On this page · 14 sections
- 1.5 is the law, 1.6 is a bill: status on 7 November 2026
- Current law against the bill, PUE rules only
- Who the PUE cap covers
- How PUE is measured under the EnEfG
- When does the first compliance window start?
- Exemptions: what exists and what does not
- Enforcement and fines
- Why utilisation moves PUE: a worked example
- Steps for operators before 1 July 2027
- Steps for colocation tenants
- Decision table: your rolling PUE today
- What could still change in committee
- How eCorpIT can help
- References
Summary. On current law the answer is 1.5. Section 11(1) of Germany's Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) requires every data centre that began operating before 1 July 2026 to reach a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.5 or lower as a sustained annual average from 1 July 2027, and 1.3 or lower from 1 July 2030. Government bill 21/8027, adopted by the cabinet on 24 June 2026, would relax those values to 1.6 and 1.4 but keeps every date. The Bundestag held the first reading on 24 September and a committee hearing on 5 October 2026. No second or third reading had taken place by 6 November, and the bill is not on the plenary agenda for 11 to 13 November. The duty falls on the operator of a site with at least 300 kW of non-redundant connected load. PUE follows DIN EN 50600-4-2, but the act does not say at which of the standard's three points IT energy must be metered, and that choice moves the result. Breaches can draw fines of up to €100,000 from BAFA under both texts. Plan for 1.5, treat 1.6 as upside and fix your measurement method now.
About this article. For operators of German data centres and colocation tenants. We read the EnEfG of 13 November 2023 on gesetze-im-internet.de, which shows no amendment, and Bundestag printed paper 21/8027 of 16 September 2026, and checked parliamentary status on bundestag.de and bundesrat.de, all on 7 November 2026. This is not legal advice, the bill can still change, and no vendor paid for inclusion. Researched with AI assistance and reviewed by our editorial team.
This article covers the PUE cap only; the 100% renewable power duty and the bill's move of it to 2030 are in our article on Germany's data centre renewable energy rule.
1.5 is the law, 1.6 is a bill: status on 7 November 2026
The bill, formally the Act to accelerate the transposition of the Energy Efficiency Directive, replaces section 11 and renames it from climate-neutral to energy-efficient data centres. Until it passes the Bundestag and Bundesrat and appears in the Federal Law Gazette, the current text applies, and it says 1.5.
The bill does not move the PUE dates. The 1 July 2026 cut-off and the 1 July 2027 and 1 July 2030 deadlines stay; only the values change. For new sites it keeps 1.2 and stretches the ramp-up from two years to four.
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| 24 June 2026 | Federal cabinet adopts the bill |
| 1 July 2026 | Cut-off: sites operating before this date are existing sites |
| 10 July 2026 | Bundesrat delivers its first statement |
| 16 September 2026 | Bill printed as paper 21/8027 |
| 24 September 2026 | First reading, referred to the economy committee |
| 5 October 2026 | Public committee hearing |
| 6 November 2026 | Agenda for 11 to 13 November published without the bill |
| 31 March 2027 | Annual report for 2026 due, including PUE |
| 1 July 2027 | PUE 1.5 or lower (law) or 1.6 or lower (bill) |
Sources: the printed paper, Gleiss Lutz and Bundestag pages. The 4 to 6 November agenda had no item on the bill either.
The directive's transposition deadline passed on 10 October 2025, and Gleiss Lutz expects swift adoption because of the EU infringement case. ComputerBase reported on 25 October that a vote was expected in November. The Bundestag still sits 23 to 27 November and in two December weeks; the Bundesrat meets on 20 November and 18 December. The act takes effect the day after publication, and the Bundesrat's last scheduled plenary before 1 July 2027 is on 11 June 2027. If it is not in force by 1 July 2027, 1.5 applies until it is.
Current law against the bill, PUE rules only
| Point | Current EnEfG | Bill 21/8027 |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Non-redundant connected load of 300 kW or more; network nodes excluded | Installed IT power of 500 kW or more (EU energy statistics definition); no network-node exclusion |
| Existing sites | 1.5 or lower from 1 July 2027; 1.3 or lower from 1 July 2030 | 1.6 or lower from 1 July 2027; 1.4 or lower from 1 July 2030 |
| Averaging basis | Sustained annual average | Unchanged |
| New sites (from 1 July 2026) | 1.2 or lower within two years | 1.2 or lower within four years |
| Heat-upgrade electricity | Excluded from PUE for new sites only | Same |
| Fine for breaching section 11 | Up to €100,000, BAFA | Same, plus BAFA sample checks |
Sources: section 11 and the definitions in both texts.
Note two drafting points. The scope test changes metric as well as number: 300 kW refers to the facility's non-redundant connected load, 500 kW to installed IT power, so recalculate rather than assume. And the new definition drops the network-node exclusion; the German Datacenter Association (GDA) has asked for it to be restored.
The government's cost note treats the relief for sites between 1.51 and 1.6 as a postponement, since they must still reach 1.4 by 2030.
Who the PUE cap covers
The facility. Under section 3 no. 24, a data centre is a structure or group of structures that centrally houses, connects and operates IT and network equipment, with its power, cooling and resilience infrastructure, at a non-redundant electrical connected load of 300 kW or more. Network nodes, which mainly connect other data centres and do little processing, are excluded.
The date. Section 11(1) applies to sites that started operating before 1 July 2026, so the population of existing sites is now fixed. Later sites fall under section 11(2), with PUE 1.2 and energy-reuse targets.
The person. The duty sits with the operator of the data centre, defined as whoever owns the data centre or the colocation space, or holds comparable rights of use. In a colocation building that is normally the colocation provider.
Colocation tenants. A tenant running IT with at least 50 kW of non-redundant connected load is an IT operator. It does not carry the PUE limit, but section 12(5) gives it management-system duties, including continuous metering of essential components. The bill keeps the 50 kW threshold on an installed-IT basis and adds a duty to cooperate with the facility operator's annual reporting.
Cloud customers and foreign firms. In our reading, a cloud provider is the operator or, in rented colocation space, an IT operator; an ordinary cloud customer carries no PUE duty. The act follows the building: an Indian or US firm with a 60 kW cage in Frankfurt is an IT operator.
How PUE is measured under the EnEfG
Section 3 no. 15 defines PUE as the ratio of the whole data centre's annual energy demand to the IT's energy demand, as meant in DIN EN 50600-4-2, August 2019 edition. Annex 3 asks for the PUE of the whole data centre each year, so the method comes from the standard.
We read the 2016 European text in a public preview; the act cites the 2019 German DIN edition, so check the purchased edition before relying on detail. The basics:
- Total energy is measured at the utility service entrance feeding all equipment that powers, cools and conditions the data centre.
- IT energy and total energy are recorded over a coincident 12-month period. The reading frequency is not fixed, but it decides how often you can produce a rolling annual figure.
- Meters must report real energy: watt meters or true-RMS kWh meters. kVA readings are not sufficient for efficiency metrics.
- Reports state the data centre boundary, the PUE value, the measurement category and the end date of the measurement period.
The standard defines three categories, which differ in where IT energy is read:
| Category | Where IT energy is measured | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| PUE1, basic | UPS output (front panel, meter on the output, or the common output bus) | Losses in PDU transformers, static switches and distribution below the UPS count as IT energy |
| PUE2, intermediate | PDU output, or individual branch circuits | Excludes PDU transformer and static switch losses from IT energy |
| PUE3, advanced | At the IT equipment: metered racks, receptacles or the device itself | Excludes distribution losses and non-IT devices from IT energy |
The EnEfG names no category, and the same building reports a different PUE depending on the choice. Category 1 counts downstream distribution losses as IT, which enlarges the denominator and usually gives a lower figure than category 3. Choose a category deliberately, document it, keep it across years and state it in your report. Near the limit, take legal advice before relying on the most favourable one.
The federal register's data-point guide, reproduced by umwelt-online, has fields for total energy, IT energy and electricity used solely to upgrade waste heat. Annex 3 asks for total electricity including on-site generation, so in our reading self-generated power belongs in the numerator.
One rule catches out existing sites. Section 11(2) leaves out electricity used solely to upgrade waste heat, typically heat pumps for district heating, when calculating PUE. That sentence sits in the paragraph for new sites and refers to that paragraph's limit, so on a plain reading an existing site that adds heat pumps sees its PUE rise. The bill keeps this structure; the GDA wants the exclusion made technology-neutral.
When does the first compliance window start?
Section 11(1) requires the limit from 1 July 2027 as a sustained annual average but does not define the averaging window.
Under section 13(1), operators publish and submit Annex 3 data, including PUE, by 31 March for the previous calendar year. The report due by 31 March 2028 covers January to December 2027, half of which predates the limit. The first full calendar year under the cap is 2028, reported by 31 March 2029.
Do not rely on that gap. The safer reading is to be at or below the limit on a rolling 12-month basis from 1 July 2027, so July 2026 to June 2027 already counts. That is our reading, not settled guidance; ask counsel how BAFA is likely to approach it. An efficiency change made after spring 2027 has little time to show in an annual figure.
Exemptions: what exists and what does not
| Item | Effect on the PUE cap | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Below 300 kW non-redundant connected load | Out of scope | Section 3 no. 24 |
| Network nodes | Excluded today; no exclusion in the bill | Section 3 no. 24(c) |
| Heat-upgrade electricity | Left out of PUE for new sites only | Section 11(2) |
| Waste-heat exemptions | Apply to energy reuse, not PUE | Section 11(3) |
| Planned shutdown before 1 July 2027 | Frees the site from section 12 duties only | Section 12(6) |
| Climate-neutral companies | Needs an ordinance; the bill replaces section 18 | Section 18 |
| Low utilisation or redundancy | No relief | Section 11(1) |
Sources: sections 3, 11, 12 and 18 and the bill.
The absence of load relief is the operators' main complaint. Gleiss Lutz notes that the annual-average method survives although operators often influence tenants' IT utilisation only by contract, and that earlier ministry drafts tied PUE more closely to facility design. The Bundesrat asked on 10 July 2026 to restore one such rule, under which a new site would comply if designed to meet the limit at 80% IT utilisation; the government replied that it had examined a design PUE and left it out.
Enforcement and fines
Under section 19, building or operating a data centre contrary to section 11(1) or (2), intentionally or negligently, is an administrative offence with a ceiling of €100,000. Failing to submit the annual section 13 information, or submitting it incorrectly, incompletely or late, can cost up to €50,000. The authority is the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA).
The bill keeps the €100,000 ceiling for section 11 and adds sample checks in a new section 18, under which BAFA can demand evidence on Annex 3 information within four weeks.
Why utilisation moves PUE: a worked example
PUE is a ratio. Cooling, UPS and transformer losses have a fixed component that does not fall with IT load, so a half-empty hall looks less efficient than a full one with the same plant, a point the GDA makes in its committee statement.
Take an illustrative existing colocation hall with 6 MW of design IT load and assume, for the model only, a facility overhead of a fixed 700 kW plus 22% of IT load.
| Average IT load | Utilisation | Overhead | Total facility load | PUE | Against 1.5 | Against 1.6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8 MW | 30% | 1.096 MW | 2.896 MW | 1.61 | Fails | Fails |
| 2.4 MW | 40% | 1.228 MW | 3.628 MW | 1.51 | Fails | Passes |
| 3.0 MW | 50% | 1.360 MW | 4.360 MW | 1.45 | Passes | Passes |
| 4.8 MW | 80% | 1.756 MW | 6.556 MW | 1.37 | Passes | Passes |
At 40% utilisation the arithmetic for a year looks like this:
- IT energy: 2.4 MW × 8,760 hours = 21,024 MWh.
- Total energy at PUE 1.512: 3.628 MW × 8,760 = 31,781 MWh, of which overhead is 10,757 MWh.
- Ceiling at 1.5: 21,024 × 1.5 = 31,536 MWh. The site must cut 245 MWh of overhead, about 2.3% of its non-IT energy, or raise utilisation.
- Ceiling at 1.6: 21,024 × 1.6 = 33,638 MWh. The site complies with 1,857 MWh of headroom.
Now change the measurement category. If 2% of the energy leaving the UPS is lost in PDUs and distribution, category 3 IT energy is 2.4 × 0.98 = 2.352 MW, and the same hall reports 3.628 ÷ 2.352 = 1.54 instead of 1.51. A metering decision is worth 0.03 of PUE here, enough to decide pass or fail for a site near 1.5.
For context, the Commission's report on 2024 data puts the energy-weighted average PUE of German sites in the EU database at 1.39, against 1.36 EU-wide, and 1.64 for sites of 500 to 1,000 kW across the EU. Large sites dominate a weighted average, so many smaller, older halls sit closer to the line.
Steps for operators before 1 July 2027
- Confirm scope on both bases: 300 kW of non-redundant connected load today, 500 kW of installed IT power under the bill.
- Fix the measurement design now. Document the category, confirm utility-entrance metering covers all plant, replace kVA-only readings and keep raw interval data.
- Compute a rolling 12-month PUE every month and model it against 1.5, 1.6 and the 2030 values.
- Map utilisation by hall. Consolidation, containment, free cooling, setpoints and idle-plant shutdown are the usual levers.
- Re-check heat-export projects, since heat-pump electricity counts against an existing site.
- Review tenant contracts for utilisation ramps, minimum-load commitments and metering access.
- Prepare the 2026 report, due by 31 March 2027, using the method you will defend. Our guide to EU data centre energy reporting covers the parallel EU submission.
- Keep an evidence file and track the committee report, readings, Bundesrat and Federal Law Gazette.
Steps for colocation tenants
Your provider carries the PUE limit, and in our view the cost of meeting it will show up in your contract. Ask before renewal:
- Which EN 50600-4-2 category do you report, and what is the rolling 12-month PUE for the site and hall I use?
- If you sit between 1.5 and 1.6, what is your plan if the bill fails or is delayed?
- Will you introduce minimum-utilisation, ramp-up or density clauses?
- Who meters my IT load, and can I receive monthly data for my own section 12 management system?
- Will efficiency investments be passed through in my price, and on what formula?
Check your own position too. At 50 kW or more you are an IT operator with management-system and metering duties, and at 500 kW or more you have needed certification since 1 January 2026; the bill would lift that certification threshold to 1 MW. If the numbers point to moving workloads, our note on EU Data Act switching charges covers the contract side of an exit.
Decision table: your rolling PUE today
| Rolling 12-month PUE | Current law (1.5) | Bill (1.6) | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.45 or lower | Compliant with margin | Compliant | Maintain; document the method |
| 1.46 to 1.50 | At risk from load swings | Compliant | Build margin; confirm the metering category |
| 1.51 to 1.60 | Non-compliant from 1 July 2027 | Compliant | Start an efficiency programme now; take legal advice on timing |
| Above 1.60 | Non-compliant | Non-compliant | Capex plan, consolidation or an exit decision |
What could still change in committee
The GDA proposes a second compliance route: binding PUE reference values at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of design IT load, an independently checked design curve below them, and operating PUE compared against that curve. For existing sites it suggests assessing operational PUE and load together. It points to ASHRAE Standard 90.4 and Singapore's Green Mark, which assess at the same four load points, and asks that fines be ruled out where a miss stems from tenant load the operator cannot influence.
Critics want the opposite. At the hearing, Julian Bothe of AlgorithmWatch argued the changes would raise energy use and emissions, and Leonard Burtscher of Umweltinstitut München said weakening the act might be unconstitutional.
The EU layer is moving too. The Commission proposed a common data centre rating scheme on 21 September 2026 and is consulting on EU minimum performance standards until 14 December 2026, with a proposal planned for the second quarter of 2027. Our article on EU data centre minimum performance standards follows that track.
How eCorpIT can help
eCorpIT is a Gurugram-based technology organisation, founded in 2021, assessed at CMMI Level 5 and MSME certified, with senior-led engineering teams working across AWS, Microsoft and Google platforms. Our data centre and cloud networking team designs EN 50600-4-2 metering and PUE dashboards for operators and tenants in German facilities, models the 1.5 and 1.6 cases against real load data and reviews colocation contracts for energy-data clauses. Talk to us at /contact-us/.
Last updated: 7 November 2026.
