DreamWorks Animation – Lydia Krefta – 2013

Goals 

DreamWorks Animation enlisted Lydia Krefta to improve energy efficiency within its on-site data center in Glendale, CA.

Solutions

After baselining energy use, Krefta found opportunities to reduce energy consumption by improving air flow within the data center. These opportunities included optimizing temperature set-points, adding hot aisle containment curtains and installing variable frequency drives and smart communication in the Computer Room Air Conditioners (CRACs). Further, she found potential campus-wide savings by recommending raising the chilled water temperature and installing a water-side economizer at DreamWorks’s central plant, taking advantage of cool evening and winter air to replace chiller operation approximately 20 percent of the year.

Potential Impact

Overall, these three projects could save DreamWorks Animation nearly $700,000 over ten years, providing 1.5 million kilowatt hours in annual energy savings and over 550 tons in annual greenhouse gas emissions reductions.