Representatives from 19 North American utility companies met in San Francisco on Thursday to explore ways of cutting IT energy consumption by offering rebates and other incentives.

The effort has been led by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which serves much of the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, areas replete with technology companies and data centers that have some of the greatest need to reduce energy consumption.

Thursday's meeting marked the first time utility representatives from across North America have met to discuss how to implement such incentive programs, which focus largely on data centers but also include desktop PCs and other equipment.

Following a brief lull after the dot-com bubble, energy consumption at data centers has been surging again, particularly at colocation facilities that provide capacity for other companies, said Mark Bramfitt, PG&E's principal program manager of customer energy efficiency.

He estimated the current total demand from data centers in the PG&E region is 400 to 500 megawatts at any given moment. That has increased by between 50 and 75 megawatts in just the past 18 months, he said, driven partly by new colocation facilities.

"We had tremendous growth in data center capacity in the dot-com boom that never got filled. I can tell you that that capacity is now full to the gills, and they are asking us for more power," he said.

The programs being developed use different techniques to encourage efficient power use, with utilities offering to cover as much as 70 percent of the cost for companies that meet program requirements.

Seattle City Light will launch a program in the coming weeks that rewards companies for installing network-based software that manages PC power consumption. Such products cost between US$11 and $25 per PC, and Seattle City Light will contribute $8 per PC, said Greg Whiting, manager for energy conservation. Vendors offering such products include Verdiem and 1E. Companies that take part in the program should get a return on their investments within 18 months, according to Whiting.

BC Hydro, which serves British Columbia, hopes to introduce its first data center initiative in the coming months. It will offer to pay up to 60 percent of the cost of implementing virtualization software to consolidate servers, said David Rogers, an IT adviser at BC Hydro Power Smart.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.