Report recommends regulation for data centre water use

(by Karma Loveday)

A new report has recommended that additional regulation is considered to support the critical and emerging data centre sector, while safeguarding water resources.

The WRc research, funded by the Strategic Panel’s Market Improvement Fund, advocated the following:

• A reporting framework including policy interventions to enable easier benchmarking of data centre water use. This would consist of mandatory, centralised reporting of (at least a subset of) the metrics required under the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive.

• That England emulates EU practice. WRc said the EU is leading the way with regard to developing an internationally recognised efficiency label, with this usefully incorporating water and energy. England could adopt this and consider minimum performance standards.

• Data centres should be listed in a Critical National Infrastructure register to make best use of the framework. This would sit alongside planning process improvements to increase the visibility of data centre applications and promote proactive engagement between data centre designers and water companies.

• The data centre industry, water industry, regulators and other experts should collaborate on reducing and removing barriers to the use of treated sewage effluent, and more general water resource planning.

The report further noted that peak demand during hot days, as well as the overall amount of water required for data centres, was a concern. 

WRc said current data centre potable water consumption in England is estimated to be 1,879,000 m3/year (0.2% of the non-household market) but that this is showing a clear upward trend. The increase in data centre industry growth has not been factored into water resource planning timelines. It is now apparent that this growth has the potential to impact water availability for other purposes, if even some of the 100 planned data centres use a significant amount of water. The rapid expansion of AI and its need for greater cooling could exacerbate this.

• The Environmental Audit Committee has launched an inquiry: 'The risks and opportunities to the sustainability of data centres in the UK.' Amongst the issues in focus are how much energy and water data centres are likely to use, and how this could impact the Government’s net zero goals.