DIGITAL4BETTER · OPEN DATA

Understanding PUE, WUE and REF

Essential guidance for interpreting and reusing the data.

Three distinct measures

PUE relates total datacenter energy to IT equipment energy. WUE describes water use relative to energy, with a boundary to check in the source. REF here expresses a renewable-energy-related fraction; Google uses regional CFE data in this dataset.

Compare carefully

Check year, site, boundary and methodology before comparing regions. A provider-wide value may substitute for a regional value. Lower PUE alone does not establish a lower total footprint.

Dataset conventions

AWS keeps REF at zero by convention. Oracle notably uses a provisional zero WUE. These do not mean no renewable energy or no water use. Full assumptions are linked from the collection.

Explore the related collection