On 22 July 2021, Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform publish a notice about further strengthen the energy conservation review of data center projects.
The Provisions on Further Strengthening the Energy Conservation Review of Data Center Projects are as the followings:
1 Further improve the energy-saving review of the city’s data center projects, standardize and guide data centers to achieve high-quality development, continue to improve energy efficiency and carbon efficiency, strengthen energy-saving management throughout the life cycle, and promote carbon emission reduction and carbon neutrality in the city.
2 These regulations apply to data center projects with annual energy consumption of 1,000 tons of standard coal (electricity calculated by equivalent value) or annual electricity consumption of 5 million kilowatt-hours (inclusive) within the scope of this city. Projects that include racks and other construction content and the energy consumption of the racks and their cooling parts meet the above standards are regarded as data center projects in accordance with these regulations.
3 Newly built or expanded data centers should be supportive to the construction of the "four centers", guarantee the functions of the "four services", enhance the service capabilities of digital economy infrastructure, promote high-quality economic development, and build new competitive advantages in the future. The construction party shall provide a clear list of business requirements or relevant agreement of intent in line with the functional positioning.
4 The newly built or expanded data center shall be computing type. The construction unit shall provide functional planning instructions and configuration instructions for data calculation and storage after the project is running, and shall ensure that the power ratio of the cabinet used for data storage is not higher than 20% of the total power of the rack.
5 The project energy saving report shall include the renewable energy utilization plan. Newly built, renovated and expanded data centers should gradually increase the proportion of renewable energy utilization, and encourage projects built in 2021 and afterward to have an annual incease rate of 10% on the proportion of annual renewable energy utilization in annual energy consumption , and achievve 100% by 2030 ( Excluding the share of existing renewable energy in the power grid).
The construction unit can improve the level of renewable energy utilization through self-built distributed renewable energy facilities. Photovoltaic modules can be installed on the roof of the building, and photovoltaic modules can be installed on the outer walls of the projects with conditions. For electricity demand that cannot be met by self-built facilities, the proportion of renewable energy utilization can be increased through green power transactions, subscription of renewable energy green power certificates, and purchase of energy saving.
The energy conservation authority entrusts a third-party agency to verify the renewable energy utilization level of the project in the previous year based on the energy conservation review opinions and energy conservation report by the end of June. The project construction unit shall cooperate with the verification work.
6 If the construction unit or its shareholders closes all (or holding) other data centers that have been put into operation in the administrative area of this city while building or expanding the data center, half of the total power of the closed data center racks (excluding the forced exit and closed data centers) can be deducted when calculating the energy consumption of new construction and expansion projects, and will not be included in the energy consumption of new construction and expansion projects.
To close the stock data center, a corresponding certificate shall be submitted, and the energy-saving authority shall entrust a third-party agency to verify the closure of the data center.
7 The PUE value of projects with annual energy consumption less than 10,000 tons of standard coal (electricity is calculated according to the equivalent value) for newly built or expanded data centers should not be higher than 1.3; Projectws with annual energy consumption is greater than or equal to 10,000 tons of standard coal and less than 20,000 tons of standard coal, the PUE value should not be higher than 1.25; for projects with annual energy consumption greater than or equal to 20,000 tons of standard coal and less than 30,000 tons of standard coal, the PUE value should not be higher than 1.2; For projects with annual energy consumption greater than or equal to 30,000 tons of standard coal, the PUE value should not be higher than 1.15.
8 The data center shall make full use of natural cold sources, and strengthen the utilization of waste heat resources through methods such as self-use and external heating. It encourages the use of technology products in the "Product Catalogue of Advanced Applicable Technologies for Green Data Centers" of the MIIT. The energy efficiency level of general-purpose energy-consuming equipment such as refrigeration equipment, ventilation equipment, and transformers should meet or exceed the first-level energy efficiency standards. New equipment and facilities that use ozone-depleting substances as working fluids are prohibited, and refrigeration using natural working fluids such as carbon dioxide as the medium is encouraged. equipment.
9 The construction unit of new construction and expansion projects shall establish and improve the energy management system in accordance with the requirements of the "Energy Management System Requirements" (GB/T23331) and other relevant standards. For projects with an annual energy consumption of 5,000 tons of standard coal and above, an online energy consumption monitoring system shall be built, PUE value measurement shall be realized in accordance with the requirements of relevant standards, and it shall be connected to the Beijing Energy Conservation Monitoring Service Platform. The online energy consumption monitoring system should be designed, constructed, and put into production at the same time as the data center. Encourage projects with an annual energy consumption of less than 5,000 tons of standard coal to build an online energy consumption monitoring system and connect to the Beijing Energy Conservation Monitoring Service Platform. The data center shall ensure the safe and stable operation of the online energy consumption monitoring system, and the continuous, complete and true data transmission.
10 The construction party, its legal representative, and shareholders shall have no data center projects in this city that have obtained an energy conservation review but have not started construction within two years after obtaining an energy conservation review opinion. The construction unit shall fully demonstrate the energy-saving plan and improve the preparation of energy-saving reports before applying for the energy-saving review. The energy conservation report is a commitment made by the construction unit for energy conservation. The construction unit shall ensure the authenticity of the energy conservation report, strictly implement the requirements of the energy conservation review opinions and the construction plan in the energy conservation report, and ensure that the actual energy resource utilization level is not lower than the design Level.
11 After the project obtains the energy-saving review opinion, if the shelf rate (the total power of the cabinets actually racked/the total design power of the project cabinets) has not reached 80% within two years, the construction unit shall submit an application for change to the original energy-saving review agency.
12 In accordance with the "Opinions on Optimizing the Business Environment, Adjusting and Improving Beijing’s Energy-saving Review of Fixed Asset Investment Projects" (Jing Fa Gai Gui [2017] No. 4), energy-saving reviews or failures in energy-saving reviews are not conducted in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. For fixed asset investment projects that have been approved to start construction or put into production and use without authorization, the urban development and reform department shall order them to stop construction or stop production and use, and renovate within a limited time. For productive projects that cannot be renovated or are not renovated within the time limit, the urban development and reform department shall report to the people's government at the same level to order it to be closed, and the responsible persons shall be held accountable in accordance with the law.
For fixed-asset investment projects that have passed the energy-saving review by unfair means such as splitting the project and providing false materials, the urban development and reform department shall revoke the project's energy-saving review opinions.
For fixed asset investment projects that have not implemented the requirements of the energy-saving review opinions, the urban development and reform department shall order the construction unit to make rectification within a time limit. If the correction cannot be made or the correction is not made within the time limit, the urban development and reform department shall impose penalties in accordance with the relevant provisions of laws and regulations.
The urban development and reform department shall deal with the illegal activities of the construction unit and related units in the energy conservation review work in accordance with the law. The district-level development and reform departments need to copy relevant illegal information to the municipal development and reform department at the same time, and the municipal development and reform department will disclose it to the public on the "Beijing Enterprise Credit Information Network" and the administrative penalty information on the "Credit Beijing" website. Open, At the same time, they will be included in the national credit information sharing platform and investment project approval and supervision platform.
13 The municipal development and reform department supervises PUE value in the actual oepration of the data center according to the "Data Center Energy Efficiency Limit" (DB11/T1139). For data centers that exceed the standard limit value (PUE value 1.4), the list of implementating electronic price difference will be determined according to the situation of exceeding the energy consumption limit per unit product in the "Beijing Implementation Opinions on Improving the Differential Electricity Policy" (Jing Fa Gai [2015] No. 1359) , and the Beijing Electric Power Company will be notified to levy differential electricity tariffs on a monthly basis. For projects with PUE>1.4 and <=1.8 (unit power consumption exceeds the limit standard by less than one time), the electricity price increase 0.2 yuan per kilowatt-hour of electricity; for the project with PUE>1.8 (unit power consumption exceeds the limit standard more than two times), there will be an increase of 0.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour of electricity.
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