The EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive: ready or not here it comes

Uptime Intelligence has been providing regular updates and insights on the efforts of the European Parliament and European Commission (EC) to finalize the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast requirements. The directive is the most radical and comprehensive sustainability legislation yet applied to data centers and will likely shape regulation around the world.

The final EED draft, which has been agreed by the EC and the European Council, was published in March 2023 with parliamentary approval expected in the next few months. There are several major changes in the new version: data reporting and metrics additions are proposed in the EC’s final draft of its Task A report (see EED reporting and indicators: a wake-up call); and changes have been made to environmental management system (EMS) and data center reporting mandates, as well as energy and power thresholds. These changes are likely to complicate data center operators’ compliance efforts.