What is 80 PLUS®

80 PLUS is an innovative, electric utility-funded incentive program to integrate more energy-efficient power supplies into desktop computers and servers. Participating utilities and energy efficiency organizations across North America have contributed over $5 million of incentives to help the computer industry transition to 80 PLUS certified power supplies.

To date, over 550 power supplies have been certified and many local and major computer manufacturers are selling qualified computers. Additionally, large commercial and institutional consumers are specifying 80 PLUS in their procurement policies at increasing rates.

Program Timeline and Milestones:

• ENERGY STAR® Computer Specification (Version 4.0) goes into effect.  The specification includes 80 PLUS power supply efficiency levels for desktop computers (July 20, 2007)
• Dell certifies 4 power supplies (Feb 2007)
• HP joins by certifying 80 PLUS power supplies (Nov 2006)
• ENERGY STAR include 80 PLUS requirements in new computer draft specification (2006)
• First market-ready power supply by Seasonic certified 80 PLUS (Feb 2005)
• Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance becomes first sponsor (Fall 2004)
• Program concept announced at ACEEE Market Transformation Symposium (Mar 2004)
• Ecos & EPRI developed the Generalized Internal Power Supply Efficiency Test Protocol for desktop derived multi-output power supplies (2003 - 2005)

What are Power Supplies?

Power supplies are the devices that power computers and servers. They convert AC power from electric utilities into DC power used in most electronics.

What is the 80 PLUS specification?

The 80 PLUS performance specification requires power supplies in computers and servers to be 80% or greater energy efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load with a true power factor of 0.9 or greater. This makes an
80 PLUS certified power supply substantially more efficient than typical power supplies and creates a unique market differentiation opportunity for power supply and computer manufacturers.