PUE, Power & Water

PUE tracks how much total power a data center draws per unit of IT power; lower PUE cuts energy and, indirectly, the upstream water tied to that energy.

What PUE measures

Power Usage Effectiveness is total facility power divided by IT power. A PUE of 1.2 means the building draws 1.2 units of power for every unit that reaches the servers, the extra 0.2 going to cooling, distribution, and losses. Lower is better; the theoretical floor is 1.0.

The link to water

Every unit of power a facility draws carries the water footprint of its source. So reducing PUE reduces not just energy but the upstream evaporative water tied to that energy. Efficiency and water are linked through the power source.

But PUE cannot fix the source

• A perfect PUE of 1.0 still imports IT power whose source may be water-hungry
• Cooling that lowers PUE by using evaporation can raise on-site water
• PUE optimizes the building, not the generation architecture behind it

Where MetroVolt fits

PUE and MetroVolt address different layers. PUE improves how efficiently a building uses power; MetroVolt changes the water character of the power itself. A campus can pursue both: a low PUE for energy efficiency, and MetroVolt generation so that the power it does use carries almost no water. The two are complementary, not competing, levers.

Honest framing

We make no efficiency claim for MetroVolt beyond its design point, and no economic claim at all. The point here is only that water follows power, so a water-light power source improves a facility's true footprint regardless of its PUE.