Allocation Reductions¶

Projects that do not use their allocation effectively during the first three quarters of the allocation year will have some of their allocation returned to the reserve pool of their respective DOE Office of Science Program to be redistributed to other projects.

Time must be redistributed because many projects fall behind early in the year while others run low on time quickly. Reductions and reallocations allow Perlmutter to be used productively throughout the year while reducing queue wait times later in the year.

The issue is illustrated in the table below, which shows how many projects were on pace to use 90 percent or more of their full (GPU) initial allocation in 2024 and how many others had already used 90% or more of theirs. The mismatch between usage and need is readily apparent.

Removed time is returned to the appropriate program reserve for DOE program managers to redistribute at their discretion. Projects that have time removed can request additional time if needed from their DOE allocation manager via the NERSC online help desk.

Allocation reductions are calculated based on the estimated quarterly usage entered in allocation proposals. (If the center-wide aggregate estimates are too heavily weighted to a given quarter, NERSC will work with users and program managers to address the situation early in the year.)

Projects will not be subject to reductions in the first 60 days following their creation.

ALCC, Director's Reserve, Exploratory, and Educational projects are exempt from this reduction. However, ALCC has its own allocation reduction scheme, and the Director's Reserve program may make reductions at NERSC's discretion.