As heat, power and cooling rise to the top of the list of concerns for data center managers, there are a growing number of initiatives aimed at helping enterprises reduce electricity consumption and increase efficiency of their technology infrastructures.

These initiatives come at a good time as energy costs skyrocket. Gartner, for example, estimates that energy bills traditionally have accounted for less than 10% of an overall IT budget but soon could account for more than half.

Gartner analysts advise enterprises to make the most efficient use of existing systems with technologies such as workload balancing and virtualization, and to plan for greener data center designs in the years ahead.

Data center-focused energy initiatives should help enterprises set their path as they choose more energy-efficient components, analysts say. What follows are some recent initiatives that IT managers should be watching:

80 Plus

Sponsored by: Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and Ecos Consulting

Description: An electric utility-funded program that provides incentives to manufacturers to use more energy efficient power supplies into desktop computers and servers. The 80 Plus power supply is 80% or more energy efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load with a true power factor (which is the real power divided by the total apparent power) of 0.9 or greater. As many as 20 power supply manufacturers have submitted products for certification to 80plus.org. Eight states are members of 80 Plus.

Impact: Large commercial businesses are expected to specify 80 Plus in their procurement policies as more manufacturers adopt it.

Who is affected: Any U.S. business.

When implemented: Now.