New PCE Metric Could Recover Stranded Data Center Power
Data Center Knowledge, Wednesday, October 21st, 2026
Power compute effectiveness (PCE) measures how much provisioned power actually reaches compute, a complement to PUE.
A proposed metric, power compute effectiveness (PCE), measures what share of a facility's provisioned power is structurally available for compute and how much is tied up in cooling, electrical losses and other support systems.
It is defined in an Open Compute Project paper from Airsys and is positioned as a complement to PUE, not a replacement.
Where PUE reflects operational efficiency once a site is running, PCE looks upstream and asks how much server capacity really fits within a fixed power envelope.
AFCOM's Bill Kleyman sees it as especially useful for retrofits and expansions where more grid power is not available.