Minimum performance standards for EU data centres

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy has commissioned a study to support the development of minimum performance standards for data centres in Europe, aligned with the existing EU reporting requirements and the planned introduction of a rating scheme.

This page presents the study and provides access to all public documents and stakeholder consultation material, as well as practical information on meetings and opportunities to contribute.

The Commission is being supported in carrying out this study through a contract with VM Europe (contract manager) in association with Viegand Maagøe (lead), Borderstep and VHK.

The study

Policy context

In 2023, the recast Energy Efficiency Directive introduced mandatory public reporting requirements for data centres with a power demand above 500 kW, creating an EU-wide evidence base for the data centres sector. This was followed by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 establishing harmonised reporting elements and the first phase of a Union rating scheme. The Commission has also announced follow-up work through the Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package, including assessment of reported data, a rating scheme and work towards minimum performance standards.

Objectives

The study’s objective is to support the development of an EU regulation establishing minimum performance standards for data centres, to improve their performance and contribute to the EU's climate objectives. In practice, this means strengthening incentives for data centres to improve energy efficiency and sustainability, and improving transparency and comparability by building on the reporting and rating framework under the Energy Efficiency Directive so that performance standards can be defined and enforced consistently across EU countries. This also means ensuring coherence and proportionality, meaning that requirements must be technically feasible, economically proportionate and administratively workable without duplicating existing EU and national measures. 

Methodology

The study builds on the first 2 reporting cycles under the EED reporting scheme, and on previous studies, stakeholder consultations and related datasets. It combines quantitative analysis of reported performance and sustainability indicators with targeted desk research and a review of relevant technical and policy evidence. The analysis is complemented by structured consultation with EU countries and stakeholders through surveys, interviews and thematic workshops.

Timeline

The study will run for a period of approximately 24 months.

Stakeholder engagement

If you would like to contribute to the study and take part in upcoming workshops, please register your interest. We will contact registered stakeholders with further details.

Meetings and registration

The meetings, once scheduled, will be announced in CircaBC and notified via email to all interested parties. Please register to receive updates via email on the study process and invitations to stakeholder meetings.

If you want to register for information about the study, please follow the instructions below.

Creating an EU Login

If you do not already have one, please create an EU Login. Once the EU login is created, then you can access CircaBC.

For more information, you can also check out this EU Login FAQ page.

Receiving notifications from CircaBC

To automatically stay informed and receive news notifications about this review, you need to set up notifications from CircaBC. Once this is set, you will automatically be informed when news is published.

Contact information

The project is carried out by VM Europe, Viegand Maagoe, VHK and Borderstep. For questions and comments related to this study, address them to mpsdatacentreviegandmaagoe [dot] dk (mpsdatacentre[at]viegandmaagoe[dot]dk)