With the large-scale construction of data centers and the extensive development of information technology, the high energy consumption of data centers is also highlighted. To this end, the Chinese government has formulated a series of policies to guide the energy-saving and sustainable development of the industry. In August 2013, the State Council issued the Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting Information Consumption and Expanding Domestic Demand, which put forward the development requirements of coordinating the layout of cloud computing infrastructure such as Internet data centers (IDCs), and for the first time explicitly incorporated data centers in information infrastructure. It is clearly required that “people’s governments at all levels shall take into account information infrastructure during urban and rural construction and land use planning, and provide necessary policy and financial support.” In the same period of 2013, the State Council issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Energy-saving and Environmental Protection Industries (the “Opinions”), which focused on carrying out energy-saving transformation of data centers and reducing the energy consumption by cooling of data centers, supercomputing center servers and large computers. In 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Government Offices Administration, and the National Energy Administration issued the National Green Data Center Pilot Work Plan to further implement the requirements of the Opinions, and comprehensively improve the energy-saving and environmental protection level of data centers.

In order to promote the energy conservation of data centers, the China Quality Certification Centre (CQC) officially launched the Data Center Energy-saving Certification Program; after investigating the energy-saving data of data centers for a long time, and in accordance with the GB/T 32910.3 Data Center - Resource Utilization - Part 3: Electric Energy Usage Effectiveness Requirements and Measuring Methods, CQC technical specifications were developed. By means of on-site monitoring, architecture modeling, sampling, long-term supervision and other effective testing links, the data center energy-saving certification certificate with the corresponding level is issued to data centers that meet the energy-saving requirements.

1. Application Scope:

Data Center Energy-saving Certification (Category No.: 701049)

II. Evaluation Mode:

On-site audit and witness testing + post-certification supervision

III. Evaluation Result:

The data center energy-saving certification consists of three levels of certification:

Level I (equivalent to Level I in GB/T 32910.3);

Level II (equivalent to Level II in GB/T 32910.3);

Level III (equivalent to Level III in GB/T 32910.3).

IV. Technical Specifications:

CQC 3164-2018 Technical Specifications for Energy-saving Certification of Data Centers

V. Implementation Rules:

CQC31-541205-2018 Data Center Energy-saving Certification Rules

VI. Application Materials:

Data Center Energy-saving Certification Application

VII. Certification Process:

Application Processes

1. Submit application materials

2. Audit the materials and determine the testing scheme

3. Carry out testing and onsite witness testing and issue reports

4. CQC qualification certification

5. Payment of certification applicant

6. Certificate issuance