Energy in TCO and in regulation: cost, PUE, CSRD and the new European reporting obligation for datacenters

· By José Manuel Román
Contents

Notation: amounts in N € or N USD; decimals with a point; thousands separated by a comma. The dollar symbol is not used (it is a formula delimiter). Generic example hardware (4×H100 SXM node, 3.6 kW IT). No real infrastructure.

TL;DR

A 4×H100 SXM node at Spanish industrial prices (0.116 €/kWh, PUE 1.54) spends ~5,475 € on energy per year: 6–8 % of total opex when staff and maintenance dominate, but up to 18–22 % of opex in clusters with a solar PPA and cheap colocation. Energy is not the main TCO lever; it is the only TCO variable that European regulation requires you to measure, publish and certify.

Since September 2024, every datacenter with IT demand ≥ 500 kW in the EU is obliged to report PUE, WUE, ERF and REF to the ReportENER database (Delegated Regulation EU 2024/1364). From August 2027 an automatic sustainability label will be generated from that data. Companies subject to CSRD have to publish Scope 1, 2 and 3 in their sustainability report, along with emissions intensity, which turns the gCO₂/token ratio into a corporate accounting figure, not just an engineering one.

Track context

This article is C8 of the energy pillar. The previous ones:

The full TCO model that this article extends is in:

For the context of technical security compliance:

Energy as a TCO component

The reference model

The full TCO model of the on-premise cluster is developed in A8. The reference node: 4×H100 SXM5 80 GB, IT draw ~3.6 kW, 8-node cluster, 3-year amortisation.

Annual opex per node in the base scenario (8-node cluster, Spain):

Opex item€/year per node% of total opex
Staff (0.5 FTE pro rata)7,50026.8 %
Maintenance / support / failures9,00032.1 %
Rack colocation (Spain, high density)6,00021.4 %
Energy (PUE 1.54; 0.116 €/kWh)5,47519.6 %
Total opex~28,000100 %

The annual energy cost formula

$$\text{annual energy cost} = P_{\text{IT}} \times \text{PUE} \times 8{,}760\,\text{h} \times p_{\text{kWh}}$$

where \(P_{\text{IT}}\) is the power of the IT equipment (kW), PUE the infrastructure multiplier, and \(p_{\text{kWh}}\) the price of electricity (€/kWh).

For the reference node:

$$\text{energy/year} = 3.6\,\text{kW} \times 1.54 \times 8{,}760\,\text{h} \times 0.116\,\frac{\text{EUR}}{\text{kWh}} \approx 5{,}475\,\text{EUR}$$

Sensitivity to energy price and to PUE

Variation in the price of energy has a moderate impact on total TCO when hardware capex dominates:

Energy price (€/kWh)Energy/year (€)% opex€/GPU-hour (70 % util., base)Var. vs base
0.034 (Spanish solar PPA Q3 2025)1,6046.8 %3.00−12 %
0.116 (Spanish industrial, base)5,47519.6 %3.39reference
0.160 (European industrial average)7,55025.4 %3.54+4 %
0.200 (high tariff, no PPA)9,43730.2 %3.67+8 %

Variation in PUE is also moderate in total TCO but relevant in the absolute cost of energy and in regulatory reporting:

PUEEnergy/year (€, 0.116 €/kWh)% opex€/GPU-hour (70 % util.)
1.15 (liquid cooling)2,1668.4 %3.21
1.20 (modern datacenter)2,2598.7 %3.23
1.48 (datacenters <5 years, Uptime 2025)3,49013.1 %3.33
1.54 (global average, Uptime 2025)5,47519.6 %3.39
1.80 (legacy colocation)6,40023.2 %3.47

The difference between PUE 1.15 and PUE 1.80 in €/GPU-hour is only +8 %, because capex still dominates, but in absolute energy consumed the difference is ×2.96: 2,166 € against 6,400 € a year per node. That difference in absolute energy is exactly what the regulatory framework is going to measure, publish and, in the future, classify.

Energy as a fraction of total TCO

Annual TCO per node includes amortised capex + opex:

$$\text{annual TCO per node} = \frac{\text{capex}}{\text{years}} + \text{annual opex} = 55{,}300\,\text{EUR} + 28{,}000\,\text{EUR} = 83{,}300\,\text{EUR}$$

With these numbers, energy represents:

$$\frac{5{,}475}{83{,}300} \approx 6.6\,\%\ \text{of the all-in TCO}$$

In the low-opex scenario (solar PPA, own datacenter, no colocation):

$$\frac{1{,}604}{68{,}300} \approx 2.3\,\%\ \text{of the TCO}$$

In the high-opex scenario (open-market tariff, expensive colocation):

$$\frac{9{,}437}{130{,}300} \approx 7.2\,\%\ \text{of the TCO}$$

The weight of energy in all-in TCO ranges from 2 % to 7 %. The more capex dominates, the lower the weight of energy. Energy matters more in TCO the longer the amortisation and the lower the relative capex, that is, in scenarios of cheaper hardware or long amortisation periods.

EUR/yearCapex/year55,300Staff7,500Maint.9,000Coloc.6,000Energy5,475Base case: PUE 1.54; 0.116 EUR/kWh; 8-node cluster; 3-yr amort. Energy = 6.6 % of all-in TCO.

European regulatory framework 2024-2026

Map of the rules

The European framework on datacenters and energy is built from four regulatory layers with different scopes of application, required metrics and effective dates:

RuleLegal basisMain obligationWho it applies toFrom when
EED 2023/1791, Art. 12Directive (EU) 2023/1791Annual reporting of energy and sustainability KPIs to an EU databaseDatacenters ≥ 500 kW IT in the EU15 Sep. 2024 (1st report)
Delegated Reg. 2024/1364Art. 33(3) EEDSpecifies KPIs, formats and reporting deadlines (Phase 1 of the assessment scheme)Datacenters ≥ 500 kW IT in the EUPublished 17 May 2024; in force
EU rating scheme (Phase 2, 2026 draft)Art. 33(3) EEDAutomatic sustainability label generated by the ReportENER databaseDatacenters that report under 2024/1364Automatic label from 15 Aug. 2027
CSRD / ESRS E1Directive 2022/2464/EU + Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772Sustainability report: Scope 1-2-3 emissions, emissions intensity, transition planLarge EU companies (>500 employees, from FY 2024); expanding progressivelyFinancial years from 1 Jan. 2024 (first reports 2025); listed SMEs from 2026
PNIEC 2023-2030 (Spain)National Integrated Energy and Climate PlanEnergy efficiency 44 %, renewables 81 % in electricity; datacenters included in the target; Royal Decree in progress (consultation Sep. 2025)Spain2025-2030

Energy Efficiency Directive: EED 2023/1791

Directive (EU) 2023/1791, published in the OJEU of 20 September 2023 (L 231), recasts the earlier Directive 2012/27/EU. Article 12 introduces for the first time a reporting obligation specific to datacenters at European scale.

Threshold of application: datacenters with an electrical power demand of installed IT systems ≥ 500 kW. Member States may lower this threshold (Germany lowered it to 300 kW; France to 100 kW).

Types of datacenter covered: (a) enterprise datacenters, operated by a company solely for its own IT needs; (b) colocation datacenters, where the customer installs and manages its own equipment; (c) co-hosting or multi-tenant datacenters, where the customer accesses shared infrastructure.

What must be reported: 18 key performance indicators (KPIs) that include installed IT demand, total energy consumption, water consumption, reused waste heat, renewable energy consumed, and the four sustainability indicators: PUE, WUE, ERF and REF.

Deadlines:

  • First report (2023 data): before 15 September 2024.
  • Second report (2024 data): before 15 May 2025.
  • Subsequent annual reports: before 15 May each year.

Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024 (OJEU L, 17 May 2024) constitutes Phase 1 of establishing the Union’s common assessment regime for datacenters. It specifies:

  • The performance indicators and the information that operators must report to the European ReportENER database.
  • The calculation formulas for the four sustainability KPIs (PUE, WUE, ERF, REF).
  • The reporting format and the classification categories by datacenter type and size.

The Commission has made the ReportENER database available as the single entry point for reporting, or via the equivalent national systems of each Member State.

Phase 2: rating scheme and sustainability label

In March 2026 the European Commission published the public consultation on the draft second Delegated Regulation on the datacenter sustainability rating regime, Phase 2 of the scheme. The consultation was open until 23 April 2026.

The draft establishes that the ReportENER database will automatically generate an electronic sustainability label for every datacenter that has reported under Regulation 2024/1364. The label will show:

  • PUE and WUE classes based on indices calculated under Annex I of the draft.
  • REF (renewable energy factor) and ERF (energy reuse factor).
  • Information on grid functions (demand response capability).

Date of first issue of labels: 15 August 2027, and every year thereafter.

The draft also introduces amendments to Regulation 2024/1364, among them: the possibility of voluntary reporting for datacenters <500 kW, the removal of data traffic indicators from the list of mandatory KPIs, and the relaxation of reporting obligations for colocation operators (reflecting the difficulty of obtaining tenant data for confidentiality reasons).

The Commission’s technical report of October 2025 anticipates that the minimum performance standards (MPS) will be finalised between late 2027 and early 2028, and that they will progressively become mandatory for new builds and significant refurbishments.

CSRD and ESRS E1: corporate emissions reporting

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD, Directive 2022/2464/EU) requires companies in scope to publish a sustainability report drawn up under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The ESRS E1 standard covers climate change.

Temporal scope of application:

  • Large companies (>500 employees, already subject to NFRD): financial year 2024 data, report published in 2025.
  • Other large companies (>250 employees or >40 M € turnover or >20 M € balance sheet): financial year 2025 data, report in 2026.
  • Listed SMEs: financial year 2026 data, report in 2027 (with the possibility of an extension).

What ESRS E1 requires in relation to datacenters and energy:

  • E1-4: GHG emission reduction targets in absolute value and in intensity (e.g. gCO₂eq per unit of product or service).
  • E1-5: Energy consumption and mix (renewable vs non-renewable energy, energy intensity).
  • E1-6: Gross GHG emissions Scope 1, Scope 2 (location-based and market-based) and Scope 3, without netting off offsets; emissions intensity.
  • E1-7: Removals and carbon projects (relevant for offsets that do not replace reduction).

The amended version of ESRS E1 (EFRAG Exposure Draft of July 2025, submitted to the European Commission in November 2025) expands the disclosure requirements from 9 to 11 and is expected to apply from January 2027.

Relevance for datacenter operators: a company that runs an on-premise GPU cluster for its own AI workloads has those datacenters within the perimeter of its Scope 1 (if it has its own generators) and Scope 2 (purchased electricity). If it contracts cloud services or colocation, those datacenters fall into its Scope 3 (category 1 or 11 under the GHG Protocol).

Spain: PNIEC context and the Royal Decree in progress

Spain’s National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) 2023-2030, updated in September 2024 (MITECO), sets targets of 81 % renewables in electricity and 44 % energy efficiency for 2030. Datacenters are included among the sectors under intensive efficiency monitoring.

In August-September 2025, MITECO opened the public consultation on the draft Royal Decree regulating the energy efficiency and sustainability of datacenters, transposing it from Art. 12 of EED 2023/1791. The Royal Decree introduces additional requirements for datacenters with total installed rated power above 1 MW: an obligation to use the waste heat generated to supply climate control services or other heat applications.

The deadline for incorporating Art. 12 of the EED expired on 11 October 2025. The Royal Decree is awaiting the opinion of the Council of State.

Regulatory metrics: definitions and formulas

PUE — Power Usage Effectiveness

Defined in ISO/IEC 30134-2:2018 (European equivalent EN 50600-4-2). It is the central metric of the regulatory framework:

$$\text{PUE} = \frac{E_{\text{DC}}}{E_{\text{IT}}}$$

where \(E_{\text{DC}}\) is the total energy consumed by the datacenter (including cooling, electrical distribution, lighting and losses) and \(E_{\text{IT}}\) is the energy consumed by the IT equipment (servers, storage, network).

  • PUE = 1.0: theoretical perfection (all the energy goes to compute).
  • PUE = 1.54: 2025 global average (Uptime Institute, 15th annual survey).
  • PUE = 1.10–1.15: hyperscaler range.
  • PUE ≥ 1.80: legacy, unoptimised facilities.

Regulation 2024/1364 requires annual PUE to be measured and reported. The Phase 2 draft introduces PUE classes (A to D or similar) for the sustainability label.

WUE — Water Usage Effectiveness

Defined in ISO/IEC 30134-9:2022:

$$\text{WUE} = \frac{W_{\text{in}}}{E_{\text{IT}}}$$

where \(W_{\text{in}}\) is the datacenter’s total water consumption (m³), and the result is expressed in m³/MWh. ReportENER data (2024-2025) shows EU average values between 0.07 and 1.28 m³/MWh depending on Member State, with an EU average of ~0.58 m³/MWh.

WUE is particularly relevant in water-stressed regions, such as southern and inland Spain, where evaporative cooling consumes drinking water.

ERF — Energy Reuse Factor

Defined in ISO/IEC 30134-6:2021:

$$\text{ERF} = \frac{E_{\text{reuse}}}{E_{\text{DC}}}$$

where \(E_{\text{reuse}}\) is the energy (waste heat) exported and reused outside the datacenter (e.g. district heating networks, industrial processes). ERF varies between 0 (no reuse) and 1 (all the energy reused, theoretically). The Phase 2 draft proposes minimum ERF thresholds for new facilities.

REF — Renewable Energy Factor

$$\text{REF} = \frac{E_{\text{res,tot}}}{E_{\text{DC}}}$$

where \(E_{\text{res,tot}}\) is the total renewable energy consumed (own generation + PPAs + Guarantees of Origin), divided by the datacenter’s total consumption. The Commission’s proposal points to targets of 75–100 % REF by 2030.

CUE — Carbon Usage Effectiveness

Defined in ISO/IEC 30134-8:2022. Not included in the reporting obligation of Regulation 2024/1364, but identified as a future KPI in the Commission’s technical report (Oct. 2025):

$$\text{CUE} = \frac{G_{\text{DC}}}{E_{\text{IT}}}$$

where \(G_{\text{DC}}\) is the datacenter’s total GHG emissions (gCO₂eq) and the result is expressed in gCO₂eq/kWh IT. It is equivalent to the product \(\text{PUE} \times I_{\text{grid}}\) when only location-based Scope 2 emissions are considered.

Master table: rule × what it requires × metric/threshold × date

RuleWhat it requiresMetrics / thresholdsDate of applicationTo whom
EED 2023/1791, Art. 12Annual reporting of KPIs to an EU database (ReportENER)PUE, WUE, ERF, REF + 14 additional KPIs (energy, water, waste heat, renewables)15 Sep. 2024 (1st report, 2023 data); 15 May annually from 2025Datacenters ≥ 500 kW IT in the EU
Delegated Reg. (EU) 2024/1364Technical specification of KPIs and reporting format (Phase 1 of the scheme)PUE = E DC/E IT; WUE = W in/E IT; ERF = E reuse/E DC; REF = E res/E DCIn force since 17 May 2024Datacenters ≥ 500 kW IT in the EU
EU rating scheme, Phase 2 (2026 draft)Automatic electronic sustainability label with PUE and WUE classesPUE and WUE classes A-D (thresholds in Annex I of the draft; pending final adoption)Automatic labels from 15 Aug. 2027Datacenters that have reported under 2024/1364
Minimum performance standards (MPS, expected 2027-2028)Mandatory minimum PUE, REF and ERF thresholds for new builds and refurbishmentsPUE targets differentiated by climate and size; REF ≥ 75-100 % by 2030; minimum ERF for new facilitiesFinalisation expected 2027-2028; progressively mandatoryNew and refurbished datacenters
CSRD / ESRS E1Sustainability report: GHG emissions Scope 1, 2 (location- and market-based) and 3; emissions intensity; transition planScope 1+2+3 mandatory in tCO₂eq; intensity in gCO₂eq/functional unitData from 1 Jan. 2024 (>500 employees); from 1 Jan. 2025 (>250 employees)Large EU companies subject to CSRD
PNIEC 2023-2030 / Spanish Royal Decree (in progress)Energy efficiency and sustainability of datacenters; obligation to use waste heatRenewables target 81 % by 2030; datacenters ≥ 1 MW: waste heat for climate control or other applicationsRoyal Decree pending approval (consultation Sep. 2025)Datacenters in Spain

How Wh/token and gCO₂/token connect with the required reporting

The conversion chain

The technical inference efficiency figure, J/token or Wh/token, measured with tools such as DCGM, NVML or nvidia-smi, becomes a regulatory reporting figure through the following chain:

$$E_{\text{token}} = \frac{P_{\text{IT}}}{T} \quad \text{[Wh/tok]}$$ $$E_{\text{DC/token}} = E_{\text{token}} \times \text{PUE} \quad \text{[Wh/tok adjusted to the datacenter]}$$ $$\text{gCO}_{2}\text{/token} = E_{\text{DC/token}} \times I_{\text{grid}} \quad \text{[gCO}_2\text{eq/tok]}$$

where \(T\) is throughput (tok/s), \(P_{\text{IT}}\) the power of the IT node, and \(I_{\text{grid}}\) the carbon intensity of the grid (gCO₂eq/kWh). The full methodology is in C6.

For the reference node (4×H100 SXM, \(P_{\text{IT}} = 3.6\,\text{kW}\), indicative throughput 1,000 tok/s, PUE 1.54):

$$E_{\text{DC/token}} = \frac{3.6\,\text{kW} \times 1.54}{1{,}000\,\text{tok/s}} = 5.544\,\text{J/tok} = 1.54 \times 10^{-3}\,\text{Wh/tok}$$

From Wh/token to the regulatory KPI: aggregation

What regulatory reporting (Regulation 2024/1364) requires is not per-token ratios but annual totals:

  • \(E_{\text{IT}}\): total energy of the IT equipment over the year (kWh).
  • \(E_{\text{DC}}\): total datacenter energy over the year (kWh), including cooling and distribution.
  • \(W_{\text{in}}\): total water consumption (m³).
  • \(E_{\text{reuse}}\): energy (waste heat) exported and reused (kWh).
  • \(E_{\text{res,tot}}\): renewable energy consumed (kWh).

The four sustainability KPIs are calculated from those totals. The link between the per-token ratio and regulatory reporting is:

$$E_{\text{IT,annual}} = \sum_{\text{inferences}} E_{\text{token}} \times N_{\text{tokens}} + E_{\text{idle}} \quad \text{[kWh/year]}$$

The \(E_{\text{token}}\) figure is needed in order to attribute total IT consumption to inference workloads (vs idle, vs fine-tuning), which allows the energy intensity of inference to be calculated as a fraction of the datacenter’s total consumption, a figure relevant to ESRS E1 reporting of emissions intensity.

From Wh/token to gCO₂/token as a CSRD accounting figure

Under ESRS E1-6, companies subject to CSRD must report GHG emissions with intensity per functional unit (E1-4). For a company running an on-premise LLM, the natural functional unit is the token generated, the query answered or the user served (under the Green Software Foundation’s SCI specification, ISO/IEC 21031:2022).

gCO₂/token becomes a corporate accounting figure like this:

  1. Technical measurement: J/token per node (DCGM/NVML).
  2. PUE adjustment: Wh/token at datacenter level = J/token × PUE / 3,600.
  3. Carbon intensity: gCO₂/token = Wh/token × \(I_{\text{grid}}\) / 1,000.
  4. Annual scaling: tCO₂eq/year = gCO₂/token × annual N tokens / 10⁶ / 10⁶.
  5. ESRS E1-6 reporting: location-based Scope 2 emissions (with national annual average \(I_{\text{grid}}\)) and market-based (with \(I_{\text{grid}}\) according to renewable energy contracts), in tCO₂eq/year + intensity in gCO₂eq/token.

The location-based / market-based distinction from the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance is mandatory under ESRS E1-6: both methods must be reported.

Worked example: from J/token to tCO₂eq/year

Reference node (4×H100 SXM, PUE 1.54, throughput 1,000 tok/s, 70 % utilisation, Spanish average grid intensity 2024 ~108 gCO₂/kWh):

$$E_{\text{DC/token}} = 1.54 \times 10^{-3}\,\text{Wh/tok}$$ $$\text{gCO}_{2}\text{/tok} = 1.54 \times 10^{-3} \times 108 \approx 0.166\,\text{gCO}_{2}\text{eq/tok}$$

Tokens generated per year (1,000 tok/s × 70 % util. × 8,760 h × 3,600 s/h):

$$N_{\text{tokens/year}} = 1{,}000 \times 0.70 \times 8{,}760 \times 3{,}600 \approx 2.2 \times 10^{10}\,\text{tok}$$

Annual location-based Scope 2 emissions per node:

$$\text{tCO}_{2}\text{eq/year} = \frac{0.166 \times 2.2 \times 10^{10}}{10^{12}} \approx 3.65\,\text{tCO}_{2}\text{eq}$$

For an 8-node cluster: ~29.2 tCO₂eq/year. With a solar PPA (effective intensity ~20 gCO₂/kWh market-based): ~5.4 tCO₂eq/year. The difference between the two methods, location-based vs market-based, is ×5.4, and both have to appear in the CSRD report.

ScenarioGrid intensity (gCO₂/kWh)gCO₂/toktCO₂eq/year (1 node, 70 % util.)ESRS method
Spanish average 2024 (location-based)1080.1663.65Location-based mandatory
Spanish solar PPA (market-based)~200.0310.68Market-based mandatory
French average 2025 (location-based)19.60.0300.66Location-based mandatory
German average 2025 (location-based)3280.50511.1Location-based mandatory

The 500 kW threshold and on-premise AI datacenters

Which datacenters does it affect in practice?

A 4×H100 SXM5 node draws ~3.6 kW IT. The 500 kW IT threshold is equivalent to ~139 nodes of 4×H100 SXM5. For a smaller cluster, the regulatory threshold looks distant.

There are, however, three routes by which it applies to smaller on-premise AI infrastructure:

RouteExplanation
Shared datacenterIf the GPU nodes sit in a larger corporate datacenter that exceeds 500 kW IT in total (not only GPUs), the datacenter as a whole is subject to reporting, and it is the datacenter operator who reports. The end user receives the PUE of its facility.
Threshold lowered by a Member StateFrance lowered the threshold to 100 kW IT (~28 4×H100 nodes). Germany set it at 300 kW (~83 nodes). In those countries, medium-sized AI clusters are already subject to reporting.
CSRD independent of the datacenter thresholdThe CSRD obligation applies to the company according to its size, not to the datacenter. A company subject to CSRD that operates even a single GPU node is obliged to include the Scope 2 emissions of that node in its sustainability report.

PUE as an operational figure and as a regulatory figure

PUE is simultaneously:

  • An operational figure for the TCO model (multiplier of energy cost and of gCO₂/token).
  • A regulatory KPI subject to mandatory reporting under Regulation 2024/1364.
  • A classification criterion in the future Phase 2 sustainability label.

The reference technical standard for measurement is ISO/IEC 30134-2:2018, which defines four levels of PUE measurement depending on where IT power is measured (from the rack to the incoming transformers). Regulation 2024/1364 specifies that PUE measurement for reporting to ReportENER must follow this standard.

For a typical on-premise facility, PUE has not historically been measured with the granularity the standard demands. The first compliance step is to instrument the datacenter with power meters at the points specified by ISO/IEC 30134-2.

Sensitivity of gCO₂/token to PUE and energy price

The following table shows the variation in gCO₂/token for the reference node (4×H100 SXM, 1,000 tok/s, Spain) as a function of PUE and of the energy scenario (which determines the effective carbon intensity):

PUEGrid intensity (gCO₂/kWh)gCO₂/1,000 tokgCO₂/1M tokVar. vs base
1.15 (liquid, Spain solar)500.06463.9−55 %
1.15 (liquid, Spain average)1080.138138.0−2 %
1.54 (global average, Spain average)1080.166166.3reference
1.54 (global average, Spain night gas)2200.339338.8+104 %
1.80 (legacy, Spain average)1080.194194.4+17 %
1.80 (legacy, Spain night gas)2200.396396.0+138 %

Grid intensity has more impact than PUE on gCO₂/token: going from Spanish solar (50 gCO₂/kWh) to Spanish night-time gas (220 gCO₂/kWh) multiplies emissions by ×4.4, while going from PUE 1.15 to 1.80 multiplies them only by ×1.57. The combination of a dirty grid plus a high PUE is the worst: ×6.2 against the base case.

For location-based CSRD reporting, the intensity used is the national annual average (or regional if more granular data exists), not the hourly figure. For market-based reporting, the effective intensity depends on the energy contract (PPA, Guarantees of Origin). Carbon-aware temporal shifting (moving load to hours of lower intensity) reduces real emissions but does not directly change location-based reporting, which uses the annual grid average.

Connection between operator metrics and regulator obligations

The map of required data

Technical figureHow it is obtainedUse in TCOUse in regulatory reporting
\(P_{\text{IT}}\) (W)DCGM / NVML / IPMIEnergy cost formula\(E_{\text{IT,annual}}\) for PUE, WUE, ERF, REF
Throughput (tok/s)Engine metrics (vLLM, TGI)€/token, Wh/tokenEnergy intensity of inference
PUE (measured)Meters on PDUs and IT equipment (ISO/IEC 30134-2)Multiplier in the TCO formulaMandatory ReportENER KPI
Annual \(I_{\text{grid}}\) (gCO₂/kWh)REE / MITECO / national factorsgCO₂/token for carbon-awareEmission factor for location-based Scope 2 ESRS E1-6
Hourly \(I_{\text{grid}}\)ElectricityMaps / Carbon Aware SDKCarbon-aware schedulingLocation-based Scope 2 with hourly granularity (best practice)
\(W_{\text{in}}\) (m³)Datacenter water metersCost of water (where applicable)WUE for ReportENER
\(E_{\text{reuse}}\) (kWh)Heat export metersPossible waste heat revenueERF for ReportENER
\(E_{\text{res,tot}}\) (kWh)Energy bills with a renewable attribute / GOsEnergy cost with a PPAREF for ReportENER; market-based Scope 2 for ESRS E1-6
Hardware embodied carbon (gCO₂eq)Supplier LCA (AWS methodology, where available)—Scope 3 cat. 1 for ESRS E1-6

The minimum measurement system for compliance

For an on-premise datacenter subject to the obligations of Regulation 2024/1364 and to CSRD, the minimum measurement system needed is:

  1. A power meter at the datacenter entry point (total datacenter energy, \(E_{\text{DC}}\)).
  2. Power meters on the IT racks (IT equipment energy, \(E_{\text{IT}}\)): in practice, metered PDUs or the sum of DCGM/NVML measurements.
  3. A water meter for the datacenter cooling circuit (\(W_{\text{in}}\)).
  4. A waste heat export meter if the datacenter has a recovery system (\(E_{\text{reuse}}\)).
  5. A record of energy bills with a breakdown of renewable energy (PPAs, GOs) for calculating REF and market-based Scope 2.

Without this measurement system, reporting to ReportENER cannot be correct and CSRD reporting lacks the data base it needs.

Minimum Performance Standards: the 2027-2028 outlook

The European Commission’s technical report (Assessment, July 2025, published on the EU Op Portal) and EUDCA’s monitoring anticipate that the Minimum Performance Standards (MPS) for datacenters will be defined in the 2027-2028 period with the following expected characteristics (not finalised):

KPIMPS proposed for new buildsMPS proposed for existing facilitiesHorizon
PUE≤ 1.3 (cold climate); ≤ 1.4 (temperate/warm climate)Staged targets differentiated by age2028+
REF≥ 75 % renewables in 2025; ≥ 100 % by 2030Progressive, following the CNDCP roadmap2025-2030
ERFMinimum threshold for new facilities with usable heat outputFeasibility assessment requirement2028+
WUENo general threshold proposed yet; focus on potable vs non-potable waterMonitoring and reporting2027+

These values are indicative and come from the consultation process; the definitive values will appear in the second or third Delegated Regulation adopted under Art. 33(3) of the EED.

See also

Sources