- Data centers will get a label, just like your fridge or dishwasher
- Energy and water consumption must be reported by 500kW+ sites
- The EC also wants to know how resources are being balanced in relation to local strains
The European Commission has proposed a new rating scheme for data centers in a bid to have them report metrics like energy efficiency and water consumption more transparently.
Upcoming changes fall under the new Data Center Energy Efficiency Package, which introduces a new common, EU-wide rating scheme much like what we're already familiar with for household appliances.
Crucially, the changes now affect smaller campuses with a power demand of at least 500kW, whereas only much larger sites were impacted before the new rules.
European data centers must report efficiency statistics more openly
Some of the new metrics include total energy and water consumption, Power Usage Effectiveness (a figure we're already familiar with in hyperscalers' annual sustainability reports), Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), how much of their energy comes from renewables, whether waste heat gets reused and more.
Ultimately, the intensified reporting is hoped not only to reveal how much energy sites are using, but how effectively they're balancing consumption in relation to local pressures like water stress.
"Tripling our data centre capacity cannot mean tripling the pressure on our grids, our water and our energy bills," Clean, Just and Competitive Transition EVP Teresa Ribera said.
The changes are also especially notable given ongoing changes within the bloc, because the EU has been ramping up more local compute options so as to reduce reliance on international options in a big sovereign drive. Over the next seven years, the EU wants to triple its data center capacity, per Reuters reporting.
Importantly, the changes won't happen overnight with the rating scheme subject to a two-month scrutiny window, the Commission detailed. Still, the first ratings are set to go live as early as this year, and by the end of 2028, the EU hopes to have reviewed just how effective those new enforcements were.
"Understanding their energy and resource consumption is the essential first step towards integrating them sustainably into our energy system," Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen added.
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