For future review - check how new disclosures from the EED in Europe might be relevant to the RTC dataset

[mrchrisadams]

Outline Action Item Details

Sept 15th 2024 is the reporting deadline for European Union's Energy Efficiency Directive.

The deck below offers a very high level summary of the reporting scheme for datacenters, and as you can see there appears to be come overlap between the datapoints being collected here in the RTC dataset and the ones set out in the second slide (WUE, Renewable energy use, etc)

https://www.ca-eed.eu/ia_document/eed-reporting-scheme-for-data-centres-dg-ener/

The link below features a PDF that lists the expected datapoints - they're slightly different to the current set of columns in the RTC dataset in that they request the lowest level "input" figures, which would typically be used to then create a derived, "output" figure.

To make this more concrete, rather than just requesting Water Usage Effectiveness as a derived output figure, they request the inputs, like Total Energy Consumption for a datacentre, and then Total Water Consumption, and then share the formula they use for working out a Water usage Effectiveness / WUE figure.

As mentioned above, any datacentre representing more than 500 kW of powerdraw ought to have reported these numbers to either a national database, or an EU-wide database, and have collected this data, in order to be able to make it publicly available. I think 500 kW would include every datacentre region in Europe from Microsoft, Google, and AWS.

More info is linked below:

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/e5830a7b-98a5-11ee-b164-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-298397218

I'm not sure what the required mechanism is for making the datacenter information listed above publicly available. The slide deck linked above also mentions reporting this to a centralised EU database on the next slide.

I'll try to get some more information to bring to the next call in a couple of weeks when I know more, but the linked datapoints above ought to at least let us see if data we know needs to be published might be compatible with a subset of the RTC dataset.

@adrianco @seanmcilroy29 @PindyBhullar - I'm tagging you three as co-chairs and conveners.

Issue dependency with other WGs Groups

No response

[mrchrisadams]

This here is the EU datacentre code of conduct. It influenced the data that would be collected in the Energy Efficiency Directive, and also somewhat the CSRD, which is not as detailed for datacentres but covers many other data points.

https://e3p.jrc.ec.europa.eu/communities/data-centres-code-conduct

[mrchrisadams]

This post here also provides some more detail about the disclosure laws. I've tried to make very dense text somewhat accessible:

https://rtl.chrisadams.me.uk/2024/08/making-sense-of-the-energy-reporting-deadlines-for-datacentres-in-europe/

[adrianco]

I went looking for the data, and the enforcement was delayed until October.

There's a German requirement and database here https://rzreg.bmwk.de/datacenter/ - for people to register their data.
https://www.bmwk.de/RZReg/rechenzentrums-register.html describes the program

I added columns for the EED power data to our metadata table and updated the dev repo

[adrianco]

Contact Nikolaos Kontinakis, European Commission, DG.ENER.B2 for his comments and update

[adrianco]

Updated info on EED Datacenter https://www.ca-eed.eu/Expert-areas/Articles/art-12-data-centres/

[seanmcilroy29]

EED & Reporting scheme for data centres - DG ENER
Nikolaos Kontinakis
DG ENER
Mar 24
Implementing the EED: Data centers and the German Energy Efficiency Act - Germany
Nikolai Hoberg
BAFA
Mar 24
Fit for 55: EED Recast, Article 12 data centres - European Commission
Nikolaos Kontinakis
DG ENER
Oct 23

[seanmcilroy29]

Arianna Vitali - Secretary General at the Coalition for Energy Savings