According to the IEA, the global electricity demand of data centres grew by 17% in 2025, in line with IEA projections. Electricity consumption from AI-focused data centres grew even faster, surging 50% in 2025.
To date, most policy efforts have focused on the energy used for cooling and lighting within data centres, as well as the use of renewable energy and export of waste heat. Developing policy to address information technology energy use is more difficult. There is a lack of suitable metrics, a lack of the data required for metrics, and the data centre environment is very complex and highly dynamic.
EDNA’s workstream on data centres is addressing these issues through a growing portfolio of studies, modelling, and resources.
Amid energy security concerns, power grid constraints, public pushback, and rising energy prices – ensuring strong progress on energy efficiency in data centres is crucial. Policy plays an important role in encouraging, incentivising and supporting energy efficiency and greater transparency on data centre energy use.
Data Centre Energy Efficiency Labels (2025) explores the characteristics and effectiveness of existing data centre energy efficiency labels and suggests features for a worldwide applicable labelling scheme. Report
Public Data on Data Centre Energy Use (2024) examines what data on energy use by data centres is publicly available and how this can be collected, stored and presented on a regular basis. Report Policy Brief
Policy Development on Energy Efficiency of Data Centres (2024) provides an overview of current and planned initiatives for the energy efficiency of data centres and summarises the potential energy savings results from detailed modelling of potential measures for data centres. Report Policy Brief
Policies for Data Centre Energy Efficiency: Scope, Trends and Data Availability (2023) proposes a definition and characterisation of data centres, presents trends in their energy use, and analyses the availability of data which might be used as inputs to energy efficiency metrics. Report
Energy Efficiency Metrics for Data Centres (2022) catalogues metrics currently in use and analyses data requirements. Report
Policy makers lack data and insights on data current and future data centre energy use. There are wide-ranging estimates of data centre energy use causing confusion for policymakers and decision-makers. The address this, EDNA has developed a model and is engaging with industry and experts to continue to improve and expand it.
Data centre energy model dashboard (2026, forthcoming) enables users to explore global data centre energy use across different scenarios and to estimate the impact of different policies on energy demand.
Recording of a presentation about the energy modelling and the dashboard – Video
Data Centre Energy Use: Critical Review of Models and Results (2025) is an extensive survey of different data centre energy models, it provides a system for classifying models to better understand how projections are made and factors influencing modelling results. Report
Understanding data centre electricity use in the AI era (2025) – webinar providing an overview IEA analysis on the links between artificial intelligence (AI) and electricity demand, followed by two technical presentations examining data availability and methodologies for assessing data centre energy use. These include new research from EDNA on critical assessments of current energy modelling approaches and the development of a next-generation energy forecasting tool. Webinar Recording
Total Energy Model – quantitative global model of the ‘total energy use’ of connected devices. It covers the energy used by connected devices and energy use of devices deployed in local area networks (LANs) such as modems and routers, as well as the ‘upstream’ energy that connected devices stimulate in wide area networks (WANs) and data centres. Model
EDNA maps the development and uptake of energy efficient technologies and solutions for data centres.
Liquid Cooling in Data Centres (2026 forthcoming) documents liquid cooling technologies, challenges and opportunities in implementation, and their energy efficiency impact. Report
Recording of a presentation about the research on liquid cooling in data centres – Video
Energy Efficiency of Servers (2025) provides insights into the development of server energy efficiency over the past decade. Report
The Idle Coefficients: KPIs to Assess Energy Wasted in Servers and Data Centres (2021) presents information on data centre KPIs that could be used to quantify wasted energy associated energy efficiency potentials. Report
Data centres can contribute to wider systems efficiency through water efficiency, demand flexibility, and provision of waste heat for reuse in other applications. During 2026 EDNA will expand its model to capture these aspects.
Data Centres and Flexibility (2026 forthcoming) analyses flexibility opportunities and drivers across different types of data centres.
