Managing a data center in 2026 increasingly resembles running a factory. Instead of producing physical goods, we produce data, insights, and business decisions. Every megawatt of electricity is a cost that, over the course of a year, can exceed the entire marketing budget of whole departments. It is time to stop treating energy as “something you just have to pay for” and start treating it as a strategic resource that can — and must — be actively managed.

PUE – a number that doesn’t tell the whole story

If an IT manager does not know the PUE of their data center, it’s like a ship captain who doesn’t know how much fuel is left in the tank. Power Usage Effectiveness is a metric that answers one simple question: how much energy do you consume on everything other than actual data processing?

An ideal PUE is 1.0 — every watt goes directly to IT equipment. Reality is different. In Polish climate conditions, most well-managed data centers operate at an average annual PUE between 1.4 and 1.6.

Why not the 1.2 often quoted in industry portals? Because those values are achieved under different conditions — in Scandinavia, where low temperatures prevail year-round, or in hyperscale facilities where scale enables investments measured in hundreds of millions. In Poland, given our climate and market realities, a PUE of 1.5 is a solid result. In winter, with free cooling, it can drop as low as 1.1. In summer, with temperatures reaching 35°C, it rises to 1.6 or 1.7. That’s why the annual average matters — not a marketing snapshot from the best month of the year.

Cooling – 40% of the energy budget that can be optimized

The traditional approach to data center cooling relies on air conditioning running continuously at maximum capacity “just in case.” The problem? Maximum output means maximum cost.

Intelligent HVAC management changes the game. Instead of cooling everything to 18°C, temperature is dynamically adjusted based on actual server load and hot-spot locations.

Where climate allows, free cooling — using outside air — can reduce cooling costs by up to 70%. In Poland, where temperatures remain below 15°C for most of the year, this is a realistic option. Add heat-recovery systems to the mix — why dump megawatts of thermal energy outside when it can be reused to heat offices or nearby buildings?

Power 2.0 – UPS and energy storage as an investment

 Modern UPS systems (Uninterruptible Power Supply) are no longer just protection against power outages. They are intelligent energy-management platforms. New-generation UPS solutions achieve 98–99% efficiency, meaning minimal energy conversion losses.

They can also integrate with energy storage systems (lithium-ion or hydrogen batteries), enabling strategic peak-load management and the use of cheaper electricity outside peak hours.

Power topology also matters. N+1 or 2N redundancy? Every additional power path means extra cost and energy loss. The key is balance — not every data center needs to be “Fort Knox.” In many cases, improving application-level availability through software architecture is cheaper than excessive physical infrastructure redundancy.

ESG reporting – not just ethics, but compliance

The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) is no longer a distant vision — it is already mandatory for the largest EU companies and will gradually apply to smaller organizations. A data center without an energy audit and transparent CO₂ emissions reporting will eventually face compliance issues.

But this isn’t only about regulation — it’s a business argument. More and more public tenders and corporate contracts require suppliers to demonstrate ESG activities. No energy audit? You may lose the tender before your technical offer is even reviewed.

How much does the next tenth of PUE really cost?

This is a question rarely addressed in industry articles: what does it actually cost to achieve a lower PUE — and does it pay off?

Reducing PUE from 1.6 to 1.5 is a very different investment than going from 1.4 to 1.3. The lower you go, the more expensive it becomes. Chilled-water cooling systems, advanced UPS configurations, sophisticated climate control — all of this costs money, sometimes far more than the savings generated over the next few years.

There’s also another side to the equation: PUE can be lowered by cutting safety measures. Turn off generator heating — you save kilowatts. Remove a redundant UPS path — even better for the metric. But what happens when something fails? A lower PUE achieved at the expense of reliability is a Pyrrhic victory.

Customers won’t pay more than the market rate. If lowering PUE by 0.1 increases service pricing by 15%, while competitors offer “worse” PUE but lower prices, the outcome is often predictable. Energy efficiency gains can easily be consumed by the cost of transformation.

IT Manager Checklist – is your infrastructure ready?

Do you know your data center’s PUE? If not — start with an audit.

• Do you measure real energy consumption per server or rack? Real-time monitoring is essential.
• Is cooling optimized dynamically, or does it always run at full capacity?
• Do you use free cooling where possible?
• Do your UPS systems exceed 95% efficiency?
• Do you schedule workloads during lower-tariff energy periods?
• Do you have a CO₂ emissions reporting strategy aligned with CSRD?

If most of your answers are “no” — this is not criticism. It’s an opportunity.

Efficiency is not a race for the lowest numer

Energy efficiency in data centers is a board-level topic — not just an operations issue. But efficiency does not mean blindly chasing the lowest PUE on the market.

It means finding balance. Between investment costs and real savings. Between efficiency and reliability. Between what looks good in a proposal and what actually works when outside temperatures exceed 30°C or when one of the cooling units fails.

A data center with PUE 1.5 and full redundancy may be a better choice than one with PUE 1.3 and reduced safety infrastructure. The number in the offer is not everything — what matters is what stands behind it.

It’s time to stop asking “What is your PUE?” and start asking:
“What do you include in this metric, what does it cost to achieve it, and what happens when something goes wrong?”