In 2022, China's data center energy consumption totaled 130 billion kilowatt-hours, accounting for approximately 1.5% of the total national electricity consumption. Servers, as the primary energy-consuming equipment in data centers, can contribute to 50% to 60% of the total energy consumption in data centers. The State Council, in its "Carbon Peak Action Plan by 2030," has proposed benchmarking international advanced levels, accelerating the improvement of efficiency standards for communication, computation, storage, transmission, and other equipment, raising entry requirements, and phasing out outdated equipment and technologies. Therefore, promptly enhancing server efficiency standards to guide the industry in energy conservation and efficiency improvement has become an urgent need.

On September 27, 2023, SAC/TC20 (Energy Basics and Management) reviewed and reached consensus on the text of the mandatory national standard "Energy Efficiency Limits and Efficiency Levels for Tower and Rack Servers." This standard specifies the efficiency levels, technical requirements, and testing methods for one-way and two-way tower and rack-mounted server products. Based on references to the energy efficiency status and technological development trends of server products both domestically and internationally, the drafting committee proposed new server efficiency evaluation indicators, established corresponding measurement methods and workload calculations, and developed the Server Efficiency Evaluation Benchmark Tool (BenchSEE).

The technical parameters for energy efficiency specified in this standard exceed the requirements of relevant standards and specifications in the European Union and the United States, thus may have an impact on overseas products entering the Chinese market.

For more information, please refer to China Regulates Energy Efficiency Limits and Energy Efficiency Grades for Tower and Rack Servers - SEP 2023 (bestao-consulting.com)