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In the increasingly complicated framework of legislation and regulation in place across the European Union, the European Commission’s Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency has produced a stable foundation and point of orientation for data centre owners and operators. But The Green Grid warns that the complex mix of national laws and European laws, and EU regulations being transposed into national law at different times in different member states, is at risk of leaving organisations on the back foot when it comes to compliance with resource efficiency best practice.
“National legislation and European Union regulation often overlap, but they can also frequently be contradictory or present needless additional complications, with one set of laws forging ahead in certain areas while lagging behind in others. For example, Germany has already introduced new laws on electricity taxation and the financing of renewables, and the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment already contains many elements of European legislation,” said Andre Rouyer, EMEA Liaison Work Group Chair for The Green Grid.
“But in the midst of this confusion, the Code of Conduct represents a standard that has stood the test of time and offers invaluable guidance on best practice to data centre operators – particularly those whose organisations run IT environments across national boundaries.”
The Code of Conduct, announced in November 2008, was drawn up to inform and stimulate data centre operators and owners to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner, without compromising mission-critical functions in their data centres and IT environments. The aim is both to improve their understanding of energy demand and to recommend best practice on energy efficiency and suggest targets for reducing consumption.
Rouyer, who has been working closely with the European Commission on the implementation of the Code of Conduct in recent years, believes that – with new legislation on the horizon in the shape of the European Union’s Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU that establishes national energy efficiency targets for 2020 – now is an important time to restate the value to the industry of the Code of Conduct:
“The Directive is due to become national law in all EU member states by June 2014. This is indicative of strong support across the EU for efforts to make IT environments greener, and will bring valuable clarity and consistency to the European policy picture for organisations across the continent – particularly in the Directive’s key focus areas of building and facility renovation, target-setting, and energy reporting obligations. The Code of Conduct will be crucial to ensuring organisations are able to put themselves in the best possible position to comply with the Directive when it comes into force in their countries,” he said.
As part of the Global Task Force on Data Centres, The Green Grid has been heavily involved in the development of the Code of Conduct. The Green Grid’s PUE metric has been incorporated into the Commission’s best practice guidelines, and The Green Grid is contributing to an EU-wide project to promote the adoption of a common methodological framework for measuring organisations’ ICT footprints. “The standardisation of measures of resource efficiency in data centres and IT environments must not stop at PUE; the industry needs universal KPIs for infrastructure energy efficiency, energy re-use, and renewables use. We will be strengthening our working relationships with both standards bodies and the European Commission to help make these a reality,” Rouyer continued.
There is a clear consensus on the need to move towards more resource-efficient IT, even if it drives up operating costs in the short term: “Data centre operations represent a sizable part of enterprises’ energy consumption, and organisations are responding positively to the increasing pressure on them to become more energy efficient. The European Commission’s Code of Conduct will be a great help to them in meeting the obligations they face as legislation continues to develop,” he concluded.
