Ministry of Economic Affairs: Data Center Overall Efficiency to Include Industrial Benefits Assessment

(CNA, Reporter: Hsieh Yi-hsuan, Taipei, July 1st) The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced today that to enable data centers to generate local supply chain industrial linkage benefits, it has pre-announced an amendment to Article 9, Table 7 of the "Energy Development and Utilization Assessment Standards." This amendment will incorporate an industrial benefits assessment into the review scope of data center energy use statements, guiding data centers to adopt energy-saving designs, improve energy efficiency, and drive related industrial benefits.

The MOEA stated in a press release today that to ensure data centers adopt high-efficiency equipment and best available techniques during the planning phase, it amended and promulgated three subordinate regulations on November 3rd last year, in accordance with the authorization of Article 16 of the "Energy Management Act." These include the "Energy Development and Utilization Assessment Standards," "Scope of Application for Energy Users," and "Format of Energy Use Statement." These regulations require hyperscale and colocation data centers with an energy consumption of 5MW or more to adopt best available techniques during new construction or expansion phases to optimize energy-saving designs.

The MOEA pointed out that the current amendment to the draft of Article 9, Table 7 "Data Center Overall Efficiency" of the "Energy Development and Utilization Assessment Standards" adds the "Industrial Benefits Assessment" item and its detailed indicators. These include five aspects: investment and industrial output value contribution, employment numbers, industrial supply chain benefits, artificial intelligence ecosystem empowerment benefits, and information and communication security and resilience.

The MOEA explained that this amendment is in response to external concerns about the high power consumption of data centers, and their establishment should also consider related industrial effects.

The MOEA stated that after the amendment, the review process for data center energy use statements will include, in terms of power planning, that during the site selection phase of the investment plan, the feasibility of power supply must first be confirmed with Taiwan Power Company or self-generation equipment providers to secure the required power capacity for a certain scale, ensuring subsequent power supply feasibility.

Regarding industrial benefits, the MOEA indicated that applications must be submitted to the local government authority of the establishment location or to the accepting authority such as science parks or industrial parks. The accepting authority will then assess the local investment benefits driven by the plan and forward it to the MOEA's Bureau of Energy for review.

The MOEA stated that finally, the Bureau of Energy will convene a meeting of the MOEA's Energy Use Statement Consultation Committee, inviting the aforementioned accepting authorities, the MOEA's Industrial Development Administration, Taiwan Power Company, relevant ministries and agencies, and scholars and experts to jointly review the application, ensuring that data center investment projects balance industrial development, power supply feasibility, and energy use efficiency.

The MOEA emphasized that computing power requires electricity. It expects that the development of data centers can, through the joint review mechanism of energy use statements, guide operators to assess power supply during the factory planning phase, select suitable locations, adopt energy-saving designs, reduce grid load, improve energy efficiency, and strengthen local connections to create industrial linkage benefits. (Editor: Chang Chun-mao) 1150701

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