Air Force Expected to Save $15 Million Annually by Changing Computer Purchasing and Power Management Policies

JN| LEARN MORE AT
energystar.gov
ENERGY STAR® is a U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency program
helping businesses and individuals fight global warming through
superior energy efficiency.
AIR FORCE EXPECTED TO SAVE $15 MILLION
ANNUALLY BY CHANGING COMPUTER PURCHASING
AND POWER MANAGEMENT POLICIES
INFORMATION ItCHNOLOGV COMMODITY COUNCIL
Tasked with reducing IT energy
use, the Air Force's Enterprise
Configuration Management Office
(AFECMO) and Information Technology
Commodity Council (ITCC) established and implemented
new procurement and power management guidelines for
computers and monitors. The changes are expected to lead to
savings of $15 million annually and reduce power plant carbon
dioxide emissions by over 100,000 tons per year.1
Background
The U.S. Air Force (AF) operates one of the largest and most
sophisticated IT organizations in the world. More than 500,000
desktops and laptops are deployed at over 100 bases in the
United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Signed in January 2007, Executive Order 13423 requires federal
agencies to:
• Purchase ENERGY STAR qualified computers.2
(With the latest July 2009 update to the computer
specification, ENERGY STAR qualified computers have
improved average power draw of 67 watts to 46 watts in a
two year time frame - a reduction of 30%!)
• Activate ENERGY STAR power saving features on
computers and monitors
This case study summarizes the organizational structure,
leadership and technical tools used by the AF to comply with
Executive Order 13423.
ENERGY STAR Purchasing - Part of Air Force Policy
Since 2004
Compliance with the ENERGY STAR purchasing requirement
of EO 13423 had actually been in place for some time. ITCC
and AFECMO have worked together since 2004 to implement a
consistent standard computer configuration across the entire
AF. Underthe current strong leadership and direction of the
AF CIO, Lt. General William Lord and the Assistant Secretary of
Acquisition, Roger Correll, AFECMO developed and maintains
a standard desktop configuration for AF computers that
1Assuming national average commercial electricity rates (Energy Information Agency, 2010)
and 1.54 lbs C02/kWh (EPA, 2009).
2Executive Order 13423 requires EPEA T registered computers. Part of the EPEA T criteria is
that the computers and monitors be ENERGY STAR qualified.
Lessons Learned:
At the Federal agency scale, a
fully- implemented green computer
purchasing and power management policy requires:
• High-level leadership from IT and acquisition groups.
• Representation from all operational units in the core
computer configuration and power, management
policy development
• Focused communication strategy that informs early
and often.
• A simplified menu of approved models and
configurations that make purchases easy.
lowers costs, improves security, and reduces application
conflicts. The ITCC negotiates the best overall life-cycle
value for hardware and software by managing the Quarterly
Enterprise Buy (QEB) purchasing program. Since 2004, the AF
specified ENERGY STAR qualified computers for the standard
desktop core configuration. To ensure ENERGY STAR qualified
computers were purchased, the following steps were taken:
• An outreach program was established including periodic
notices from the Air Force CIO on the new standardized
desktop configuration. Readers were reminded that
all AF computer purchases must meet the standard
configuration.
• Twice a year, ITCC revises the buying standards for the
QEB purchasing program for ENERGY STAR qualified AF
computers. QEB bulk purchasing power leads to such low
prices that AF personnel, even if allowed to go to other
vendors and not specify ENERGY STAR units, would not be
able to find comparable price and performance.
• Models are available for easy purchase through the
AFWay -a Web-based system for purchasing IT. AFWay
guides users through needs identification, approval
and purchase in a straightforward process. Computer
selection is simplified; users can choose from 14 different
desktop computer and laptop configurations, 3 monitor
types and have options for increasing RAM and
battery size.
February 2010

-------
"As the Air Force CIO I am responsible for driving energy efficient environmentally safe information
technology (IT) solutions to support the Air Force Global Information Grid. Our priorities are focused on
power management and reduction of power consumption. I expect the Air Force to stay in the forefront of
our nation's efforts to implement IT programs that achieve these strategic objectives."
- Lt. General William Lord,
Chief of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer
•	Each ofthe Major Commands' CIO is represented in ITCC,
which works with the Major Commands to insure that
each base enforces the purchasing policy. Only through
a waiver approved by the organization's Major Command
CIO may a computer not compliant with the buying
standard be purchased.
ENERGY STAR Power Management -
Evaluation of Different Options
To activate sleep settings on AF computers and monitors,
AFECMO and ITCC addressed a number of concerns, including
establishing a means to:
•	Distribute power management setting quickly and easily.
•	Prevent users from altering the setting.
•	Not interfere with night-time updates.
Beginning in September 2008, AFECMO sought a power
management solution that allows for enterprise control and
secure operation for all non-exempt ITCC personal computers
running the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC), and
blocks end users from adjusting power management settings.3
AFECMO, with technical support from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Low Carbon IT campaign
(www.energystar.gov/lowcarbonit), reviewed a number of
different public domain, operating system, and third-party
vendor solutions.4 After evaluating the options, AFECMO
decided to use Microsoft (MS) Group Policy, already used by
the AF to manage other current enterprise items. In MS Vista,
enterprise-wide power management settings are available
using Group Policy. In MS Windows XP with Service Pack 3,
Microsoft has a similar capability for XP machines in Group
Policy Preferences. Using Microsoft's programs, AFECMO
will activate power management for XP machines and sleep
settings for Vista machines by the end of 2009.
To optimize power savings and system performance, AFECMO
developed a two-phase system providing the ability to
install updates without leaving computers on overnight. In
Phase I, AFECMO implemented Task Scheduler5 to wake
9
These settings allowed the monitor and computer to enter low-power sleep mode
after 10 minutes and 30 minutes of inactivity, respectively.
4See http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c =power_mgt.pr_power_ mgt_
implementation_res for a listing
5Task Scheduler is a component of Microsoft Windows that provides the ability to
schedule the launch of programs or scripts at pre-defined times or after specified
time intervals.
computers from sleep each night at 2 AM to install updates. A
complication arose with Task Scheduler - computers return to
sleep after 1 minute with the updates uninstalled. To resolve
this, AFECMO developed the "Stay Awake" program, allowing
the machine to stay up for a specified amount of time up to
23 hours. The enterprise level program signals the computer
once every minute for a specified period of time, preventing
the return to sleep. This software was developed for the AF
by Microsoft, and can be provided for use elsewhere.
The Results
With 525,000 computers in use by the AF, AFECMO and ITCC
anticipate 95% of all QEB-procured computers and monitors
will be ENERGY STAR qualified by the end of 2009. As of
November 2009, they were at 90%.
The AF obtained additional funds for power management
implementation in September of 2009. Although power
management will be an ongoing effort, the AF plans to
complete enablement of power management settings for
500,000 systems by January 31,2010 and energy saving
reporting by June 30,2010. While there are some mission
exceptions, this will encompass well over 500,000 client
systems.
By activating power management and purchasing more
efficient computers, the Air Force will save $15 million
annually. For more information, please contact:
Dorothy Priest
Deputy Director, AF IT Commodity Council
Dorothy.priest@gunter.af.mil
(334)416- 3105 DSN: 596-3105
Mr. Eddie Winkles
Air Force's EnterpriseConfiguration
Management Office (AFECMO)
334 416-6326
"Air Force leadership has done an
outstanding job implementing ENERGY
STAR IT purchasing and power
management efforts across such a
massive scale and serves as a fine
example for other agencies."	_ yna song
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR
February 2010

-------