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Emma Fryer reviews the last quarter’s activity in the data centre programme and identifies priorities for the rest of the year.

Quarter 3 started too quietly for comfort as we waited…. and waited..for overdue policy documents to emerge from Government. Then, in late July, just when we thought it was safe to go on holiday, an avalanche of statements, reports, consultations, proposals and responses erupted from Whitehall accompanied by the unmistakeable sounds of desks being cleared in time for the Summer Recess. This is a frustrating and unpopular trick that governments, both UK and EU, are playing with increasing regularity.

These outputs included proposals for streamlined energy and carbon reporting, a call for evidence on business energy efficiency, an industrial efficiency accelerator, a response on EII exemptions, a Combustion Sector Report from the EA and the National Adaptation Plan from DEFRA among others. The one thing that was absent was a substantive Government response on business energy costs, a major omission. This quarter also saw the EA’s long awaited guidance on MCPD, the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on heatwaves (fortunately data centres did not feature), and confirmation that data centres would be eligible for support measures for heat reuse.

Our inputs to Government, both UK and EU, included comments on the Commission’s Green Public Procurement proposals, a response to the Environment Agency on proposed guidance for MCPD and Specified Generator Controls and a submission to BEIS on their Call for Evidence on Business Energy Efficiency. Publications and platforms included a brief on storage tank terminology (unthrilling but important), a Council Communication on Lot9, another on the Climate Change Agreement, a map of environmental standards relevant to data centres and an opinion on diversity in the industry. We spoke at the launch of Interxion’s new data centre, at a Parliamentary Round Table on data centre energy use and at a Gartner event on data centre decommissioning among other fixtures. We had press coverage in Computer Weekly, Inside Networks, Data Centre Dynamics, Data Economy and ENDS.

On the lobbying front we have been very vocal about the closure of the CCA to new entrants and have written to both the Permanent Secretary and the Secretary of State at BEIS. We also stepped up the activity on Lot9 ahead of the Regulatory Committee and on EU ETS where uncertainty and inconsistency are causing concern. In September, the Data Centres Council agreed that energy costs, sector profile and EU ETS should be priorities for Quarter Four.

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