EN   EN 
 
 
 EUROPEAN  
COMMISSION   
Brussels, XXX   
[…](2016) XXX  draft  
 
COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) …/…  
of XXX  
implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 
with regard to ecodesign requirements for servers and data storage products and 
amending Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/2013   
(Text with EEA relevance)    
EN 1  EN COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) …/…  
of XXX  
implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 
with regard to ecodesign requirements for servers and data storage products and 
amending Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/2013   
(Text with EEA relevance)  
THE EUROPEAN COMMIS SION,  
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,  
Having regard to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 
October 2009 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy -
related products1, and in particular Article 15(1) thereof,  
After consulti ng the Consultation Forum referred to in Article 18 of Directive 2009/125/EC,  
Whereas:  
(1) Directive 2009/125/EC requires the Commission to set ecodesign requirements for 
energy -related products that represent significant volumes of sales and trade, that have 
a significant environmental impact and that present significant potential for 
improvement in terms of their environmental impact without entailing excessive costs.  
(2) The Commission has carried out a preparatory study to analyse the technical, 
environmental a nd economic aspects of servers and data storage product s typically 
used for commercial purposes. The study has been carried out with stakeholders and 
interested parties from the Union and third countries, and the results have been made 
publicly available.   
(3) Servers and data storage product s are typically placed on the market for use in data 
centres , office and corporate environments.  
(4) The environmental aspects of servers and data storage product s that have been 
identified as significant for the purposes of this Regulation are energy consumption in 
the use phase and resource efficiency , in particular o n the aspects related to 
repairability, reusability, upgradeability and recyclability  for security of supply . 
(5) Ecodesign requirements should harmonise energy con sumption and resource 
efficiency requirements for servers and data storage product s throughout the Union, 
for the internal market to operate better and in order to improve the environmental 
performance of those products.  
(6) The annual energy consumption relat ed to servers directly  is expected to be 48 TWh in 
2030,  which increases to 75 TWh when the annual energy consumption related to 
infrastructure  (e.g. cooling systems and uninterruptible power supply systems ) is also 
included. The annual energy consumption of data storage product s is expected to be 30 
                                                 
1 OJ L 285, 31.10.2009, p. 10.   
EN 2  EN TWh in 2030, 47 TWh when  infrastructure  is also included . The preparatory study 
shows that use -phase energy consumption by servers and data storage products can be 
significantly reduced.  
(7) The effect of the ecodesign requirements set out in this Regulation is estimated to 
result by 2030 in annual energy savings of approximately 9 TWh  (approximately the 
yearly electricity consumption of Estonia in 2014) . More in detail, the effect of the 
ecod esign requirements for servers set out in this Regulation is estimated to result by 
2030 in direct annual energy savings of approximately 2.4 TWh and indirect (i.e. 
related to infrastructure) annual energy savings of 3.7 TWh, summing up to a total 
saving o f 6.1 TWh, corresponding to a total of 2.1 Mt of CO2 equivalent. The effect of 
the ecodesign requirements for data storage products set out in this Regulation is 
estimated to result by 2030 in direct annual energy savings of approximately 0.8 TWh 
and indir ect (i.e. related to infrastructure) annual energy savings of 2 TWh, summing 
up to a total saving of 2.8 TWh, corresponding to 0.9 Mt of CO2 equivalent.  
(8) In accordance with t he U nion action plan for the Circular Economy2 the Commission 
should  make sure tha t special emphasis is placed on aspects relevant to the circular 
economy, such as durability and reparability, when setting out or revising ecodesign 
criteria. T herefore requirements should be laid down on non -energy related aspects, 
including extraction o f key -components and of critical raw materials  (CRMs) , 
availability of built -in functionality for secure data deletion and provision of latest 
available version of firmware.  
(9) The requirement on the extraction of key -components is expected to foster the 
reparability and upgradability of servers and data storage products , in particular by 
third parties  (such as spare parts repairers  and maintenance ). 
(10) The possibility to address CRMs in Ecodesign regulations (including for enterprise 
servers ) has been mentioned in the recent Commission Staff Working Document 
‘Report on Critical Raw Materials and the Circular Economy’3. 
(11) The requirement on a built -in functionality for secure data deletion could be 
implemented by means of technical solutions such as, but not limited  to, a 
functionality implemented in firmware, typically in the Basic Input/Output System 
(BIOS), in software included in a self -contained bootable environment provided in a 
bootable compact disc, digital versatile disc or universal serial bus  memory stora ge 
device included with the product, or in software installable in the supported operating 
systems provided with the product.  
(12) The requirements on non -energy related aspects  are expected to contribute prolong ing 
the lifetime  of servers by making it easier t o refurbish and reuse them, while 
maintaining compliance with the principles of privacy and protection of personal data 
as set by Regulation (EU ) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council4. 
                                                 
2 COM(2015) 614 final.  
3 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of  the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the 
protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of 
such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (O J L 119, 4.5.2016, 
p. 1).  
4 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the 
protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of 
such data, and repealing Dir ective 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, 
p. 1).   
EN 3  EN (13) The energy consumption of servers and data storage pr oduct s could be reduced by 
applying existing non -proprietary technologies without an increase in the combined 
costs of purchasing and operating these products.  
(14) The ecodesign requirements should not affect the functionality or affordability of 
servers and data storage product s from the end -user’s perspective and should not 
negatively affect health, safety or the environment.  
(15) This Regulation should  apply without prejudice to the requirements of Union 
legislation on safety and health, in particular the Directi ve 2014/35/EU  of the 
European Parliament and of the Council5, which covers all health and safety risks of 
electrical equipment operating with a voltage between 50 and 1000 V for alternating 
current and between 75 and 1500 V for direct current . 
(16) The introduction of ecodesign requirements should give manufacturers sufficient time 
to redesign their products subject to this Regulation. The timing should take into 
account the impact on manufacturers’ costs, in particular for small and medium -sized 
enterpr ises, while ensuring timely achievement of the objectives of this Regulation.  
(17) Product parameters should be measured and calculated using reliable, accurate and 
reproducible methods which take into account recognised state -of-the-art measurement 
and calcula tion methods, including, where available, harmonised standards adopted by 
the European standardisation organisations following a request by the Commission, in 
accordance with the procedures laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the 
European Parliame nt and of the Council6. 
(18) In accordance with Article 8 of Directive 2009/125/EC, this Regulation specifies 
which conformity assessment procedures apply.  
(19) In order to facilitate compliance checks, manufacturers should provide the information 
contained in the technical documentation referred to in Annexes IV and V to Directive 
2009/125/EC insofar as that information relates to the requirements laid down in this 
Regulation.  
(20) In addition to the legally binding requirements laid down in this Regulation, indicative 
benchmarks for best available technologies should be determined to ensure that 
information on the life -cycle environmental performance of servers and data storage 
product s is widely available and easily accessible.  
(21) Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/20137, should be amended to exclude computer 
servers  from its scope in order to prevent any overlap with the same products in the 
scope of this Regulation . 
                                                 
5 Directive 2014/35/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on the 
harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available  on the market of 
electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits (OJ L 96, 29.3.2014, p. 357).  
6 Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on 
European standardisation, amending Counci l Directives 89/686/EEC and 93/15/EEC and Directives 
94/9/EC, 94/25/EC, 95/16/EC, 97/23/EC, 98/34/EC, 2004/22/EC, 2007/23/EC, 2009/23/EC and 
2009/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Decision 
87/95/EEC and Decision No 1673/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 316, 
14.11.2012, p. 12 ). 
7 Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/2013 of 26 June 2013 implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of 
the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to ecodesign req uirements for computers and 
computer servers (OJ L 175, 27.6.2013, p. 13).   
EN 4  EN (22) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the 
Committee establishe d under Article 19(1) of Directive 2009/125/EC  
(23) The definitions  of this Regulation  related to  data storage products are consistent with 
the terminology developed by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) 
Green Storage Initiative as defined in the SNIA Emerald taxonomy . 
(24) In particular, the small data storage products definition corresponds to the online 1 
equipment as set out in the SNIA Emerald taxonomy, and the large data storage 
products definition corresponds to the online 5 and 6 equipment as set out in the SNIA 
Emerald taxonomy . 
(25) The definitions of this Regulation related to servers, among  which th e ones related to 
server efficiency and server performance, are consistent with the terminology  adopted 
in EN 303 470:2018 . 
(26) The operating conditions classes, and their characteristics, are consistent with the 
classification set in the Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments  by the 
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air -Conditioning Engineers . In 
particular, the boundary conditio ns of each operating class (such as temperature and 
humidity) are in accord with the allowable environmental ranges  of the  Thermal 
Guidelines for Data Processing Environments , where manufacturers test their 
equipment in order to verify that it will functio n within those boundaries , 
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:  
Article 1  
Subject matter and scope  
1. This Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements for placing on the market and 
putting into service of servers and online data storage products.  
2. This Regulation sh all not apply to  the following products : 
(a) servers intended for embedded applications;  
(b) servers classified as small scale servers in terms of Regulation (EU) No 
617/2013;  
(c) servers with more than four processor sockets;  
(d) server appliances ; 
(e) large servers ; 
(f) fully fault tolerant servers ; 
(g) network servers ; 
(h) small data storage product s;  
(i) large data storage products.  
Article 2 
Definitions  
1. For the purposes of this Regulation , the following definitions shall apply : 
(1) ‘server’ means a computing product that provides services and manages networked 
resources for client devices, such as desktop computers, notebook computers, 
desktop thin clients, internet protocol tele phones, smart phones, tablets, tele -
communication, automated systems or other servers , primarily accessed via netw ork  
EN 5  EN connections, and not through direct user input devices, such as a keyboard or a 
mouse a and with the following characteristics:  
(a) it is designed to support server operating systems (OS) and/or hypervisors, and 
targeted to run user -installed enterprise applications;  
(b) it supports error -correcting code and/or buffered memory (including both 
buffered dual in -line memory modules and buffered on board configurations);  
(c) all processors have access to shared system memory and are independently 
visible to a single OS or hypervisor;  
(1) ‘server with more than four processor  sockets’ means a server containing more than 
four interfaces designed for the installation of a processor;   
(2) 'embedded application' means a software application that permanently resides in an 
industria l or consumer device , typically stored in a non -volatile memory such as 
read-only memory or flash memory;  
(3) 'server appliance' means a server that is not intended to execute user -supplied 
software , delivers services through one or more networks, is typically  managed 
through a web or command line interface   and is bundled with a pre -installed OS and 
application software that is used to perform a dedicated function or set of tightly 
coupled  functions .; 
(4) 'resilient server' means a server designed with extensive reliability, availability, 
serviceability and scalability features integrated in the micro architecture of the 
system, central processing unit (CPU) an d chipset;  
(5) ‘large server’  means  a resilient server which ships as a pre -integrated/pre -tested 
system hous ed in one or more full frame racks and that includes a high connectivity 
input/output  subsystem with a minimum of 32 dedicated input/output slots;   
(6) 'fully fault tolerant server' means a  server  that is designed with  complete hardware 
redundancy  (to simultaneously and repetitively run a single workload for continuous 
availability in mission critical applications) , in which every computing component is 
replicated between two nodes running identical and concurrent workloads  (i.e., i f one 
node fails  or needs repair, the second node can run the workload alone to avoid 
downtime ); 
(7) 'network server'  means a network product which contains the same components as a 
server in addition to more than 11 network port with a total line rate throughput of 12 
Gb/s o r more, the capability to dynamically reconfigure ports and speed and support 
for a virtualized network environment thr ough a software defined network;   
(8) ‘data storage product' means a fully -functional storage system that supplies data 
storage services to c lients and devices attached directly or through a network. 
Components and subsystems that are an integral part of the data storage product 
architecture (e.g., to provide internal communications between controllers and disks) 
are considered to be part of th e data storage product. In contrast, components that are 
normally associated with a storage environment at the data centre level (e.g. devices 
required for operation of an external storage area network) are not considered to be 
part of the data storage pro duct. A data storage product may be composed of 
integrated storage controllers, data storage devices, embedded network elements, 
software, and other devices;   
EN 6  EN (9) 'Hard Disk Drive' (HDD) means a data  storage device which reads and writes to one 
or more rotatin g magnetic disk platters;  
(10) 'Solid State Drive' (SSD) means a data storage device that reads and writes to non-
volatile solid state memory  instead of rotating magnetic platters for data storage;  
(11) ‘data storage device’ means HDDs, SSDs, tapes cartridges, and a ny other 
mechanisms providing non -volatile data storage, with the exception of aggregating 
storage elements such as subsystems of redundant arrays of independent disks, 
robotic tape libraries, filers, and file servers and storage devices which are not 
directly accessible by end -user application programs, and are instead employed as a 
form of internal cache ; 
(12) ‘online data storage product' means a data storage product designed for online, 
random -access of data , accessible in a random or sequential pattern , with a maximum 
time to first data of an online data storage product less than 80 milliseconds;  
(13) 'small data storage product ' means a data storage product intended for domestic use 
containing a maximum of four data storage device s;  
(14) 'large data storage product'  means a high end or mainframe data storage product that 
supports more than 400 data storage devices  in its maximum configuration and with 
the following required attributes: no single point of failure, non -disruptive 
serviceability and integrated storage c ontroller.   
2. For the purposes of Annexes II to V, additional definitions are set out in Annex I . 
Article 3  
Ecodesign requirements and timetable  
1. The ecodesign requirements for servers and online data storage products are set out 
in Annex II.  
2. From 1 March 2020  servers shall comply with the ecodesign requirements set out in 
Annex II points 1.1.1, 1.2 .1, 1.2.2 , 2.1, 3.1, 3.3 and 3.4 . 
3. From 1 March 2020 o nline d ata storage products shall comply with the ecodesign 
requirements set out in Annex II points 1.1.1, 1.2.1, 1.2.2 , 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 . 
(a) From 1 March 2021 servers and online data storage products shall comply with 
the ecodesign requirement set out in Annex II point 1.2.3 . 
(b) From 1 January 2023 servers and online data storage products shall comply 
with the  ecode sign requirements set out in Annex II point 1.1.2 . 
(c) From 1 January 2026 servers and online data storage products shall comply 
with the ecodesign requirements set out in Annex II point 1.1.3 . 
(d) Compliance with ecodesign requirements shall be measured and calcu lated in 
accordance with the methods set out in Annex III.  
Article 4  
Conformity assessment  
1. The conformity assessment procedure referred to in Article 8(2) of Directive 
2009/125/EC shall be the internal design control set out in Annex IV to that 
Directive o r the management system set out in Annex V to that Directive.   
EN 7  EN 2. For the purposes of the conformity assessment pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 
2009/125/EC, the technical documentation shall contain the information set out in 
point 3.4 of Annex II to this R egulation.  
Article 5  
Verification procedure for market surveillance purposes  
The authorities of the Member States shall apply the verification procedure set out in Annex 
IV to this Regulation when performing the market surveillance checks referred to in Ar ticle 
3(2) of Directive 2009/125/EC.  
Article 6  
Indicative benchmarks  
The indicative benchmarks for best -performing servers and data storage products available on 
the market on [OP – please insert the  date of entry into force of this Regulation ] are set out in 
Annex V.  
Article 7  
Review   
The Commission shall review this Regulation in the light of technological progress and 
present the result of that review to the Consultation Forum by 1 March 2023. In particular, the 
review shall assess whether : 
(a) it is appropriate to set specific ecodesign requirements on server efficiency , 
performance and power demand;  
(b) it is still appropriate to set specific ecodesign requirements for servers on idle 
state power ; 
(c) it is necessary to update the definitions or the sco pe of the Regulation;  
(d) it is appropriate to set specific ecodesign requirements on the operating 
condition class ; 
(e) it is appropriate to set specific ecodesign requirements on the efficiency, 
performance and power demand of data storage products .  
Article 8  
Amendment to Regulation (EU) No 617/2013  
Regulation (EU) No 617/2013 is amended as follows:  
1. Article 1 is amended as follows:  
(a) paragraph 1  is replaced by the following:  "1. This Regulation establishes 
ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market o f computers .", 
(b) in paragraph 2 , point  (h) is deleted,  
(c) in paragraph 3 , points  (a) to (d)are deleted;  
2. Article 2 is amended as follows : 
(a) point  2 is deleted , 
(b) point  4 is replaced by the following :"(4) ‘Internal power supply’ means a 
component designed to convert AC  voltage from the mains to DC voltage(s) 
for the purpose of powering the computer and has the following characteristics:   
EN 8  EN (a) is contained within the computer casing but is separate from the main 
computer board;  
(b) the power supply connects to the mains through a single cable with no 
intermediate circuitry between the power supply and the mains power; 
and 
(c) all power connections from the power supply to the computer 
components, with the exception of a DC connection to a display in an 
integrated desktop computer, are internal to the computer casing.  
Internal DC -to-DC converters used to convert a single DC voltage from an 
external power supply into multiple voltages for use by a computer are not 
considered internal power supplies; ", 
(c) points 11 to 16 are deleted , 
(d) point  22 is replaced by the following:  "(22) ‘Product type’ means desktop 
computer, integrated desktop computer, notebook computer, desktop thin 
client, workstation, mobile workstation, small -scale server, game console, 
docking station, internal power supply or ex ternal power supply; " 
3. Article 3 is replaced by the following:  "Article 3  
Ecodesign requirements  
The ecodesign requirements for computers are set out in Annex II.  
Compliance of computers with the applicable ecodesign requirements shall be 
measured in accord ance with the methods set out in Annex III.";  
4. in Article 7 , the second paragraph  is replaced by the following:  "Checking of 
computers for compliance with the applicable ecodesign requirements shall be 
carried out in accordance with the verification procedure set out in point 2 of Annex 
III to this Regulation. "; 
5. Annex II is amended as follows:  
(a) point 5.2 is deleted,  
(b) the title of point 7.3 is replaced by the following:  "Workstation, mobile 
workstation , desktop thin client  and small -scale server ". 
 
Article 9  
Entry into force  
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth  day following that of its publication in 
the Official Journal of the European Union . 
However, Article 8 shall apply from  1 March 2020 . 
This Regulation shall be binding in it s entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.   
EN 9  EN Done at Brussels,  
 For the Commission  
 The President  
 Jean -Claude JUNCKER