All EU data centres with an installed IT power demand of 500 kW or more are mandated to report and follow the rules set by the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), to commit to the EU's energy efficiency targets.
What's new?
The directive was recently updated in July 2023 to raise the EU energy efficiency target by an additional 11.7% reduction in energy consumption by 2030, compared to the 2020 projections. Additionally, EU countries will now be required to prioritise energy efficiency in policymaking, planning, and major investments, following the energy efficiency first principle. Another key element of the 2023 amendment was the introduction of a specific mandate for the public sector to achieve an annual energy consumption reduction of 1.9%.
This new target introduces higher standards and additional elements to be reported, including:
- Total data centre energy consumption
- Temperature set points
- ICT equipment utilisation
The full set of sustainability indicators operators are expected to report is grouped into six categories:
| Category | Indicator | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | Total energy | Annual energy consumed (kWh) by the data centre, including backup generation and support to the grid. |
| IT energy | Annual energy consumed by IT equipment (kWh). Measured from the PDU or directly. | |
| Temperature set points | IT equipment inlet temperatures (°C). | |
| Energy / heat re-use | Reused energy | Annual heat energy recovered (kWh). |
| Temperature of waste heat | Temperature (°C) of waste heat reused when delivered to the consumer. | |
| Renewables | Renewable energy | Renewable energy (kWh) owned and controlled by the data centre. |
| Performance / efficiency | ICT equipment capacity | CPU: SERT score. Memory: total GB. Storage: IOPS and total TB. |
| ICT equipment utilisation | Average percentage of capacity utilised for CPUs, memory and storage. | |
| Confidence of server utilisation | Degree of confidence in the accuracy of average server capacity utilisation (low / medium / high). | |
| Data Centre Idle Coefficient | Servers' idle energy as a percentage of measured energy. | |
| Water | Annual water input | Annual water consumed by the data centre (m³). |
| Potable water input | Annual potable water consumed by the data centre (m³). | |
| Other information | Location | Municipality where the data centre is located. |
| Building floor area | Building floor area (m²). | |
| IT space floor area | Floor area for IT equipment (m²). | |
| Network traffic | Annual incoming and outgoing traffic (Gb). | |
| Data stored and processed | Annual amount of storage data (TB). |
EED and the EN50600-4 KPIs
In addition to the above, the directive requires four of the eight EN50600-4 KPIs to be reported. ITEEsv and ITEUsv KPIs, although not yet required to be publicly reported, can be acquired from the submitted indicator data.
| KPI | Standard | Required by EED | In Interact's report |
|---|---|---|---|
| PUE Power Usage Effectiveness | EN 50600-4-2 | ✓ | ✓ |
| REF Renewable Energy Factor | EN 50600-4-3 | ✓ | – |
| ITEEsv IT Equipment Energy Efficiency, servers | EN 50600-4-4 | – | ✓ |
| ITEUsv IT Equipment Utilisation, servers | EN 50600-4-5 | – | ✓ |
| ERF Energy Reuse Factor | EN 50600-4-6 | ✓ | – |
| CER Cooling Efficiency Ratio | EN 50600-4-7 | – | – |
| CUE Carbon Usage Effectiveness | EN 50600-4-8 | – | ✓ |
| WUE Water Usage Effectiveness | EN 50600-4-9 | ✓ | – |
Next steps
This new legislation is expected to be published in the EU Official Journal in September 2023 and to enter into force 20 days after publication.
The next EED report will be due on 15 May 2024, so data centre operators need to act fast and set the proper strategies and plans to acquire all the necessary data before then.
Interact revised reports
We are committed to helping data centres with their environmental reporting, and are continuously improving our reports to cover key areas that data centre operators can use to assess their current environmental impact and track progress.
Our solution provides data centres with estimates for four of the eight EN50600-4 standards (PUE, ITEEsv, ITEUsv, CUE), in addition to other attributes that are not yet required by the EED, such as scope 3 estimations for servers, water usage in electricity production, bill of materials for servers, server age distribution, and server efficiency grading.
Considering the recent amendment, we have added the following metrics to our reports:
- Data Centre Idle Coefficient (DCIC)
- Confidence of server utilisation
- Total TB of data storage
We are keeping an eye on when the legislation will be published and will continuously revise our reports to ensure that most requirements are covered.