Data Centre Expert Group
In 2023, the Data Centre Expert Group experts were once again actively involved in various Competence Group meetings, workshops and panel discussions. In terms of content, 2023 was dominated by topics from the areas of energy efficiency and waste heat utilisation.
The first event of the year on 23 February 2023 was a virtual exchange on the new award criteria for the “Blue Angel – Data Centres DE-UZ 228” eco-label. Although the Blue Angel criteria recognise existing and practised concepts for data centres’ own power supply, the 42 participating members of the Expert Group saw similar problems with waste heat utilisation – a new Blue Angel criterion – as with the German federal government’s planned Energy Efficiency Act. “One of the biggest challenges continues to be finding suitable customers for waste heat”, summarised the Expert Group. “As the necessary municipal heating network infrastructure has not been developed to the required extent, operators of data centres have so far found few customers.”
On 23 March, 56 representatives of the Expert Group met for another virtual exchange. Under the leadership of Dr Béla Waldhauser, the group discussed current developments in the German Electricity Price Brake Act (StromPBG), which came into force on 1 March 2023.
As part of Data Centre World 2023, the Expert Group organised two discussion rounds on the topics of “Where will the digital markets of the future emerge?” and “Framework conditions for digital ecosystems”.
The third Data Centre Expert Summit took place in Dreieich on 14 and 15 June. A detailed report can be found here.
On 29 June, members of the IoT Competence Group and Data Centre Expert Group met at the Rittal Innovation Centre in Haiger to discuss the requirements and challenges of a smart factory in the context of digital infrastructures. Rittal also offered participants exclusive insights into the smart and automated processes of its manufacturing operations.
As part of the eco Interaction Day, interested participants could learn about the Expert Group’s topics and event formats at the eco office in Cologne on 6 July.
A three-part data centre roadshow kicked off in Hamburg on 8 November. In a panel discussion, experts discussed the challenges of a heterogeneous data centre strategy and sustainability aspects in northern Germany.
On 9 November 2023, 59 participants from the Data Centre Expert Group met for another virtual exchange on the topic of “smart energy storage”. The participants discussed possible potential and technological developments, such as ice storage and latent heat storage, to better use DC waste heat in the future in accordance with the requirements of the Energy Efficiency Act. The virtual meeting served as preparation for a face-to-face event in March 2024.
The second event of this year’s Data Centre Roadshow took place in Munich on 14 November. The host of the evening, NorthC Data Centre, offered participants an exclusive insight into the Munich data centre at the start of the networking event. A third date in the roadshow series is planned for February 2024.
On 15 December, members of the Expert Group discussed intelligent waste heat distribution using AI support at the Borderstep Institute’s DC2HEAT project kick-off. eco is one of several project partners in the project and supports the project as a member of the advisory board.
In addition, members of the Expert Group had the opportunity to discuss the challenges of current DC growth on the podium as part of the DE-CIX Roundtable series in Hamburg (28 September), Munich (9 September), Munich (16 November) and Frankfurt (23 November).
