PEER DC
Public Energy Efficiency Register of Data Centres
The research project aimed to obtain reliable data on the energy consumption and energy efficiency of data centers in Germany by setting up a register for data centers. In addition, a rating system and evaluation software for energy-efficient data centers was to be developed.
This will enable the impact of digitization on the future energy consumption of data centers to be better assessed and the potential for efficiency to be estimated more realistically. At the same time, by highlighting data centers as usable sources of waste heat, the register can contribute to the heat transition.
In September 2023, the Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) was passed, which obliges data center operators to enter data on their energy consumption and efficiency in a central register every year. There were some overlaps here, so the project team was able to advise the federal government on data collection and implementation and made the tools already developed available.
PEER DC was carried out on behalf of the Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency) and under the technical supervision of the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection). The project was being carried out by an interdisciplinary consortium under the leadership of the Institute of Energy Economics and Rational Energy Use (IER) at the University of Stuttgart. Project partners are the Öko-Institut, the Data Center Group, Vogel IT-Medien GmbH, the German Datacenter Association and Deutsche Unternehmensinitiative Energieeffizienz (DENEFF).
