The company will save some 1,000MWh annually from a server consolidation project in Markham, Ontario, a figure that will rise to 2,700MWh as the project is extended this year.

The APX registry allows companies outside mandatory systems to register voluntary energy efficiency reductions. These savings were credited with EECs following an audit and verification by Neuwing Energy Ventures. The EECs were then registered in the APX North American Renewables Registry, which has recently been extended to include voluntary EECs.

“EECs offer an effective way to measure and verify energy savings in complex virtualisation and consolidation projects, like the IBM Markham project, in accordance with applicable regulatory or voluntary standards governing energy efficiency certificates,” said Rich Lechner, vice-president of energy and environment marketing and communications at IBM.

“Through this process, we can also enhance the [return on investment] of energy efficiency projects in the form of utility and regulatory agency rebates and incentives.”

Ken Lopian, a managing director at APX, a provider of infrastructure for energy and environmental markets, in Hoboken, New Jersey, said that at least three US states had either introduced (Connecticut) or were implementing (Michigan and North Carolina) energy efficiency certificate programmes, where EECs could be used to count towards mandated renewable energy targets.

Lopian added that, in future, a market may develop for voluntary EECs in the same way that markets exist for voluntary renewable energy certificates and carbon credits.

He said the registry operates in a similar way to those in carbon markets, providing transparency to potential buyers, a guarantee that the certificates have been verified to certain standards and unique serial numbers so certificates can be tracked.

He said the extension of the registry to include EECs had “generated a lot of interest. There will be several market participants who will be following in IBM’s footprints,” he said.

Mark Nicholls