A new report funded by the Strategic Panel’s Market Improvement Fund to understand water use in data centres has recommended a series of actions to support this critical and emerging sector while safeguarding water resources.

The report, delivered by the Water Research Centre (WRc), presents policy options such as:

• introducing a reporting framework to include water use and water efficiency
• registering data centres on a Critical National Infrastructure register 
• reducing barriers to using alternatives to drinking water for cooling, such as the use of treated sewage effluent.

The Strategic Panel is the most senior governance group in the business water retail market providing strategic direction and overseeing programmes of work to improve business customer outcomes. The Panel, commissioned WRc, an RSK Group company, to undertake the research project following their successful application to the MIF in Round 4. The Market Improvement Fund was set up to support innovative projects benefiting the non-household water market and its customers.

Rick Hill, Independent Panel Member from the Strategic Panel, said:

“Investigating data centres is essential to fill major evidence gaps on their potable water use and rising demand. The Strategic Panel funded this work to inform policy and support sustainable sector growth. The report will guide planning, benchmarking and regulatory development to manage future water impacts effectively.”

WRc Head of Water Efficiency Joe Cahill explained how 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.

Data centres require cooling as the equipment they house produces a significant amount of heat, which needs to be removed to avoid overheating and equipment damage. They also require humidity control, as high humidity damages metal components while low humidity causes a build-up of electrostatic charge and increases the potential for sparks. There are a variety of cooling methods deployed in data centres that can utilise water, chilled air and liquids such as mineral oils, either in combination or in isolation.

Joe Cahill said:

“A headline finding was that, while some English data centres can consume fairly large volumes of potable water, this is not the norm and the landscape is significantly different from other jurisdictions, notably the United States. Our analysis has found that the majority of data centres in England do not consume significant quantities of potable water (67% use <1000 m3/year). This consumption is highly skewed towards the large water users, with the top six data centres accounting for 65% of the sector’s water consumption. Many of these appear to have come online in the last few years.”

MOSL, which sponsored the project, recognises how this research complements its Strategic Data Programme, reinforcing efforts to improve the quality and granularity of water-use data across the business retail water market.

Liz D’Arcy, Head of Digital Insights at MOSL, said:

“Our world is changing around us and traditional metrics are no longer accurate enough to support modelling and forecasting. This has a knock-on effect on how we balance supply and demand across our networks. No where is this more apparent than with the emergence of data centres which represent new and increasing water demand. This report provides us with crucial insight to ensure we better understand the trends in this sector and ensure we maintain service levels and support growth in the economy.”

Click here to download the report Water Efficient Data Centres in full