Shropshire Council could save more than £45,000 a year by switching off computer monitors and putting hard drives into “hibernate” mode at night, according to a new report.

A four-week study carried out by the council’s ICT services has shown that large sums of money could be saved simply by adopting more energy efficient practices and making sure computer equipment not in use is switched off.

A trial, which used low power management policies, has been used as the basis for predictions of electricity savings of up to £46,269 per year based on a 20 per cent idle time saving.

It could also help save up to 276 tonnes of CO2 each year. The trial was based on 3,980 desktops and 1,870 laptops owned by the council during a period from Monday to Sunday between 7am and 7.30pm.

A report to tomorrow’s meeting of the council’s protecting and enhancing our environment scrutiny committee, says: “Supporting the green agenda is a challenge that ICT services take seriously and is directly contributing to the reduction of the council’s carbon footprint.

“Reducing the power consumption of the computers installed across the authority provides the organisation with an opportunity to save money and improve efficiencies whilst having a positive impact on climate change.

“In order to report back on targets set within the corporate carbon management action plan, ICT Services undertook a study to identify the total number of computers left on overnight and during the weekends.

“1,100 computers have been randomly selected from the 5,000 computers that are currently supported within the organisation, of which 78 have been found to be left on during this period.

“The next phase was a four-week trial using very light power management policies (reducing idle time during the day, for example, switching off monitors and putting hard drives into hibernate after a period of inactivity and switching hardware off at night.”

Officials say additional benefits could also include a regular snapshot and ‘on-demand’ reporting on CO2 output/savings, centralised control of power policies and schemes, the potential to achieve additional savings during working hours, and scheduled maintenance activities.

The report says: “The power management feature is now fully installed and results will be available for the 2010/2011 data collection in April/May.”

By Russell Roberts