New Data Centre Sustainability Reporting Obligations Introduced through the European Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364

As one of its initial steps towards benchmarking the sustainability of data centres, the European Commission has adopted a new regulation establishing an EU-wide reporting scheme to rate the sustainability of data centres which entered into force on 6 June 2024.

The purpose of the European Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024 on the first phase of the establishment of a common Union rating scheme for data centres (Regulation) is to establish the information and key performance indicators (KPIs) to be reported to the European database by operators of data centres with an information technology energy demand of at least 500 KW and which are necessary for the establishment of a common Union system for assessing the sustainability of data centres in the Union, as well as a common measurement and calculation methodology.

There are a few key points to be considered:

Subjects of the Regulation

The reporting obligations established by the Regulation apply to the operators of data centres with an installed information technology power demand of at least 500 KW.

Important definitions

• Enterprise data centre – means a data centre that is operated by an enterprise, the sole purpose of which is to deliver and manage the information technology needs of the enterprise;
• Enterprise data centre operator – means a natural or legal person who manages the entire enterprise data centre, including the building and the use of the information technology services delivered;
• Information technology outsourcing – means using external service providers to deliver information technology-based services for commercial purposes;
• Installed information technology power demand – means the total power demand of the network(s), servers and storage equipment installed in the data centre computer room floor area, expressed in KW.

Please note that the Regulation also defines other types of data centres, namely, colocation or multi-tenancy data centres, which are characterized by customers that install and manage their own network(s), servers or equipment and services, respectively by customers that operate their own services and applications, using the networks, servers and equipment, as well as the building infrastructure provided by the data centre operator.

Reporting mechanism for data centre sustainability

Data centre operators must report by 15 September 2024, then by 15 May 2025 and annually thereafter, to the European database the information and KPIs for the data centre they operate. This concerns all types of data centres, whether they are enterprise data centres, colocation data centres or co-hosting data centres.

The reporting obligation includes information about the reporting data centre itself (e.g. name, location, owner/operator, type of data centre, etc.) and its operations (level of duplication of the electrical and cooling infrastructure).

At the heart of the reporting obligations, however, are the KPIs set out in Annex II of the Regulation, which shall be measured and monitored by the data centre operators. A total of 24 performance indicators are to be reported, which can be categorized thematically into three blocks: energy and sustainability, information and communication technology and data traffic.

An essential aspect is that the reporting of this information and indicators is done through a national reporting system of the Member State to which the enterprise belongs, if the Member State has such a system in place, otherwise the operators of the centres report directly to the European database.

• Reporting period:
• Reporting data centre operates > 1 year: information and indicators are reported for the calendar year preceding the reporting year;
• Reporting data centre operates < 1 year: the data centre operator has the obligation to report only for the actual period of operation, with the indication of that period.
  
  
• Exception – the operator is unable to collect the necessary information and indicators:
  The Regulation provides for this case only if the reason lies in technical problems related to the impossibility to report the information or indicators explicitly mentioned by the Regulation. Also, the operator has the obligation to explain the reasons for the omission of reporting.

European database:

The European database implies a common user interface and a common application programming interface, with the aim of providing equality in the way information and KPIs are communicated by the operators of the reporting centres. Moreover, the information and indicators communicated are published in an aggregated manner, both at the level of each Member State, so that they can have unlimited access, and at the European Union level. However, Member States are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and indicators, which is assimilated to the operator's business secrecy, in accordance with Article 4 (2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

Sanctions

The Regulation does not expressly provide any sanctions in case of non-fulfilment of the reporting obligations by the operators of data centres which are subjects of the Regulation.