Andalusia to challenge Spanish data center efficiency decree

The Regional Government of Andalusia (Junta de Andalucía) will present formal objections this Friday against a draft decree from the Spanish central government regarding the regulation of data center efficiency.

The proposed regulation introduces a transitional Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) limit of 1.15. This metric measures the ratio of total energy used by a data center to the energy delivered to computing equipment. José Antonio Nieto, the Regional Minister for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Development, and Public Administration, has criticized the requirement as “absolutely exorbitant” and technologically unfeasible.

Nieto argued that the 1.15 limit is stricter than upcoming European Union guidelines expected in 2027 and is currently not met by almost any data center in Spain or Europe. He noted that achieving such efficiency in a warm climate like Andalusia is nearly impossible, comparing the requirement to needing a climate like Lapland to achieve near-zero cooling energy consumption.