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EU draft sets granular GOO rules for data centres

EU draft sets granular GOO rules for data centres

London, 23 April (Argus) — The European Commission has closed its public consultation on a draft regulation to rate the sustainability of data centres in Europe, proposing sub-hourly, location-based matching for guarantees of origin (GOOs). The regulation, expected to come into force by the end of the second quarter, would require data centres to use GOOs matched on a 15-minute production period and sourced from the same bidding zone as the data centre, to claim electricity consumption from renewable sources. This obligation is "conditional to the availability of such granular GOOs in the relevant member state". GOOs must be purchased from assets commissioned no more than 10 years before the current reporting year, although long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) in place by 15 May that include bundled GOOs will be exempt from this rule until the end or renewal of the PPA. Certificates will be part of a broader sustainability label, which will include power and water usage effectiveness and a breakdown of energy consumption by onsite renewable generation, PPAs, GOOs and non-renewable sources. Sustainability labels will be automatically generated by 15 August 2027 and updated annually, based on information uploaded on to the European database on data centres, introduced in 2024. Voluntary features on the label include grid functions such as the data centre's role in supporting stability and peak demand shifting, as well as waste heat reuse. Figures from a technical report covering 2023 data show that total energy consumption from 608 data centres averaged 19.8GWh across the 27 EU member states. On average, renewable sources accounted for about 16.8GWh, made up of 12.5GWh from GOOs and 5.3GWh from PPAs, while on-site renewable generation made up only 0.2pc. A second technical report, released before the public consultation, highlighted that "GOOs may come from old, depreciated … plants and thus does not necessarily lead to investment in new, low-carbon power generation". Temporal and location-based matching, alongside asset age restrictions for procuring GOOs, aim to create a standardised system and improve the quality, consistency and transparency of performance indicators. The commission is pushing for greater granularity in the GOO market more broadly, recommending earlier this week that national registries provide uniform, granular data to boost cross-border PPA uptake. The European Energy Certificate System, operated by the Association of Issuing Bodies, supports sub-hourly matching, but not all national registries have the IT capability to record data at this level of granularity. Only a few countries including Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal currently support 15-minute production data for GOO issuance. Electricity demand from data centres in the EU totalled 70TWh in 2024, and is estimated to increase to 115TWh by 2030, according to the IEA. By Gian Remnant Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.