Energy Saving in Asia Supported through Green IT

Compatibility among CO₂ emission reduction, energy saving, and economic growth is an issue for the countries of the world. It is not easy to accomplish, but the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has launched an "Asian Green IT" scheme with the aim of spreading advanced energy-saving technologies of Japanese IT companies to Asia and at linking it to a new growth of Japan. In response to this scheme, NEC as an advocate of the "Entirely eco-friendly office" has diagnosed the energy-saving status of offices of software development firms in China using IT. The diagnosis has demonstrated that the installation of the energy-saving software "enepal PC," replacement of luminaires, and other measures are expected to greatly reduce CO₂ emissions. Based on this result, NEC is about to launch a full-scale energy-saving support business in Asia.

Background and Overview of "Green IT"

Under the leadership of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in 2010, the "Asian Green IT" scheme was developed with the aim of spreading advanced energy-saving technologies of Japanese IT companies to Asia and at linking it to a new growth of Japan. IT has now become an important tool that supports economic activities. On the other hand, there are some people who are concerned that the introduction and utilization of IT may create power and communication loads, thereby increasing CO₂ emissions. However, the approach of "Green IT" is that this concern can be overcome by more wisely and more minutely utilizing IT, resulting in a reduction of CO₂ emissions for society as a whole. According to a trial calculation made by the Green IT Promotion Council of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in 2025, more than 2,000,000 MWh of electricity can be saved. A breakthrough in selling these "Green IT" technologies to Asia will be "energy-saving diagnosis" business for measurement of effects in the field. Assistant Manager Kenji Soga of the IT Platform Solutions Division of NEC was in charge of the energy-saving diagnosis demonstration tests in China. Soga explains the background and outline of the project as follows.

"The member companies of the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) including NEC launched energy-saving diagnosis with local companies in four countries, which are mainly ASEAN countries, using their expert technologies in response to a call by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. NEC had already achieved some results by proposing the 'Entirely eco-friendly office' and decided to see to what extent energy-saving effects could be produced by 'Green IT' with IT equipment and luminaires installed in offices. NEC performed diagnosis in cooperation with NEC Fielding," says Soga.

Soga selected the offices of the Beijing Branch of COOPERATIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd. headquartered in Shenyang, China, as a site for a demonstration test. The company is a software house undertaking offshore development of software for the NEC Group and has many staff members who speak Japanese. "There was a good reason to believe that the firm would cooperate in the scheme," according to Soga.

Solutions and Tools of NEC

The concept of NEC's "Entirely eco-friendly office" is briefly as follows. The "Entirely eco-friendly office" is a solution that propels energy-saving measures in the areas of "Energy-saving IT equipment," "Work style innovation," "Facility energy saving," and "Energy management system (EMS)." It responds to the current trend of needs of enterprises to comprehensively promote energy saving of offices through advanced measures that utilize IT such as promotion of energy-saving actions by users through "visualization," productivity increase through teleconferencing and teleworking at home, and a paperless business style.

The demonstration test, however, is not a mere introduction of the "Entirely eco-friendly office." It was intended to demonstrate energy-saving effects through IT utilization in the Asian countries that are economically growing rapidly. In this initial test, a very short period of time was set. The local companies were interested in this aspect, too.

"What was important was to produce a result that would win the empathy of customers. An attempt was made to persuade customers that energy saving contributed to cost reduction and to work efficiency and that it was an effective tool to accomplish them, rather than providing overall support outright. The tool was the energy-saving software 'enepal PC.'" Soga explains the tool "enepal PC" that played a key role in the implementation plan.

"Simply speaking, 'enepal PC' is software installed in a PC to automatically turn the power on and off (standby) to reduce wasteful power consumption. Instead of mechanically functioning according to settings, it autonomously functions by learning about the usage of individual users. For example, if 'Mr. A has meetings every Monday morning and is absent from his desk' is stored as data, Mr. A's PC stands by for several minutes around 10 a.m. on Monday, even though the PC does not normally stand by for 30 minutes. 'Enepal PC' provides visual power consumption information and the level of accomplishment against a milestone can be seen at a glance, urging one to take energy-saving action. The system administrator can manage these operation states of PCs collectively."

This software was developed with a subsidy from the Ministry of the Environment in 2007 and 2008 under its "Anti-Global Warming Technology Development Project." At NEC, the software has been installed in sequence and more than 10,000 PCs have been equipped with it, producing significant results. Preparations are being made to release a new product "enepal Office" featuring more controlled objects and functions.

Steps in the Demonstration Test and Result

Going back to the demonstration test in Beijing, through what steps was the demonstration project carried out and what was the result?
"We visited Beijing in July 2010 together with NEC Fielding personnel. A pre-diagnosis was performed for about two days to determine the actual condition. In September, a full-scale diagnosis was performed for five days after installing 'enepal PC' and power meters. The results of measurements were brought back to Japan for analysis. In October, the results were reported."

"Data in three areas was analyzed, namely, lighting, PCs, and plug sockets, and measures were partially implemented. The effects when these measures were implemented in all the offices were verified and summarized. A 42% reduction in the environmental load is expected, which is equivalent to a saving of ¥310,000 per year. The result was surprising to the people in the fields and they were very grateful."

Importance of the Role of the "Energy-saving Concierge"

"Asian Green IT" is a vision that connects with business opportunities in Asia for the Japanese IT industry and for NEC. The fact that tangible energy-saving effects could be demonstrated by NEC's technologies is a sure first step to approaching the vision. Discerning the business path for proceeding to the next step was also another objective of the project. Soga was also asked about a future strategy.
"I think it is a vision with future potential for Japanese IT companies to refine energy-saving and CO₂ reduction know-how as "Green IT" technology. The demonstration test specifically showed that energy saving in offices could reduce costs. As a next step, we will propose the realization of energy-saving offices. This will foster personnel with high environmental consciousness and our mission will be to assist in bringing about higher-level eco-business and to evolve Green business, too. In FY 2012, we plan to widen the scope of equipment and facilities to other areas of Asia such as data center operators in Vietnam.
" Said Soga who himself claims to be an "energy-saving concierge," "A concierge is a person who notices what users are wanting and is endowed with the experience, makings, and skills capable of providing services responding to all wishes of users. Soga himself has an emotional attachment.
"I think promotion of energy saving is an accumulation of work of finding routine and familiar concerns and wishes and of linking them to innovation of work styles and tools. This is what we Japanese companies are good at, and NEC has the know-how and tools. Now is the time for us energy-saving concierges to intermediate and provide them to deploy 'Green IT' business globally."

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