What is a data centre?
Under EU legislation a “data centre” is defined as a structure or a group of structures used to house, connect and operate computer systems/servers and associated equipment for data storage, processing and/or distribution, as well as related activities.
Commonly known as data centres, these facilities are a key element of the ICT industry and play a vital role in the everyday business and lives of millions of people across the EU.
The demand of new technologies increases the demand for supporting infrastructure including data centres. On the other hand, data centres require electricity and water as main resources for their operation and cooling systems.
In 2018, the energy consumption of data centres in the EU was 76.8 TWh. This is expected to rise significantly by 2030 – in 2018 a 28% increase was foreseen. With the development of AI, a 2 or even a 3-fold increase is foreseen for some countries. This increase in absolute terms in its energy footprint can also be seen in relative terms: within the Union, data centres accounted for 2.7% of electricity demand in 2018 and will reach at least 3.2% by 2030 if development continues at the current trajectory. Many commentators feel that these figures are lower than what will happen in reality, given the strong growth of emerging services and technologies such as artificial intelligence, streaming, cloud gaming, blockchain, machine learning and virtual reality.
As a result of the growth trends EU introduced legislation for reporting and rating scheme for data centres.
How are data centres regulated on EU level?
One of the two acts who regulate data centres in EU is Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency (“Directive”). The Directive introduced reporting requirements for data centres with some exceptions.
The reporting obligation applies to those data centres, which meet the threshold set out in the Directive. In all cases and specifically for onsite enterprise data centres, the reporting obligation should be understood as referring to the spaces and equipment that serve primarily or exclusively for data-related functions (server rooms), including the necessary associated equipment, for example, associated cooling, lighting, battery arrays, or uninterruptible power supplies. Any IT equipment placed or installed in primarily public access, common use or office space or supporting other corporate functions, such as workstations, laptops, photocopiers, sensors, security equipment, or white goods and audiovisual appliances should be excluded from the reporting obligation. The same exclusion should also apply to server, networking, storage, and associated equipment that would be scattered across a site such as single servers, single racks, or Wi-Fi and networking points.
The collected data should be used to measure at least some basic dimensions of a sustainable data centre, namely how efficiently it uses energy, how much of that energy comes from renewable energy sources, the reuse of any waste heat that it produces, the effectiveness of cooling, the effectiveness of carbon usage and the usage of freshwater.
The collected data and the sustainability indicators should raise awareness among data centre owners and operators, manufacturers of equipment, developers of software and services, users of data centre services at all levels as well as entities and organisations that deploy, use or procure cloud and data centre services.
By 15 May 2024 and every year thereafter, Member States shall require owners and operators of data centres in their territory with a power demand of the installed information technology (IT) of at least 500kW, to make the information set out in Annex VII publicly available, except for information subject to Union and national law protecting trade and business secrets and confidentiality. This includes, at a minimum, the name of the data centre, the names of its owner and operator(s), the date operations commenced, and the municipality in which it is located; the floor area of the data centre, the installed IT power, annual incoming and outgoing data traffic, and the volume of data stored and processed; and
the performance, during the last full calendar year, of the data centre in accordance with key performance indicators about, inter alia, energy consumption, power utilisation, temperature set points, waste heat utilisation, water usage and use of renewable energy.
Member States have to ensure that data centres with a total rated energy input exceeding 1 MW utilise the waste heat or other waste heat recovery applications unless they can show that it is not technically or economically feasible.
Member States have to ensure that an installation level cost-benefit analysis is carried out for newly planned or substantially refurbished data centres with a total rated energy input exceeding 1 MW level in order to assess the cost and benefit analysis, including, but not limited to, technical feasibility, cost-efficiency and the impact on energy efficiency and local heat demand, including seasonal variation, of utilising the waste heat to satisfy economically justified demand, and of the connection of that installation to a district heating network or an efficient/RES-based district cooling system or other waste heat recovery applications.
The analysis shall consider cooling system solutions that allow removing or capturing the waste heat at useful temperature level with minimal ancillary energy inputs.
Member States shall aim to remove barriers for the utilisation of waste heat and provide support for the uptake of waste heat where the installations are newly planned or refurbished.
The second significant legal act regulating data centres across EU is 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”).
This Regulation defines that the data centre operators are the reporting entities. A data centre operator should make public and communicate to the European database the required information and key performance indicators for a data centre regardless of whether this data centre consists of one structure or a group of structures. A data centre operator should make public and communicate to the European database a separate set of information and key performance indicators for every data centre that has a different physical location even if these data centres are located in the territory of the same Member State.
Who is the data centre operator?
Data centre operator means enterprise data centre operator, colocation data centre operator or co-hosting data centre operator.
Enterprise data centre operator means a physical or legal person who manages the entire enterprise data centre, including the building and the use of the information technology services delivered.
Colocation data centre operator means a physical or legal person who manages and sells space, security, network access, power and cooling capacity in the entire colocation data centre to one or more customers who install and manage their own network or networks, servers and storage equipment and services.
Co-hosting data centre operator means a physical or legal person who manages the co-hosting data centre space, security, network access, power, cooling, network or networks, servers, and storage equipment, and part of the necessary software to deliver information technology services to one or more customers, including information technology outsourcing
Reporting deadlines
The data centre operators have to report annually by 15th of May the mandatory information for the preceding calendar year.
Reporting period
The information and key performance indicators shall cover the calendar year immediately preceding the reporting year. Where a reporting data centre has been in operation for less than a year, the data centre operator shall report only for the period the data centre has been in operation, indicating as well that period.
How are data centres regulated on national level?
On national level in Bulgaria, for the first time in 2025, the requirements for reporting under the Directive were introduces with the amendments in the Energy Efficiency Act.
Owners and operators of data centres with electricity consumption from installed information technologies with allocated capacity above 500 kW shall annually make publicly available the following information:
- the name, owner, and operator of the data centre, the date the data centre commenced operations, and the municipality in which it is located;
- the gross floor area of the data centre, the allocated electrical capacity, the annual incoming and outgoing data traffic, and the volume of data stored and processed in the data centre;
- the data centre’s indicators for the last full calendar year, in accordance with key performance indicators, including energy consumption, energy reuse, setpoint temperatures, waste heat utilisation, water consumption, and the use of energy from renewable sources, applying, where applicable, standard BDS EN 50600-4.
The information shall be submitted to the European database on data centres.
These reporting requirements shall not apply to data centres used for the purposes of national defence or which provide services exclusively with the final aim of defence and civil protection.
Owners and operators of data centres with electricity consumption from installed information technologies with allocated capacity equal to or greater than 1 MW shall take into account the best practices referred to in the most recent version of the European Union Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency.
The new law requirements enter into force as of 10 June 2025.
The next reporting period is 15 May 2026, which will refer to the past year 2025. The transitional and final provisions do not specify whether information must be submitted for the past year 2024, even though the deadline was 15 May 2025.
The Regulation is binding in its entirety and directly applicable in Bulgaria. According to its provisions, companies operating data centres are required to have fulfilled their reporting obligations to the European database from the first applicable year onward and to continue submitting annual information and key performance indicators in the following years in accordance with the requirements of the Regulation itself.
The information and key performance indicators shall cover the calendar year immediately preceding the reporting year. Where a reporting data centre has been in operation for less than a year, the data centre operator shall report only for the period the data centre has been in operation, indicating as well that period. Рromote the use of renewable energy, increased grid efficiency, or the reuse of waste heat in nearby facilities and heat networks.
Data centre owners and operators should be aware that the obligations under the Regulation have direct effect and that the reporting deadlines are annual. The aim of the new rules is not merely formal compliance, but to promote more sustainable and efficient operation of data centres in the long term.
The article above is for information purposes only. It is not a (binding) legal advice. For a thorough understanding of the subjects covered and prior acting on any issue discussed we kindly recommend Readers consult Ilieva, Voutcheva & Co. Law Firm attorneys at law.
