Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE)
Metric relating a data center's CO2 emissions to the energy used by its IT equipment.
CUE relates a data center's carbon dioxide emissions to the energy used by its IT equipment, expressed in kilograms of CO2 per kilowatt-hour. Unlike PUE which measures raw energy efficiency, CUE incorporates the carbon intensity of the electricity used: two centers with identical PUE can show very different CUE depending on whether their grid is coal-powered or nuclear and renewables. The metric directly links digital infrastructure to sustainable insurance and climate-aligned underwriting issues. For an operator seeking a low CUE, the choice of geographic location, access to a decarbonized grid and recourse to green power purchase agreements become strategic. CUE materializes the tension between the explosion in energy demand driven by artificial intelligence and operators' net zero commitments.
Hypothetical case: a data center on a heavily hydro-powered Nordic grid shows a far lower CUE than an equivalent site on a coal-fired grid, at equal PUE.
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