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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3903
TO BE ANSWERED ON 16.03.2026
Power usage Effectiveness Standards
3903. SHRI RAO RAJENDRA SINGH:
Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to
state:
a) whether mandatory Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) standards have been established for
data centres, if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether Green Building certifications (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,
Indian Green Building Council) are being mandated or incentivised for new data centre
construction and if so, the details thereof;
(c) the details of water efficiency standards being applied to prevent over-consumption in
water-stressed regions; and
(d) whether environmental impact bonds or performance-linked carbon offset programmes are
available for data centre operators and if so, the details thereof?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE
CHANGE
(SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)
(a)-(c) The Government of India is continuously encouraging data centre providers to adopt
sustainable technologies resulting in betterment of Power Usage Efficiency (PUE). The Bureau
of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, has established norms and standards for
efficient electricity consumption in data centres mentioned in Energy Conservation Building
Code (ECBC 2017), published under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. ECBC addresses
requirements for energy utilization in chillers Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC),
Air Handling Units (AHU) Fans etc.
The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) certification of data centres is governed by
professionally administered certification frameworks, and the decision to obtain such
certification rest with the data centre developers.
The water requirement depends on the type of cooling mechanism data centre deploys. The
data centre industry is adopting advanced cooling technologies such as direct-to-chip liquid
cooling, adiabatic cooling, immersion cooling etc.
Industry is also deploying high density racks to efficiently support high-performance
computing & AI workloads for further reduction of power and water consumption.(d) The activities of the Building Construction Projects and Township and Area Development
Projects are covered under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 as
amended. The applicable projects are required to obtain Environmental Clearance (EC). The
ECs are granted based on the Technical Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) recommendations.
Various specific and standard conditions are required to be complied with by the Project
Proponents including the concept of passive solar design that minimize energy consumption in
buildings by using design elements, such as building orientation, landscaping, efficient
building envelope, appropriate fenestration, increased day lighting design and thermal mass
etc.
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