White Paper: Sustainable Practices for Federal Data Center Modernization

Written By Guest User

By: Jefferey B. Murrell, PE, PhD & RJ McIntosh, MBA
Date: December 15, 2024
Affiliation: U.S. DOE DC ESPC OR | McIntosh Technologies Consulting

Overview

This white paper outlines the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Data Center Modernization Initiative (DCMI) — a nationwide effort to improve energy resilience and operational efficiency across federal data centers.
The study highlights the role of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) in accelerating modernization, decarbonization, and “Bring Your Own Power (BYOP)” models that reduce reliance on public utilities.

Federal Context

Under Executive Order 14057, federal agencies are mandated to achieve:

  • 50% emission reductions from buildings by 2032 (from 2008 baseline)

  • Net-zero building operations by 2045

  • Energy retrofits in 30% of federal data centers by FY2030

DOE’s DCMI aligns with the Federal Building Performance Standard and the Energy Act of 2020, promoting data center consolidation, modernization, and adoption of advanced clean energy technologies.

DOE ESPC Framework

DOE ESPC contracts support:

  • Guaranteed savings with measurable verification (M&V)

  • Financing for modernization projects up to 25 years

  • Integration of immersion cooling, distributed generation, and advanced clean energy tech

  • Adoption of resilient microgrids for energy security

Focus Area: “Beyond the Utility” — achieving energy independence through BYOP modeling.

Case Study: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)

Project Scope: Mission-critical data center retrofit
Key Achievements:

  • 95% of ESPC measures implemented in data center operations

  • $1M M&V study with $4.4M annual guaranteed savings

  • Comprehensive O&M performance guarantee covering uptime and cooling efficiency

Result:
Enabled higher compute density with improved energy efficiency and cyber-physical resilience.

Standards & Technical Contributions

RJ McIntosh serves as a U.S. Voting Member (ISO TC301) for scalable Modular Data Center standards.
Key outcomes include:

  • Adoption of immersion cooling standards (ASHRAE + DOE FEMP)

  • Development of the Data Center Modernization Initiative task order framework

  • Guidance for geographic separation of IT assets for resiliency

Conclusion

Federal ESPC projects deliver measurable savings, strengthen cyber resilience, and enable secure energy transitions.
McIntosh Technologies Consulting continues to advance data center modernization as a bridge between energy, IT, and infrastructure innovation — helping agencies and technology partners achieve mission-critical sustainability.

References

Guest User