This paper addresses the issue of energy performance of data centers by closely examining energy use of two data centers in commercial office buildings. The primary objective of the study is to examine an empirical energy use pattern of data centers under tropical climatic conditions, and give guidance for data centers' design, operation and maintenance and retrofitting to achieve better energy performance. Actual energy use characteristics, design criteria, and energy and cost saving potentials were analyzed and compared between two data centers. Methodology of energy performance evaluation of data centers was discussed. The study concludes that data centers were high energy consuming areas in commercial office buildings-energy consumptions of approximately 3000 kWh/(m(2) year) and 2000 kWh/(m(2) year), respectively, were observed in the case studies. Power demands were often grossly over-provided in these facilities. This leaded to substantial increase in capital and running cost, which can be wasteful. Disparity in energy performance between case studies demonstrated the need for design guidelines and practical benchmarking. In one case study, approximately 56% (1.2 GWh/year) of energy consumption could be conserved through efficient designs of base infrastructure and energy consuming systems, as compared to better practice. The predicted cost saving is more than US$ 80,000 per year. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.