Walker also presented a case study based on a DCIP pilot project between Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc. in Markham, Ont., and Toronto Hydro's sister company PowerStream Inc.

The overall incentives were well over $200,000, Walker pointed out. They went from 1,100 to 312 servers, from 23 to 12 racks, saw $170,000 in utility bill savings and received a cheque for $75,000, he said.

"We are doing it because it is far cheaper to have people conserve than it is to build new coal-fired generating stations that are not green and don't encourage energy reduction," he said.

The average data centre consumes 10 to 100 times more energy per square foot than a typical official building, according to a joint study by the Uptime Institute and McKinsey & Co. released in July 2008.