ISO/IEC 30134-3:2018 

Part 3: Renewable Energy Factor (REF)

(Equivalent to EN 50600-4-3)

Description: Renewable energy used by the data centre divided by the total energy used. 


Purpose: Defines the Renewable Energy Factor (REF) as a KPI for quantifying the amount of renewable energy consumed by a data centre, specifies a methodology to calculate and to present the REF and provides information on the correct interpretation of the REF.

Calculation formula:

Components:

E_ren – Renewable energy owned + controlled by DC in kWh

E_dc – Total DC building energy consumption in kWh



Measurement Points:

Reports from utility provider – kWh provided from renewable sources or metering from self-owned renewable power sources. 



Output from specialised BMS or intelligent DCIM software.



Actionable Insights:

This metric should be used to understand the amount of power being consumed from renewable sources with the ambition to maximise this as far as possible in order to reduce the environmental overhead of data centre power consumption. The ambition should be 100% so this metric should be used to track against that target.

BACK TO SUSTAINABILITY METRICS

REF - Sustainability Reporting Demo

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