The Association of Spanish Cloud and Data Center Service Providers (APECDATA) has presented allegations to the Draft Royal Decree that will regulate the energy, environmental, resilience and digital sovereignty requirements applicable to data centers. The text, aimed at organizing access and connection permits to electrical energy transport and distribution networks, arises from the plans announced by large international operators, which, according to the sector, are not compatible with an orderly growth of the national electrical infrastructure or with the planned evolution of data centers in Spain.
Alignment on digital sovereignty
What is demanded is a balanced framework that promotes sustainability without slowing down competitiveness, an idea that APECDATA underlines by positively assessing that the project is aligned with the European Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA). The association even proposes to reinforce this alignment in terms of digital sovereignty, remembering that, in an increasingly digitalized economy, it is essential to regulate the requirements of those who host the data of citizens, companies and administrations. Europe, he points out, starts from a solid position in privacy guarantees and must be demanding in their compliance by those in charge of processing, among which are data centers.
In the area of sustainability, APECDATA warns that the requirements raised are very demanding and could become a barrier for existing operators. Therefore, it proposes raising the mandatory threshold from 1 to 5 MW, in order to protect smaller facilities, such as business centers, shared spaces and small data centers, whose impact on the project’s objectives is reduced. The association also requests that the text be harmonized with the European regulation being prepared, which considers factors such as the climatic zone, the water situation or the type of cooling used, whether air or water, aspects that are especially relevant for the sustainable operation of data centers.
Ensure ecosystem growth
Another key point of the allegations is the proposal that the percentage of energy from non-fossil origin be computed in equivalent annual hours and not hourly, given that the main renewable sources do not operate at night. In addition, APECDATA proposes improvements aimed at reinforcing the legal security of the project, more clearly delimiting its sanctioning regime and coordinating it with two other Royal Decrees in process that also affect data centers. For the association, this coordination is especially important at a time when these infrastructures are acquiring a strategic role for the development of the digital economy.
APECDATA proposes improvements aimed at reinforcing the legal security of the project, in addition to another series of aspects
The president of APECDATA, Roberto Beitia, highlights the importance of the regulatory framework accompanying the development of the sector without generating adverse effects: “Spain has the opportunity to consolidate itself as a European benchmark in digital infrastructure, but to achieve this we need a balanced and technically sound regulatory framework. We fully support the objectives of sustainability and digital sovereignty, but it is essential that the rules do not penalize local operators or slow down innovation. Our allegations seek precisely to guarantee that the growth of the data center ecosystem is orderly, competitive and beneficial for the country,” he says.
