Endpoints devices such as PCs, Servers, PDU's and facility equipment. Cisco EnergyWise makes the network a control plane for energy management and gives IT and Facility organizations the ability to manage energy using the network. This session will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of Cisco EnergyWise including principles, configuration, and deployment with a focus on energy and cost savings. Finally, the session will provide information about current and upcoming industry standards to enhance energy efficiency.

Thursday

10 AM:  “Cisco EnergyWise Deployment & Practices”, presented by Luis Suau, owner and operator of the Cisco Innervated Building lab.  No one knows more about turning up EnergyWise than Luis.

          BRKSPG-2403 - The session discusses implementing EnergyWise on a network. The session will cover:           configuration suggestion, implementation issues, Cisco solutions, and partner solutions.

All Week in the World of Solutions (Booth Map):

https://www.ciscolive2011.com/exhibitor/reg/boothmap/boothMap.jsp

Technical Solutions Clinic, 2906:  Several EnergyWise team members will have video links back to the “Innervated Building Lab” in San Jose, CA.  The team can discuss and demonstrate how to capture whole building, sub system and device level power information and project it on to a lobby digital sign, phone or hand held device (and other energy related topics).  The demos use a combination of beta and shipping products provided by:  Cisco, 1e, CA, Cyber Switching, Eaton, FieldServer, Industry Weapon, JouleX, Lenovo, NuLEDs, Schneider Electric, Raritan, WTI and more.

CA:  818 and 2776, the EnergyWise-UPoE Pavilion:  .  CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) is an IT management software and solutions company with expertise across all IT environments—from mainframe and distributed, to virtual and cloud. Our products manage and secure IT environments and enable customers to deliver more flexible IT services. We offer innovative products and services that provide the insight and control essential for IT organizations and foundational elements to make the promise of flexible IT and agile business a reality. With over thirty years of experience in IT management, our deep expertise in diverse and complex environments enables us to solve the toughest IT management challenges. We collaborate with our customers to help them grow their businesses, offer new services, become more competitive, and achieve the business goals they have set. Relied on by the majority of the Global Fortune 500 to manage their evolving IT ecosystems, CA Technologies makes business agility possible.  Visit CA in the EnergyWise Pavilion to learn how to manage power across you’re an organization using ecoSoftware & Cisco EnergyWise.  To learn more visit:  http://www.ca.com/us/ecosoftware.aspx

CommScope:  2776, the EnergyWise-UPoE Pavilion:   CommScope has played a role in virtually all the world’s best communication networks. CommScope creates the infrastructure that connects people and technologies through every evolution. The CommScope  portfolio of end-to-end solutions includes everything our customers need to build high-performing wired and wireless networks. As much as technology changes, our goal remains the same: to help our customers create, innovate, design, and build faster and better.  Visit the EnergyWise Pavilion to see new Commscope products in action.  www.commscope.com

Cyber Switching:  2434: Cyber Switching designs and manufactures power distribution products that are value-added solutions, easy to use and innovative.

See an EnergyWise enabled power distribution unit and other products in the EnergyWise Pavilion.  The Cyber Switching team has a long history working with Cisco.  Ask about their EnergyWise enabled Plug in Electric Vehicle charging station…  learn more at www.cyberswitching.com

Eaton:  1846:  Eaton, a diversified power management company, has been providing energy-efficient solutions that help our customers effectively manage power for over 100 years. Our highly efficient UPSs support data centers large and small and our innovative software solutions enable IT managers to manage and monitor their environment, both physical and virtual. Our managed PDUs are Cisco EnergyWise certified and our portfolio of products includes racks, enclosures, airflow management and in-row cooling solutions.  Learn more at www.eaton.com/epdu

           
FieldServer, 2906.  A FieldServer representative will support demos in the Technical Solutions Clinic.  They have a unique offering that allows customers to translate legacy building protocols to or from Cisco EnergyWise.  Learn more at www.fieldserver.com

Graybar:  630.  Graybar has specialized in supply chain management services and distribution of high-quality components, equipment and materials for the electrical and telecommunications industries for over 80 years.  Stop by the booth and discuss how Graybar can help you construct an intelligent building using Cisco EnergyWise enabled products.  The secret to Graybar’s success is their ability to monitor technology trends and help customers through significant product and solution transitions.  After you speak with the team, I’m sure you’ll understand why they’re a leader in the industry.

http://www.graybar.com/applications/intelligent-buildings

Industry Weapon:  Various locations and 2776, the EnergyWise-UPoE Pavilion.   Industry Weapon’s software is used for streaming media content throughout the show.  The IW team will be wandering the WOS answering questions.  Industry Weapon's CommandCenterHD platform provides digital media administrators with a centralized content creation, management, and distribution system.  Learn more at www.industryweapon.com

JouleX:  1746 and 2776:  JouleX is the leading innovator in enterprise energy management systems. The JouleX Energy Manager (JEM), provides Global 2000 and government agencies the ability to monitor, analyze and manage all network-connected devices and systems across the enterprise including the distributed office network, data centers and facilities. JEM can save enterprises up to 60% of the energy costs and carbon emissions while providing robust energy usage reporting that supports corporate sustainability initiatives and compliance requirements.   Get a first-hand look at the JouleX Energy Management Software.  JouleX built the first application that takes advantage of the full range of EnergyWise functionality.  For more information visit www.joulex.net

NuLEDs:  2776, the EnergyWise-UPoE Pavilion:  NuLEDs is an innovative lighting fixture and controls company.  NuLEDs built the first network powered and controlled color LED fixture.  See their product in action in the EnergyWise Pavilion or the Technical Solutions Clinic.  Learn more at www.nuleds.com

Raritan:  437 and 2776 the EnergyWise-UPoE Pavilion:  Raritan is a proven innovator of power management, infrastructure management, KVM and serial solutions for data centers of all sizes. In hundreds of corporations worldwide, our hardware and software solutions provide facilities and IT managers with the control they need to increase power management efficiency and improve data center productivity.  Take a closer look at the EnergyWise enabled PDU.  To learn more visit, www.raritan.com

Server Tech:   634:    Server Technology’s experts produce the highest quality rack-mount power distribution and monitoring solutions that manage power capacity, reduce downtime and improve energy efficiency. Server Technology’s extensive selection of Sentry CDUs is 100% performance tested for reliability and accuracy and is adaptable, enabling quick delivery of solutions that meet customer-specific requirements.  To discuss EnergyWise enabled products, visit their booth or learn more online at www.Servertech.com

Schneider Electric: 1435 and 2776, the EnergyWise-UPoE Pavilion: Schneider Electric's motto is "Make the Most of Your Energy".  As an original EnergyWise launch partner and global supplier of electrical products from UPSs, PDUs, to switch gear and more, visit Schneider Electric to learn how the facility and IT worlds are converging.  They will also have a unique EnergyWise demo.  To learn more visit http://www.apc.com/site/apc/index.cfm/ww/

Verdiem:  2776 the EnergyWise-UPoE Pavilion:  Verdiem delivered the first IT Energy Management solution for Cisco EnergyWise. Verdiem enables customers to centrally control and reduce the energy used by PCs, Macs, and EnergyWise-enabled devices such as IP phones by up to 60 percent. Customers achieve the quickest ROI – 6 months or less – at the lowest TCO.  Stop in for a look at PC power management tools.  To learn more, visit, www.verdiem.com

WTI:  524:  WTI products provide Out of Band console port access and remote power reboot & metering for Cisco routers and switches. WTI is a leading designer and manufacturer of console servers and smart pdu solutions for networks at local and remote sites. WTI devices are included in the Cisco Borderless Network Portfolio and compatible with Cisco EnergyWise.  Take a closer look at the EnergyWise enabled PDU.  For more information, visit www.wti.com

LED lighting is the next frontier for IT user services.  IT is uniquely suited to establish and support the tools necessary to support a rich set of dynamic user profiles and policies.  LEDs make it possible for building users to set light level, color, and intensity and conservation policies based on their needs.  Though most office space today has white light, colored LEDs make it possible to create pathways that guide visitors to their meetings and first responders to emergency event locations.  Colored lights coupled to fast response controllers also make it possible to create an immersive light experience.  Other light services include room “mood settings”.  Imagine that the conference room reserved for your next meeting was set to your preferred light intensity, color and tone the moment you enter.  Other services could include surround light—this application uses color and intensity to create an experience like surround sound but using light.  Ambx.com has solutions like this today.

With the advent of new high power-low energy consuming LED light fixtures combined with PoE enhancements on Ethernet access switches, it’s now possible to build commercial lighting systems with an IP/Ethernet/PoE infrastructure.  Though we’re starting to experiment in the lab, the technology is still young.  But it’s obvious to us that it will be disruptive.  Back of the envelope calculations suggest that PoE is a cost effective way to deploy LED lighting.

Regardless of the topology (PoE or Wireless+AC mains), user defined lighting applications built on an IP based LED lighting system, will transform building lighting practices.  Whether lighting is installed or retrofitted to LED in a traditional manner, IT will be involved to configure and maintain light services—after all, as a building user, I expect to set my light preferences via my iPhone.

LEDs Save Energy

According to the US DOE and building industry experts, lighting is the single largest electricity consumer in commercial buildings (40%).  Over the past several years, building equipment vendors have responded with an explosion in the number and type of LED lights manufactured and deployed.  Not only do LEDs use less energy per volume of emitted light, but they are also ideally suited for active power management solutions that shape consumption to meet user’s dynamic requirements.

Customers Spend Billions of Dollars a Year on Upgrades

During a talk about lighting at a Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations Conference, Philips Lighting N.Am. Chairman, Kaj de Daas, stated that the overall size of the global lighting market is $75 billion year.  The U.S. accounts for 20 percent of the total. http://seekingalpha.com/article/101408-the-global-lighting-market-by-the-numbers-courtesy-of-philips

Per a report by Pike Research, the lighting controls market will double in size to $2.6 Billion/year by 2016. http://www.pikeresearch.com/newsroom/intelligent-lighting-controls-market-will-double-in-size-to-2-6-billion-by-2016  and the US fixture market is $17.5B/year.   http://www.freedoniagroup.com/Lighting-Fixtures.html

PoE LED fixtures in the Innervated Building Lab

Luis Suau, Don Schriner and I were in San Jose last week with Chris and Lisa Issacson of  NuLEDs to install several LED fixtures in our EnergyWise office demonstration platform.  Installation of the lights was the fastest integration ever performed in the lab.  Luis spent 5 minutes positioning a 6” square template on the ceiling of the office, tracing the outline, and then cutting the sheet rock with a utility knife.  Then he pressed in the self securing arms of the fixture and slid them into place.  Standing on a ladder, he inserted a Cat5 cable.  Within another minute he activated power on the switch port.  And we had light—with 16 million colors!

Before closing, in addition to the people already mentioned, I need to give a shout out to a handful of folks who have been helping the innervated building team behind the scenes:  Roger Karam, Bill McGowan, Ray Rapuano, John Parello and Peter Gits.

Are you looking for a vision for the way in which the smart grid, smart loads, renewables and electric/hydrogen transportation could evolve and impact our global economic, social and political structure?

Thinker, Futurist, Economist and Author, Jeremy Rifkin will open the Frankfurt Motor Show with Daimler’s Chairmen.

Daimler is unveiling a hydrogen powered car; I think the future of electric-auto transport is hydrogen.  I’ve personally run a generator and a GM pickup truck with hydrogen…  (I’ll blog about it soon).

See his 2:30 video clip for an overview of the Third Industrial Revolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEHiwzW02K0

By the way, Cisco CEO, John Chamber’s provided a supporting quote for Rifkin’s new book.  You can pre order on Amazon.  I've read the book; I’ll post a review on my blog in the next week or so.

http://www.amazon.com/Third-Industrial-Revolution-Lateral-Transforming/dp/0230115217/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315940276&sr=1-1

Cisco EnergyWise partners attending Cisco Live 2011, demonstrated that ICT based energy solutions are ready for installation.  Over the next year we'll start to document these solutions in more detail.  Before we do, I want to share some highlights from Cisco Live and thank everyone for making our collaboration a success.

I want to say “THANK YOU” to all of our Cisco Live 2011 partners.  Our overwhelming success and “buzz” is a testament to your efforts (and I hope you enjoyed the "Train" performance at the customer appreciation event).

Many months before Cisco Live the extended EnergyWise team set a number of ambitious goals—and because of our partners, we exceeded all of them.

We set out to build a complete working EnergyWise solution that enabled customers to pull three phase meter data from the building entrance facility as well as innervate all of the IT subloads and project relevant load profile information to the building lobby digital signage (as a result of a lot partner effort—we had many paths to achieve this).  We did this to show what is possible with EnergyWise and to help create a solution that could be used by the Cisco field and our distribution partners to start a dialogue with customers about energy reduction programs.   Though this is only the start, it provides customers with a meaningful stand alone solution.

The purpose of our social media activities was to educate our joint customers that it is time to consider EnergyWise solutions.  It also had a side benefit of helping the whole extended team figure out what works well and what does not.  On balance, these efforts were also a huge success.  The #EnergyWise Flash Mob Kazoo Orchestra conducted by #CL11 host, Carlos Dominguez was a hit.  It’s the lead image on the CL11 highlights reel (by the way, if you didn’t know how # is used, hopefully you learned something—I didn’t know either).  http://www.ciscolive.com/us/exhibitors/index.php

Results by the numbers.

• There were countless interactions among customers, partners, press and analysts.
• 500+ Kazoos circulated at the show.  1 was delivered to John Chambers.
• 2 Partners had their logo printed on their kazoos (nice job!)
• 1 EnergyWise Flash Mob Kazoo Orchestra (with a hundred smiling partners and customers)
• 2 Booth sponsors for the EnergyWise Flash Mob Kazoo Orchestra conducted by Carlos Dominguez:  Schneider-Electric and CA
• 4 Sponsors for the customer meeting with William Shatner:  Cyber Switching; Industry Weapon, JouleX, WTI
• 4 Sponsors for the EnergyWise geo location game daily prize drawing:  CA; Eaton; Schneider-Electric; 1e
• 1 EnergyWise demo for John Chambers hosted by the Schneider-Electric team.  They built a demo that connects EnergyWise and BMS systems in a single view.  The demo leveraged real products to recreate the “vision” demo built for John Chambers when he launched EnergyWise at Cisco Live in Barcelona, Spain in Feb, 2009.
• 1 small demo EnergyWise demo during Padmasree Warrior’s key note (Thank you Scott Neumann)
• 6 EnergyWise technology sessions (speakers included:  John Parello, Luis Suau, Brock Miller, Emmanuel Tychon, and Matt Laherty)
• 8 EnergyWise partner booths:  1e; CA; Cyber Switching; Eaton; Raritan; WTI; Schneider-Electric; Verdiem
• 1 EnergyWise reseller booth:  Graybar
• 68 Digital displays powered by 1 EnergyWise partner:  Industry Weapon
• 1 EnergyWise demo pod in the Cisco Booth
• 5 EnergyWise partners supported the EnergyWise team in the Technical Solutions Clinic:  Enth Energy; Commscope; Ayehu; CA; (and a big thank you goes to FieldServer for standing up a team to staff the booth the entire time the WOS was open)
• 10 partner interviews on the Smart Connected Communities Collaboration Page http://www.smartconnectedcommunities.org/groups/cisco-energywise?view=video
• 200+ Tweets!
• 3 Guest blog posts (I’m willing to upload more)  http://www.smartconnectedcommunities.org/groups/cisco-energywise?view=overview
• 5 blog posts that describe EnergyWise in the “Innervated Building Lab”.
• Dozen+ new documents, press releases and solution guides posted on the collaboration site
• 1 Karaoke performance by the Cisco EnergyWise team  (hopefully the video will never surface)
• 3 hours—the average amount of sleep the EW team received each night (excluding John P.)
• 1 partner danced at the Wednesday night party and wound up on the highlights video prior to the discussion with William Shatner

Getting serious for a moment, John Parello, Tirth Ghose, Brock Miller and the rest of the EnergyWise engineering team have put in countless nights and weekends to make the EnergyWise vision a reality.  There have been many other team members working behind the scenes to keep us on course.

I’d like to thank Don Schriner for keeping us focused on important things when we were often distracted by new bright shiny objects (okay—maybe that was just me).

Thank you Amir Raz for taking the lead and helping 100 partners navigate the CDN and Cisco partnering process.   You keep the innovation pipeline flowing.

Thank you Jill Hundley for helping me understand the power and growing importance of social media.  I must also thank you and the Learning@Cisco team for ensuring that our partners had a place to collaborate with other partners and customers.  Jill was our social media air traffic controller during Cisco Live—and she helped us shape the plan for several months prior to the event.

Kathleen Mudge—Thank you for supporting our efforts.  You made sure we kept the bling.

None of us would have had a successful week without all of these contributions and more from other Cisco team members.  But as nearly all the partners know, there’s another individual who stands out in his relentless commitment:  Luis Suau.  For every hour that engineering put into improving the code, I think Luis spent two trying to use it, connect with it, bend it and break it, so that all of us would know how to build an EnergyWise network with a 1000 diverse end points.   There was nothing Luis couldn’t do in “two weeks!”

This week in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cisco is hosting 10,000 customers at Cisco Live.  As part of the event, the Cisco EnergyWise team has asked EnergyWise partners to help us educate customers about energy solutions and how they will affect the IT and networking profession. As you may know from following my blog, I know a few things about energy solutions and trends.  But I am not an expert in every domain.  There is a lot to learn.  As new products and solutions are developed, I hope to share deeper insight with you by engaging the domain experts and seeking their guidance directly.

It is my great pleasure to introduce Brad Amano, Business Development Manager at Eaton Corporation.  He’s here to share deeper insight into Power Distribution Units.

Brad Amano, BDM, Eaton Corporation

Upgrading PDUs Will Save Money, Reduce Downtime

Today’s IT managers are given the daunting task of balancing skyrocketing energy costs, growth restrictions in data centers and maximizing energy efficiency while reducing power consumption. But, accurate, real-time information is essential in order to fully commit to a sustainable and efficient energy management strategy while maintaining a firm business policy.

Traditionally, PDUs have been keystone within the data center ecology. Typical floor-standing PDUs provide upstream electrical power to multiple downstream infrastructure devices while simultaneously lowering current and voltage to usable levels, protecting against dangerous electrical spikes.

These features were once enough for data center managers, but now the emergence of rack switched and advanced function PDUs provide options for the same power distribution advantages, and the ability to monitor and control individual power outlets remotely over the network. This capability can help companies reduce downtime and save money in several ways and the benefits easily explain why upgrading PDUs is an investment most companies would be wise to investigate.

By enabling power monitoring and management down to the outlet level, the latest innovations in PDUs enable remote power on/off, increase in the granularity of their load segmentation and have the ability to reboot unresponsive servers remotely. Advanced monitoring functions are specifically designed to measure power consumption at the equipment level and each individual receptacle is enabled with an advanced current measurement device that provides real-time current data via a local display or through a network connection.

IT managers can use the data gathered from the advanced monitoring capable PDU products to evaluate server performance, allocate power costs and even lower the aggregate power bill.  Most even offer the ability to customize the PDU product without paying for functions that are unnecessary for your organization.  Most new PDUs can also measure the temperature at the rack level, and provide alerts if the internal temperature rises suddenly or becomes unstable.  Some advanced PDUs even sport a higher temperature range, which can reduce your center’s cooling costs.

One of the most useful features of newer PDUs however, is a convenient LCD display.  Traditional units have a seven segment display, like an alarm clock or digital watch, but some of the latest PDU options to hit the market come complete with the ability to display text, and can show readings for current, voltage, power use and even kilowatt hours. This can be ideal when troubleshooting problems, if you’re connected and the PDU isn’t, you can troubleshoot directly from the PDUs monitor.

Additionally, when a server becomes unresponsive and software-based efforts to fix it prove unsuccessful, data center managers usually resort to a hard reboot.  Furthermore, tight budgets have most businesses struggling to get more done with less money and fewer people. Yet physically dispatching data center managers to hard reboot malfunctioning servers is a time-consuming and therefore a costly activity. This is especially true at companies that have servers at branch offices and other offsite locations or that operate data centers in multiple locations. In such cases, sending someone to address a problem often involves investing time and money in a car trip or even plane ride. Organizations equipped to conduct remote hard reboots spare themselves that needless and wasteful expense.

In a remote hard reboot, data center managers cycle the power to a server off and then back on again over the network, using power management software and an advanced PDU.  Together with power management software, advanced capability PDUs are what make remote hard reboots possible. By providing secure, individual control over power outlets via a central console, these advanced PDUs enable authorized data center managers to turn specific devices off and on again remotely over the network. They also arm data center managers with the ability to temporarily disable outlets supporting idle servers. As a result, these PDUs can reduce energy bills by eliminating the so-called “vampire” power draw most electronic devices produce when they’re plugged in but not being used.

There are also additional remote power management options though products that are EnergyWise compliant.  Cisco EnergyWise, a dedicated power management solution for IT equipment, provides data center managers the opportunity to administer energy requirement of power over Ethernet devices and extends enterprise power management to desktop and laptop PCs.

Price is always an obstacle, but Eaton Corporation is releasing their Advanced Monitored and Managed ePDU® products in August, which are anywhere from 20-40 percent less expensive than other PDU options with the same features.  Sporting Cisco EnergyWise compatibility, a smooth LCD display and complete remote management and monitoring abilities, this is a piece of hardware that will provide your data center with the accuracy and load distribution necessary to save money and ultimately reduce downtime.  You can learn more at www.powerquality.eaton.com or www.epdu.com.

Since you’re reading step 2, I’ll assume you have implemented step 1 or at least have a basic understanding of how to collect and report real-time whole building power profile information.

The point of step 2 is to describe how to submeter building systems with a heavy emphasis on IT and carpeted space plug loads.  The goal is to gain insight closer to the device and eventually to capture information directly from the device.  This will provide granular insight into power use of IT and other office loads.  It will also enable network engineers to gain knowledge about energy submetering.  This knowledge can be applied to other building loads including HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and lighting systems.  Though historically these systems have been managed by the building facility department, in many cases they are not actively monitored.  Over time, these systems tend to creep out of spec and waste a lot of energy.  The skills network engineers develop in the IT domain can be used to assist facilities as they start to upgrade their monitoring and management capabilities.  I’m not suggesting that IT will take over policy administration of facilities.  I expect IT to partner with facilities in order to develop sound monitoring practices for all building subsystems.

Let’s now examine what’s required to submeter IT systems.

I’ll assume you’ve already updated the IOS in your switches and routers to an EnergyWise enabled image.  This means that you can see how much energy your network and PoE attached devices are consuming.  It also means that the network can auto detect devices by their type (phone, access point, meter etc).  Moreover, you can indicate and identify the importance of a device and tag it with keywords that allow you to classify energy consumption based on organization specific metrics.  These classification metrics might include department (marketing, sales, accounting, development engineering etc).  The domain feature also provides a good way to group loads.  The monitoring and control features supported by EnergyWise deserve a stand alone in depth review. So I’ll leave that to a future post.  This post is intended to highlight the way in which IT can gather power information by using Cisco EnergyWise partner products.  These products either contain the EnergyWise client or they extend the EnergyWise framework to non-EnergyWise enabled network attached devices.

Starting first with the EnergyWise enabled power distribution units, these are smart power strips that support EnergyWise attributes on each power plug.  These units provide a fast way to “innervate” a mixed device server rack or office space.  And they’re a great tool that allows us to experiment with other submetering strategies.

My colleague, Luis Suau, has worked with one PDU manufacturer to submeter every device in a 10 cubicle area within our own office.  Luis also uses a variety of EnergyWise enabled PDU’s throughout the Innervated Building lab.  Vendor partners include:  Cyber Switching, Eaton, Raritan, and WTI.  One partner is also using a measurement device to capture data at the circuit breaker panel.

From this cubicle screen shot, can you determine the best time to get a hot cup of coffee?

Other vendor partners that have products with the EnergyWise device client include 1e (for server power management) and Lenovo for PCs.  As I discussed in the previous post, it’s possible to obtain other building subsystem energy consumption data by using an EnergyWise enabled building controls gateway.  We have one in the lab made by FieldServer.  I expect more companies to have offerings soon (and we might see one more at Cisco Live in Las Vegas).

EnergyWise enabled devices are all visible to EnergyWise enabled management tools.  So EnergyWise submeter capabilities are only limited by the capabilities of the management tools used to monitor and report energy consumption by the network and subtended devices.

The following EnergyWise partners have products that we’ve used to gain visibility into subtended devices.  These include PDU products and software that sits directly on a server and PC.  Many of these will attend EnergyWise next week.  They can provide a lot more details about their products and how they work with Cisco EnergyWise:

Cyber Switching:  www.cyberswitching.com/

Eaton:  http://powerquality.eaton.com/Products-services/Power-Distribution/ePDU/Default.asp?cx=3

Raritan:  www.raritan.com/

WTI:  www.wti.com/

1e:  www.1e.com

Lenovo:  http://news.lenovo.com/article_print.cfm?article_id=1460

There is much more to say about this topic.  I’ll have to save it for later because I’m pressed for time preparing to host energy solutions at Cisco Live next week.

If you’re reading this I assume you want to know what’s required to “Innervate” a building (and you’re on a tight budget—if you weren’t, you’d simply call a major consulting firm and they’d send a team of high paid experts to customize a large scale program for you).  An Innervation project requires interaction among facilities, energy, network engineering and possibly a half dozen other groups including IT, sustainability, finance, HR (think leader board), security and marketing.  Moreover, an executive sponsor should be in the picture to facilitate cooperation among these disparate groups.

There are a few step required before turning up a real-time energy dashboard on your lobby signage.

Step 0:  Build the Team and Define the Project

In short, for most projects, three organizational tasks must be completed prior to work on an innervated building.  The project leader (and that can be anyone), must:

1.      1.  Imagine the final outcome (ideation).  Explore emerging trends in sustainability and reporting and create a blueprint that leverages those changes in order to develop an effective sustainability reporting process.

2.      2.  Assemble the team required to execute the project—gain agreement on the outcome.

3.      3.  Set milestones

Again, since you’re reading this and you’re on a budget, I will assume you have decided to start small and simple.  If you’ve never innervated a building before, it’s useful to take it one chunk at a time.  Set achievable goals and show solid results before layering additional complexity.  In our Innervated Building lab, we connect devices, collect data and then determine what information is useful and valuable and published the information to a digital sign in the lobby of our lab.  We called this project “Measurement and Visibility”.  This project is about getting the infrastructure in place to create energy literacy for all building users and save money.  The project also establishes a baseline from which to launch additional energy monitoring and control enhancements (such as energy consumption leader boards and tracking to reduction goals).

For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that you’ve decided to collect and report all the energy consumed in the building in real-time.  This means that you’ve decided to capture and report the building’s “energy profile”.  Furthermore, I assume you want to project the relevant information to your Cisco Digital Media Signage.

Step 1.  Connect to the Whole Building Power Infrastructure

To get the data you need to help users see the building power profile, you will first need to connect and collect power consumption information from a whole building 3 phase power meter.

In our lab, there are three ways to connect and collect energy consumption data.  To date, Luis Suau has only configured this two ways.

1.      1.  Luis attached an ENthEnergy MITS unit to the power entrance facility.  This requires an electrician to connect a CT to each phase the power cables.  The ENthEnergy unit is connected to a Cisco EnergyWise enabled switch that collects the power information via EnergyWise.

2.      2.  Luis attached a FieldServer gateway to our existing Schneider Electric Power Logic 3 phase meter (CT cables were deployed previously).  This meter sends energy use information to the FieldServer gateway via an RS485 cable and  Modbus communication protocol.  The FieldServer gateway translates the information into the Cisco EnergyWise protocol.  This information can be collected by the Cisco Switch to which the FieldServer gateway is connected via an Ethernet cable.

3.      3.  The third way to collect energy use information is to use a WattNode or similar 3 phase meter and then extract and convert the energy use information into the EnergyWise protocol using a Field Server gateway.

4.      4.  There are several 3 phase meter manufacturers actively working to enable Cisco EnergyWise as a native protocol.  I expect to see several of these products soon.

Step 2.  Select an Energy Monitoring Application That Can Collect the Data

Now that your Cisco EnergyWise enabled network can query power consumption for the whole building, deploy a software package that can give you a simple graphical interface  to configure, collect and report energy use information.

There are several packages available today and more are in the works.

At this point we have a variety of product specific management tools deployed, but to date we have only one that can manage and monitor a complete Cisco EnergyWise deployment. This application is from JouleX.

Step 3.  Display Energy Use Information in Your Building Lobby

In this phase, you’ll need to deploy digital signs, kiosks and other display devices capable of supporting digital media.  Some customers have deployed dedicated energy dashboards.  We think a better way to do this is leverage digital media equipment for multiple information uses.  Why have multiple screens when one might be enough?  Our approach was to leverage as many preexisting assets as possible so that the benefit is maximized while enabling the lowest cost for solution development.

1.     1.  Luis installed a Cisco Digital Media System.  This includes a DMS controller and a digital display sign.  This system enables us to push energy use information from our JouleX management software to the lobby signage.

2.      2. In order to render multiple content streams we’ve also deployed CommandCenterHD from Industry Weapon.  This system enables our “content administrator” to push multiple streams of information throughout displays, kiosks, IP phones, and iPhones, in our building or campus.

Like the previous steps, this third one required us to work closely with the vendors involved.  Though we will have a working prototype for Cisco Live, I expect some additional time and testing is required before a product is commercialized.  By the time you’re ready to place an order, check with the vendors.  We will also work with them and post updates on their product status.

For more information about this process, visit my webinar entitled “Laying the Foundation for an Effective Sustainability Program” http://www.smartconnectedcommunities.org/blogs/webinars/2011/02/15/webinar-matt-laherty-1-25-11-laying-the-foundation-for-an-effective-sustainability-program

ENthEnergy MITS appliance:  www.enthenergy.com

FieldServer Gateway:  www.fieldserver.com

Schneider Electric Power Meters:  http://www.powerlogic.com/index.cfm

WattNode from Continental Control Systems:  http://www.ccontrolsys.com/w/Home

Cisco EnergyWise:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10195/index.html

Cisco Digital Media Suite:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9339/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html

JouleX energy management application:  www.joulex.net

Industry Weapon CommandCenterHD:  www.industryweapon.com

Several weeks ago I purchased an iPhone.  I delayed the purchase until a must-have app was created (besides, I already had a phone and I always carry a laptop—so despite the convenient size, an iPhone was a redundant appliance).  For me, the must have app is a new energy measurement and control application built by JouleX.  http://www.joulex.net/joulex-in-the-news/bid/48629/JouleX-network-power-manager-gets-facelift-smartphone-link

I ordered an iPhone so that I could control energy consumption of my office devices in San Jose, CA, from anywhere at anytime.   This application complements the full scale JouleX Energy Manager Enterprise automated energy management solution deployed in our lab. 

Using Cisco EnergyWise, my devices are labeled with keywords (like “MattLaherty”).  These keywords are associated with my iPhone.  When I activate the JouleX Mobile app, all I have to do is push the “off” button.  This technology combination illustrates what’s possible with ICT for energy management.  Keep in mind, this technology can be used to control any set of Cisco EnergyWise enabled devices, from those that belong to an individual to everthing on the campus.  So that single “off” switch could shut down as much as 50 MegaWatts.

We’ll share more as we test new applications and products in preparation for demos at CiscoLive in Las Vegas the week of July 11^th.  http://www.ciscolive.com/us/

To learn more about JouleX and their energy app, visit:  http://www.joulex.net/Green_IT_Blog/bid/50663/JouleX-Mobile-Hits-iTunes-App-Store