Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 April 2025
260. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to provide an update on which information about data centres will be made publicly available pursuant to Article 12(1) of the recast Energy Efficiency Directive, and which information he will allow the data centres to keep concealed as commercially sensitive. [15776/25]
View answerArticle 12(1) of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EU/2023/1791) (‘EED’) provides an obligation for Member States to require owners and operators of data centres with a power demand of installed information technology of at least 500kW to monitor and annually publish the information in Annex VII to the EED on their energy performance. As set out in Annex VII, this includes, inter alia, the name and the owner/operator of the data centre, when it began operating, its floor area, installed power, data traffic information, the amount of data stored and processed and the performance of the data centre with regard to key performance indicators such as energy consumption, renewable energy use, power and waste heat utilisation.
Article 12(1) specifically addresses the confidentiality and commercially sensitive nature of the information involved. It provides that information that is subject to European Union and national law protecting trade and business secrets and confidentiality must not be made publicly available. My Department is preparing the necessary transposing legislation which it expects to have in place in Quarter 2, 2025 and address the requirement for certain information to be protected.
It should also be noted that Article 12 of the EED is supplemented by the directly effective delegated regulation 2024/1364 requiring data centre operators to also report this information and performance indicators to a secure centralised database created by the European Commission. Article 5 of the regulation provides that all information communicated to the database shall be kept confidential and will be made public according to the conditions in Annex IV to the regulation on an aggregated level at Member State and Union level.
