The EU Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology commissioned the study Data Centre and Energy Systems Synergies (DCESS) to explore how data centres can best integrate into energy grids.

From January 2023 to June 2024, the focus of the study will be on how energy systems can utilise waste heat and water generated by data centre operations. It will be an important advance towards having highly energy-efficient and carbon-neutral data centres by 2030, one of the Green Deal and Digital Decade goals.

While digitisation can contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions, it is necessary to ensure that the digital infrastructure needed to support this transformation does not become a new source of emissions.

The study aims to reconcile the growing need for data centres and reducing their environment footprint. To that end, it will provide recommendations to address drivers and barriers that limit further integration between data centres and the energy grid.

Stakeholders working within this field are invited to take part in the survey.