NBN Co saves $1m a year by powering down idle line cards

NBN Co has put a $1 million a year number on the energy savings it gets from an automation script that powers off idle or otherwise unused line cards in its nodes.

The company revealed the automation project back in late 2017 and suggested there were “considerable” energy savings to be had.

When a new street node is provisioned, all line cards within the node are active and powered on, however they may not be utilised fully until end user demand for services connected to that node increases, iTnews reported at the time.

Some line cards are warm spares that can be activated if another line card fails.

NBN Co has now briefly provided some return-on-investment numbers and targets for the project.

“A cross-functional team was established to identify and implement an automation process for powering off unused line-cards and then powering them back on again as needed,” the company said this week.

“By switching off unused line-cards, the company can reduce energy consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emissions, reduce equipment operating temperatures, and extend the operating lifetime of the line-cards. 

“It is estimated this initiative will reduce NBN Co’s greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 5 kT CO2-e and potentially decrease its energy costs by over $1 million per annum.”