Data centres brace for new EU energy reporting obligations

(EurActiv, 23 Oct 2023) The European Commission is ramping up industry reporting obligations in order to ensure the EU meets its stated goal of making data centres climate neutral by 2030.

Under the revamped Energy Efficiency Directive, in force since 10 October, owners and operators of data centres with a minimum installed IT capacity of 500 kW must disclose their energy performance: 2023 data must be reported by 15 May 2024.

Data centres accounted for 2.7% of electricity usage in 2018 across the EU and could reach 3.21% by 2030 under current trends if nothing is done to curb consumption, the Commission said.

The EU executive is now preparing to set out reporting metrics by December 2023, following a public consultation, said Nikolaos Kontinakis, an official working at the energy efficiency unit at the European Commission’s energy directorate.

Data centres are a “very mature and very active industry” about which little is known, Kontinakis said at an event on 27 September hosted in Zaragoza by the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) and European Data Centre Association (EUDCA).

The Commission’s action plan on digitalising the energy system, adopted last year, presupposes a twin digital and decarbonisation transition, with cloud computing helping renewable energy providers scale up operations.

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EurActiv, 23 Oct 2023: Data centres brace for new EU energy reporting obligations