The European Commission has presented the T-Systems data center in Biere near Magdeburg with the European Code of Conduct Award. The independent jury considered 120 companies for the award, all of whose data centers have demonstrated a significant reduction in their energy consumption. The T-Systems data center in Biere is one of six winners.
The award takes into account, among other things, the data centers’ PUE (power-usage-effectiveness) values, best practices and energy-efficient methods. The PUE value can be used to check whether the energy efficiency in a data center is improving or deteriorating. Basically, the closer the value is to 1, the more efficient the energy use. The Biere data center has a PUE of 1.3. Chillers save fresh water, the data center has a cold aisle containment with highly efficient airflow, and waste heat is used to heat office and storage areas.
The European Data Center Code of Conduct (EU DC CoC) is a voluntary initiative launched by the Joint Research Centre in response to increasing energy consumption in data centers and the resulting environmental, economic and energy security impacts. It provides guidance to data center operators and owners on how to cost-effectively reduce energy consumption without compromising the operationally essential functions of these facilities. Participation in the Code of Conduct is a voluntary initiative. T-Systems has been committed to following the Code of Conduct since 2012.
Since its introduction in 2008, more than 500 data centers have joined the EU DC CoC to improve their energy efficiency. Participants who can demonstrate a significant reduction in their energy consumption are eligible for the annual European Code of Conduct Awards. Winners are selected by two independent juries. In addition to the Code of Conduct, T-Systems is also a signatory to the European Union's Climate Neutral Datacenter Compact (CNDCP). This voluntary commitment sets an even more binding benchmark for the further development of the data center landscape in the EU.
