Pacific Gas and Electric this week announced a plan to pay as much as 50% of the setup costs — a maximum $4 million per customer — for its customers who opt to use virtualization software to reduce server counts and power and cooling costs in their data centers.

Unveiled at the VMworld conference, the program is one of the first utility financial-incentive programs of its kind, and promises to drive industry adoption of energy-efficient virtualization technology, while reducing data centers’ contributions to global warming, the utility says.

Customers can expect to save $300 to $600 in annual costs for each server that is “removed” through virtualization, but qualifying customers can earn a maximum rebate of $4 million per site. PG&E currently works closely with EMC subsidiary VMware, but the utility doesn’t care which server virtualization platform -- such as Xen or Microsoft Virtual Server -- is used.

This isn’t the first PG&E offering encouraging customers to be more energy-efficient. The utility also offers cash rebates and incentives for using other energy-efficient technologies such as reflective window film, LED exit signs, programmable setback thermostats, and adjustable-speed drives for HVAC fans.

Utilities across the country are looking at a variety of programs to encourage energy savings, in large part because of the environmental and physical costs of building new power plants.

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