Guest Blog: Part 2- How power consumption and cost calculations work in Configuration Manager 2007 R3

Hey everyone, last week we posted Part 1 of a blog about how ConfigMgr 2007 R3 calculates power consumption and cost calculations.  In this follow up post, we dive into the 2nd portion of the topic; cost calculation.

We have had a lot of interest from you about how ConfigMgr 2007 R3 calculates power consumption, and cost of power since we released R3.  We took these questions and spoke with our Sr. Program Manager Onur Koc, to see if we could publish something that places some clarity around these.   In this post we will cover the second area of understanding Power Cost Calculations.

Thank you to Onur and his team for providing this!

Power Cost
Below is a typical power cost report the admin might see when the daily power cost report is run.

• Daily Average Power cost by Computer: This graph shows the total daily power cost calculated from devices reported, divided by number of devices reported. Even though the number of devices in a collection changes over time, this report will accurately tell if the average power cost by computer is increasing or decreasing.
• Power cost by Day: This graph shows the total daily power cost calculated from devices that have reported power information.
• Power Consumption Constants: Average power consumption for laptop computers, desktop computers and monitors. These constants can be configured for each report and used in power consumption calculations.

How is the Cost of Power Calculated? 
Power cost is calculated by multiplying power consumption with the cost of kWh report constant. For an example, we will again use Company X,

• Total power consumption for 1000 devices was calculated as 200,000 watts = 200 KWatts
• Total cost for 1000 devices= 200 x 0.09 (The cost of KWh) = $18.00USD for the selected day which will be shown in the ‘Power cost by Day’ report.
• Since 1000 devices reported power consumption information, the average power cost by computer will be 18 USD ($)/1000=0.018 USD ($) watts per day, which will be shown in the Daily Average Power Cost by Computer report.

How to modify power cost constants?
Administrators can go to the SQL Server Reporting Services report properties and modify the power cost constants (Cost of kWh and Currency) used for the power consumption reports. This allows your organization to be flexible about your own cost of power, and your localized currency.  With any organization that is even partially distributed, this is extremely powerful.  Different locations can be running on separate power grids within a city, state, province, country or more.  This is even further complicated by currency differences.  through this simple SQL Server Reporting Services customization, you can get an accurate picture of your cost of power.

Some resources for you:

• Manage, Monitor, and Report: Implementing a Power Management Strategy with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3 download
• Download the evaluation of ConfigMgr 2007 R3  here
• Download the ConfigMgr 2007 R2/SP2 VHD here (updating to R3 soon)
• Guest Blog: Configuration Manager 2007 R3 - Power management mission and design philosophy – link
• MVP Guest Blog: How to save money with ConfigMgr 2007 R3 and feel good about it – link
• Implementing Power Management with Configuration Manager 2007 R3 – link
• Configuration Manager 2007 R3: Power Management - Traditional Barriers to Power Management – link
• Configuration Manager 2007 R3: Power Management . What is it and why is it important? – link
• What Program is right for my organization? – link
• What version of Configuration Manager do I need, and in what order? – link

Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr Technical Product Manager
System Center, Management and Security Division