Jonathan G. Koomey, Ph.D.

Research

One of Dr. Koomey's primary research areas has for many years been how information technology (IT) is transforming society, focusing in particular on its effect on energy and resource use. Over the past fifteen years he has secured more than $750,000 to support his research in this area.

Since 1993, the group Dr. Koomey led at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has collected data and created analyses in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star programs. Office equipment was a substantial part of that effort (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). He created the first comprehensive analysis of office equipment electricity use in the U.S. commercial sector in 1995 (8), and in 2000-2001 led the team that updated and extended that work to include all sectors (9). His work has been instrumental in refuting the incorrect but widely circulated belief that IT has been and will continue to be a major contributor to electricity demand growth in the U.S. (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). This misperception was reinforced by uncritical reporting in major U.S. newspapers, and was initially embraced by CEOs of some of the largest corporations in the country as well as politicians of both parties.

An Energy and Resources Group graduate student and Dr. Koomey created the first peer-reviewed analysis of power use in high-density computing facilities (13, 14). Dr. Koomey maintains active collaborations with industry leaders about the electricity used by data centers and has published recent studies on the total power used by these facilities (19, 20) and the total costs of these facilities (21).

Dr. Koomey is also exploring some of the broader implications for resource use of a greater reliance on IT, including the energy implications of expanded e-commerce and telecommuting. IT’s transformation of business processes will have important implications for economic growth, productivity, and resource use in the economy. One of the ways where he can most effectively contribute here is in calculating consistent time series indicators to measure key technological trends. For example, industry sources track shipments of personal computers (PCs), but no one has yet developed a long-term time series that tracks installed computing power over time. Such an index is essential for understanding longer-term trends in the relationship between personal computer processing power and energy use, and may (in combination with measured electricity use data from personal computers) offer a reliable way to forecast the effect of increasing processing power and electricity use It is also important for assessing the aggregate impacts of IT on the economy.

Other long-held research interests include the application of engineering-economic and forecasting tools to evaluate the feasibility and cost of options for reducing petroleum consumption (22) and greenhouse gas emissions (23, 24, 25, 26, 27). Dr. Koomey is also keenly interested in analyzing the feasibility of large increases in hydrogen consumption and carbon sequestration forecast by advocates for the hydrogen economy.

References

1. Nordman, Bruce, Mary Ann Piette, Brian Pon, and Kris Kinney. 1998. It’s Midnight … Is Your Copier On?: Energy Star Copier Performance. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBNL-41332. (http://enduse.lbl.gov/Projects/OffEqpt.html)

2. Webber, Carrie A., Richard E. Brown, and Jonathan G. Koomey. 2000. "Savings Estimates for the ENERGY STAR Voluntary Labeling Program." Energy Policy. vol. 28, no. 15. December. pp. 1137-1150.

3. Brown, Richard, Carrie Webber, and Jonathan Koomey. 2002. "Status and Future Directions of the ENERGY STAR Program." Energy--The International Journal (also LBNL-45952). vol. 27, no. 5. May. pp. 505-520.

4. Roberson, Judy A., Gregory K. Homan, Akshay Mahajan, Bruce Nordman, Carrie A. Webber, Richard E. Brown, Marla McWhinney, and Jonathan G. Koomey. 2002. Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBNL-48581. May. (http://enduse.lbl.gov/Projects/PCMonitor.html)

5. Webber, Carrie A., Judy A. Roberson, Richard E. Brown, Christopher T. Payne, Bruce Nordman, and Jonathan G. Koomey. 2001. Field Surveys of Office Equipment Operating Patterns. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBNL-46930. September. (http://enduse.lbl.gov/info/LBNL-46930.pdf)

6. Nordman, Bruce, Mary Ann Piette, Kris Kinney, and Carrie Webber. 1997. User Guide to Power Management for PCs and Monitors. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBNL-39466. (http://eetd.lbl.gov/EA/Reports/39466/)

7. Nordman, Bruce, Mary Ann Piette, and Kris Kinney. 1996. Measured Energy Savings and Performance of Power-Managed Personal Computers and Monitors. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBL-38057. (http://eetd.lbl.gov/EA/Reports/38057/)

8. Koomey, Jonathan, Mary Ann Piette, Mike Cramer, and Joe Eto. 1996. "Efficiency Improvements in U.S. Office Equipment: Expected Policy Impacts and Uncertainties." Energy Policy. vol. 24, no. 12. December. pp. 1101-1110.

9. Kawamoto, Kaoru, Jonathan Koomey, Bruce Nordman, Richard E. Brown, Maryann Piette, Michael Ting, and Alan Meier. 2002. "Electricity Used by Office Equipment and Network Equipment in the U.S." Energy–The International Journal (also LBNL-45917). vol. 27, no. 3. March. pp. 255-269.

10. Koomey, Jonathan, Chris Calwell, Skip Laitner, Jane Thornton, Richard E. Brown, Joe Eto, Carrie Webber, and Cathy Cullicott. 2002. "Sorry, wrong number: The use and misuse of numerical facts in analysis and media reporting of energy issues." In Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 2002. Edited by R. H. Socolow, D. Anderson and J. Harte. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews, Inc. (also LBNL-50499). 119-158 pp.

11. Koomey, Jonathan, Huimin Chong, Woonsien Loh, Bruce Nordman, and Michele Blazek. 2004. "Network electricity use associated with wireless personal digital assistants." Forthcoming in a special issue of the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems (also LBNL-54105).

12. Blazek, Michele, Huimin Chong, Woonsien Loh, and Jonathan Koomey. 2004. "A data center revisited: Assessment of the energy impacts of retrofits and technology trends in a high-density computing facility." Forthcoming in a special issue of the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems.

13. Mitchell-Jackson, Jennifer, Jonathan Koomey, Michele Blazek, and Bruce Nordman. 2002. "National and Regional Implications of Internet Data Center Growth." Resources, Conservation, and Recycling (also LBNL-50534). vol. 36, no. 3. October. pp. 175-185.

14. Mitchell-Jackson, Jennifer, Jonathan Koomey, Bruce Nordman, and Michele Blazek. 2003. "Data Center Power Requirements: Measurements From Silicon Valley." Energy–The International Journal (also LBNL-48554). vol. 28, no. 8. June. pp. 837 - 850.

15. Mitchell-Jackson, Jennifer. 2001. Energy Needs in an Internet Economy: A Closer Look at Data Centers. M.S. Thesis, Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley.

16. Koomey, Jonathan G. 2000. Rebuttal to Testimony on ‘Kyoto and the Internet: The Energy Implications of the Digital Economy’. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBNL-46509. August. (http://enduse.lbl.gov/Projects/InfoTech.html)

17. Koomey, Jonathan, Kaoru Kawamoto, Bruce Nordman, Mary Ann Piette, and Richard E. Brown. 1999. Initial comments on 'The Internet Begins with Coal'. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBNL-44698. December 9. (http://enduse.lbl.gov/projects/infotech.html).

18. Koomey, Jonathan. 2008. Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving. 2d edition. Oakland, CA: Analytics Press. (http://www.analyticspress.com)

19. Koomey, Jonathan. 2007. Estimating total power consumption by servers in the U.S. and the world. Oakland, CA: Analytics Press. February 15. (http://enterprise.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Business/Technology-Home/Power-Management.aspx)

20. Koomey, Jonathan. 2007. Estimating regional power consumption by servers: A technical note. Oakland, CA: Analytics Press. December 5. (http://www.amd.com/koomey)

21. Koomey, Jonathan, Kenneth G. Brill, W. Pitt Turner, John R. Stanley, and Bruce Taylor. 2007. A simple model for determining true total cost of ownership for data centers. Santa Fe, NM: The Uptime Institute. September. (http://www.upsite.com/cgi-bin/admin/admin.pl?admin=view_whitepapers)

22. Lovins, Amory B., Jonathan G. Koomey, Odd-Even Bustnes, E. Kyle Datta, Jamie Fergusson, Joel N. Swisher, and Dennis McGinn (VADM USN Ret.). 2004. Winning the Oil Endgame: Profitable Energy Security by Mobilizing American Innovation. Old Snowmass, Colorado: Rocky Mountain Institute. September. (http://www.oilendgame.com)

23. Krause, Florentin, Wilfred Bach, and Jonathan Koomey. 1992. Energy Policy in the Greenhouse. NY, NY: John Wiley and Sons.

24. Brown, Marilyn A., Mark D. Levine, Walter Short, and Jonathan G. Koomey. 2001. "Scenarios for a Clean Energy Future." Energy Policy (Also LBNL-48031). vol. 29, no. 14. November. pp. 1179-1196.

25. Gumerman, Etan, Jonathan G. Koomey, and Marilyn A. Brown. 2001. "A Sensitivity Analysis of the Clean Energy Future Study's Economic and Carbon Savings Results." Energy Policy (also LBNL-47357). vol. 29, no. 14. November. pp. 1313-1324.

26. Koomey, Jonathan G., Carrie A. Webber, Celina S. Atkinson, and Andrew Nicholls. 2001. "Addressing Energy-Related Challenges for the U.S. Buildings Sector: Results from the Clean Energy Futures Study." Energy Policy (also LBNL-47356). vol. 29, no. 14. November. pp. 1209-1222.

27. Sanstad, Alan H., Stephen DeCanio, Gale Boyd, and Jonathan G. Koomey. 2001. "Estimating bounds on the economy-wide effects of the CEF policy scenarios." Energy Policy (also LBNL-48104). vol. 29, no. 14. November. pp. 1299-1312.