European Union Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)

Note: This information is relevant to customers in EU IBXs only.

In 2023, the European Union introduced the revised Energy Efficiency Directive (EED, EU/2023/1791) that requires data centers to report energy efficiency data to the European Commission.

To comply with this new directive, Equinix is required to collect data from customers annually and report on the following two specific data categories on an aggregated basis:

  • Data traffic indicators: incoming and outgoing data bandwidth and traffic for 2024.

  • ICT capacity indicators: newly installed server and storage capacity between 7 June and 31 December 2024.

If you are not already doing so, we encourage you to start collecting this data now.

In January 2025, we released a tool on the Equinix Customer Portal (ECP) where you can submit the required data. To use the new tool to load Energy Efficient Data, see the Energy Efficiency Directive section in the Equinix Customer Portal documentation. We recognize the sensitivity of this information and want to assure you we will take every precaution to ensure the highest levels of security and confidentiality.

  • Data traffic indicators: Incoming and outgoing data bandwidth and traffic.

    • Incoming traffic bandwidth (“BIN”, in gigabytes per second): Incoming traffic bandwidth shall be measured as the total provisioned bandwidth for incoming traffic to the data centre computer room, aggregated for all the connectivity capacity, and averaged over the year.

    • Outgoing traffic bandwidth (“BOUT”, in gigabytes per second): Outgoing traffic bandwidth shall be measured as the total provisioned bandwidth for outgoing traffic from the data centre computer room, aggregated for all the connectivity capacity, and averaged over the year.

    • Incoming data traffic (“TIN”, in exabytes): Incoming data traffic shall be measured as the total incoming data to the data centre computer room, aggregated over the course of the reporting year, irrespective of the number of the data centre’s connections.

    • Outgoing data traffic (“TOUT”, in exabytes): Outgoing data traffic shall be measured as the total outgoing data from the data centre computer room, aggregated over the course of the reporting year, irrespective of the number of the data centre’s connections.

    • For the above listed data traffic indicators, Equinix interprets this to mean you need not include interconnections with other customers within the same data center or the data connections that are provided by Equinix. For this reason, we request the customer to report only the traffic bandwidth and data traffic for incoming and outgoing connections, to and from the data center, that are managed by the customer directly or through a third party service provider other than Equinix.

  • ICT capacity indicators – Newly installed server and storage capacity.

    • Server Capacity: Sum of SERT active state performance rating or equivalent for all new servers installed. For 2024, the information only needs to be provided for servers installed from 7 June to 31 December 2024. For subsequent years, the information will be for all servers installed during the previous year.

      • SERT™ stands for Server Efficiency Rating Tool and it was developed by SPEC® in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess computer server energy efficiency for ENERGY STAR certification.

      • The tool evaluates both a server’s work capacity and power demand when delivering a given workload – a higher score indicates a more efficient or productive server.

      • The SERT score should be able to be obtained directly from the server manufacturer, or the rating for common models can be looked up on Energy Star Website using model name, if operating at high performance model and count of CPU sockets.

    • Storage capacity: Sum of storage capacity of all new SSD and HDD storage devices installed. For 2024, the information only needs to be provided for SSD and HDD storage devices installed from 7 June to 31 December 2024. For subsequent years, the information will be for all servers installed during the previous year.

      • Information available as part of manufacturer specification or can be checked by the server operator.

There is no need for the customer to report data traffic indicators for connections that are provided by Equinix. We request the customer to report only the traffic bandwidth and data traffic for incoming and outgoing connections, to and from the data center, that are managed by the customer directly or through a third party service provider other than Equinix.

The data will be collected using a secure and confidential form on the Equinix Customer Portal (ECP). The data collection tool, which will be available in January 2025, will allow customers to easily submit the necessary data.

A video tutorial on accessing the tool and submitting data will be available once the tool is launched on the Equinix Customer Portal (ECP) in January 2025.

Limited teams within Equinix will have access to customer data for the sole purpose of collating the information on an aggregated basis for reporting. The information will not be used or distributed for any other purpose.

We will ask customers to submit their data for 2024 between 15 January and 15 February 2025. Two reminder notifications will be sent on 25 January and 10 February 2025. The portal may remain open after 15 February 2025 for potential late submissions.

In 2023, the European Union published a revised Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) that established “energy efficiency first” as a fundamental principle of EU energy policy and aims to reduce energy consumption in the EU by 2030. As part of this directive, Equinix must annually collect and report two specific data categories for all servers, including our customers in Equinix data centers in the European Union.

Please speak to your Customer Success Manager if you are unable to submit data via the Equinix Customer Platform.

Currently, Equinix is required to report annually on this information. Equinix will monitor if these legal requirements change.

As the data center operator, Equinix is in scope of the Energy Efficiency Directive and is required to request customer data and report the collected data at the IBX-level.

This specific measure only addresses servers, not other equipment. Equinix supports energy efficiency and recommends always using energy-saving equipment or settings where possible.

Customers can submit data for all of the cages in their organisation at one time.

The data will be visible in the User Interface of the Equinix Customer Platform (ECP).

Customers can download the data and resubmit until 15 February 2025. Once that date has passed, the data will be locked from changes.

We are available to answer questions from customers on the collection of this data. Please speak to your Customer Success Manager.

If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to your Customer Success Manager.