Energy spending tends to account for a relatively small percentage of overall IT budgets, said Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics Inc. in Irvine, Calif. Facility costs and infrastructure maintenance expenses, including the cost of power, typically amount to only about 4 percent of a company's IT budget, he said.

For a company that's in the process of deciding where to locate or relocate a data center, "electrical costs could be a factor in choosing one location over another," Scavo said. But, he added, "I would say that the reliability of the power supply would be more of a concern than cost is."

Scott Good, technologies director at Gilbane Building Co.'s regional headquarters in Lawrenceville, N.J., offered a similar view.

"I don't think [utility costs are] a major factor," said Good, who is also president of the Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware chapter of AFCOM, an association for data center managers. "There are just too many companies out there that are basing their business model on where [power supply] reliability, the people and the systems are rather than on the cost associated with keeping those systems online."